Now that is one great idea for a site
 

http://www.bidrivals.com/

I can see all the European sites are all tied into the same bids, so I guess the US site is separate.

I came across this this morning after researching a particular digital photo frame, looked into it a bit thinking it was a scam, bought €25 credits and got my €200 photo frame for €14-worth of bids plus 96cents payment.

Needless to say I was stoked.

Most all things sold are "bargains" but damn, the guy that had the idea for that site, to make each cent increment == 50 cent knew what he was doing.

It boils down to nobody can resist a bargain,much akin to those market tradesmen that sell stuff where "everything must go" and plant their buyers, who get the bargains roping in the crowds around to part with their cash.

I got my picture frame for the purchased price of €14+€0.95, then wasted the other €10 on a fucking wii game I didn't want, only to have it sold to the bidder after me (ie I was the second to last bidder).

I got my photo frame, for in the end €25, but damn if you look at the number of bids on some items (1 bid == 1cent), that site is making a killing even if they are selling shit off for "next to nothing"



http://www.bidrivals.com/fr/

Just look at the top row of items - those things have been going since this morning, all "nearly finishing" in the last few seconds, then pffft, back to 15 secs. iPhone 2GS fr €55+ a bargain for whoever gets it, maybe, but the company has made €3000+ on t already.



Fucking genius site, while it lasts.

In other words, it's Swoopo.com? It's smart but it's also a tad bit shady...almost like disguised gambling.

I have a better idea for an auction site and may try it with a domain auction site sometime in the future.

Looks cool. Genius site indeed.

Very Shady
 

Do the numbers. Its set to price at wholesale at least. IMHO

something very shady going on - i'm looking at closed auctions, brand name merchandise going for ridiculously low prices and the number of bids x .40 GBP aren't even coming close to the wholesale price.

there's an iPhone 3G auction right now on the front page, highest bid is only 48 GBP and there's been about 15 bids so far - you simply can't sell an iPhone for 100 GBP and another 100 GBP in bid revenue - gotta be something shady or a big catch to this. i don't understand the countdown thing. when is an auction over?

No - 48GBP is the sam iphone 3g that is atm at ?63 for me - this is the iphone that started at 2c this morning but has received 6300 bids (50c each). Not sure what the GBP price is, but 1 bid == 50 euro cents here.

I don't think there's anything shady at all, just that given enough publicity (traffic) that people will bid and bid for a bargain. All the time, the company is making a fortune.

in any case, I won a €200 frame for 95c (+€14 in actual bids)

Now if that frame is actually ever delivered, then the company lost €184 on that sale, but then I did waste €25 later on on something else....

And their front page shows they are making thousands profit on other items....

I think net, they are laffing and very loudly at that.

So, when the timer is 0, the auction is over. If there is a bid in the last 15 secs, it resets the timer to 15 secs.

You win when the timer hits zero and there are no further bids.

Guys and Gals - don't get sucked in to this.... it is gambling, no more no less. Maybe there is some weightedness to the bidding, and if so, go for it, cos I got something on my first bash, but am very reluctant to get sucked in after. Beginners luck.

The only weighting is in the "bid agent", which will automatically bid for people at the last possible moment. So, auctions can go on and on.

Things like your frame are the loss leaders, the relatively unwanted and small items that create the impression that people can easily win. Most of the big items stay for ages.

Based on the rate at which bids are coming in, have about $100k-$200k per day of gross revenue, and looking at the sold auctions, they're giving out maybe $25k a day in goods.

Quite a nice concept, really.

Yeah, same as swoopo, which is a great idea. Most of the closed auctions bring in far more than the market value for the product when you figure in the total bids times the cost of each bid.