Buying & Selling Thru Ebay & Other Auctions/Swoopo

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Expert: Rob James - 8/12/2009


Question
Dest Rob:

Have you heard of Swoopo?

http://www.swoopo.com/

It really sounds too good to be true but wonder if you have used it.

Thanks,
Roberto

Answer
Hi Roberto,

Sorry for the delay. I have seen Swoopo. It is an interesting idea that is legitimate.

The way it works is people pay to bid on an item. I think it is something like 25 or 50 cents per bid. As the timer counts down closer to zero, the activity increases. It is not uncommon to find an item that was at $1.00 move upwards of a $100.00 or more, depending on what it is, while there are only a few seconds left to bid. This is because each time someone bids, the clock is increased by a number of seconds giving others a chance to bid as well.

Swoopo makes money via the bids. If they get 100 bids at 50 cents a piece they make $50.00 to list the item. Far more than say eBay would for the same item. It is an interesting model and apparently it works for them.

Take care,
Rob

Buying & Selling Thru Ebay & Other Auctions

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Rob James

Expertise

Hi there! After being a member of the eBay "community" for the past ten years, I have decided to look elsewhere to sell my items. Ebay has, and will agiain in the next month, instituted rediculous policies and fee increases that are not beneficial to the small seller. They are positioning themselves to be another site such as Amazon and are forcing sellers to reduce or eliminate shipping charges (even when they must pay to ship items) as well as preventing the acceptence of checks or money orders as payment. This is all geared to improve eBay's bottom line. I will still be happy to help answer most any question you may have regarding the buying and selling experience on eBay based on my experiences. However, I am looking at sites such as ebid.net that are much more favorable to us small sellers and buyers. You may want to check them out as well.

Experience

I've been an active member on eBay for almost ten years. I started buying and selling as a hobby and turned it into a business that I ran from home for a time.

Education/Credentials
Nothing special here. Some college. Went to work in the computer industry when the PC was just rolling out to the desktops of the world. I'm streetsmart and self taught in most things I know. Especially with eBay and online selling.

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