Online live 'Reverse Auctions'

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Asmodeus

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Topic # 32635 22-Apr-2009 00:15

Just saw this website

http://www.grababid.com/auctions

You buy "bids" which you place on items that will sell for $1. If you are the one with the current bid when the timer reaches 0 you win the item for $1 with free worldwide shipping. However, every time someone bids, the auction auto-extends. There is also an autobidder so you can set and forget

Are these a waste of time or what? Anyone had any experience with these?

I wonder if its worth putting a 20 on it? 3 things have sold in the last ten minutes for $1

This guy only bid once and got a Harmony 1000i for $1

http://www.grababid.com/auctions/view/17638

Ragnor

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Reply # 208465 22-Apr-2009 01:13

This blog post from Jeff Atwood had some interesting commentary on a similar site called swoopo last year.

Profitable Until Deemed Illegal?
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001196.html

See here also:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_auction

I think it's basically equivalent to running a lottery because you have to purchase bids for a chance to win. In the end if the site is popular you have a tiny chance to win something cheap and a large chance to use your bids or should I say bets on an auction and not win.

Gambling is only safe in moderation and usually it's heavily regulated or run by the govenrment.

marmel

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Reply # 208467 22-Apr-2009 07:25

Asmodeus: Just saw this website

http://www.grababid.com/auctions

You buy "bids" which you place on items that will sell for $1. If you are the one with the current bid when the timer reaches 0 you win the item for $1 with free worldwide shipping. However, every time someone bids, the auction auto-extends. There is also an autobidder so you can set and forget

Are these a waste of time or what? Anyone had any experience with these?

I wonder if its worth putting a 20 on it? 3 things have sold in the last ten minutes for $1

This guy only bid once and got a Harmony 1000i for $1

http://www.grababid.com/auctions/view/17638

Did you watch the entire auction? I would be suprised if there had only been that many bids, it only covers 3 minutes. It's probably like trademe where you can only see the last 20 bids or so. The guy that won may have been bidding earlier on so we don't really know how much he spent to win.

nate

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Reply # 208504 22-Apr-2009 10:47

Dylan Bland, one of the clever guys behind Zillion wrote a recent blog post about how evil these sorts of sites are.

Asmodeus

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Reply # 208505 22-Apr-2009 10:57

Cheers for the links guys. Will be steering clear of these :)