Swoopo, a mugs game

[Zirax]

I'd heard rumours of this site, Swoopo. It was about something like bidding for an item, ala ebay but it costs 75 cents to bid. Followed a link through el reg. To raise the profile of the site, throw away about 20-30k of gear at below cost price to get in the media and get punters interested.....

http://www.swoopo.com/auction/micros...mi/140756.html

Take this example I've spotted on the website. xbox 360 60gb.

$88 dollars
8800 cents

Each bid raises price by 15 cents
Each bid costs a punter 75 cents

8800/15 = 586 people bid

586 * 75 = 43950 cents = $439.5

Just sat and watched this for a bit to see what the game was. Its essentially like ebay sniping, but each bid adds 15 seconds from what I can see. They have an automated bidding thing that seems to bid for a set number of times.... net result is that it brings the auction back to 5 mins. When the counter hits 0, you win the item at the price. Lose and you get nothing.

This is one hell of a money spinner!! While I've been typing this its gone to $96.15, meaning total revenue stands at $480.75

Whoever had this idea is making a fortune!!! Mugs game though.