Brand new iPod touches for cheap, but don’t say we didn’t warn you

We can’t tell if we love or hate Swoopo, a new auction web site that is addictive like crack and can suck you in faster than a patch of quicksand. The business model is brilliant. They offer brand new items for sale in an online auction. Buyers submit bids for the price they are willing to pay, while a timer ticks down to end the auction. At the end, the item goes to the highest bidder. Sounds pretty much like any other web auction, right? Wrong. There’s a twist here and it’s a big one.

To buy at Swoopo, you must purchase bids for one US dollar each. This means that every time you place a bid, you spend a dollar. You charge up your account with bids before starting, that way you can continue bidding without having to buy a new bid each time. Buying a bid at Swoopo is like buying a chance to get a great bargain, with the keyword here being “chance”. There are no guarantees you’ll win anything at Swoopo, but shopping here is crazy fun and unlike anything we’ve experienced online.

Buying bids at Swoopo makes this auction different indeed, but that’s not even the twist yet. The real clincher is what happens when you place a bid. Each time a bid is placed, the price of the item goes up by $0.15 cents and adds 15 seconds to the timer on the auction. On Swoopo, even though there’s a countdown timer, you never really know when the auction will end. This causes a flurry bidding every time the clock runs down to under 15 seconds. It’s a blast to watch, and absolutely nerve-racking to play.

Wait, did we say “play”? Yes we did. Swoopo bills itself as “entertainment shopping” which is a perfect description for it, really. Shopping here feels more like a game than anything. And winners, er, buyers can walk away with amazing deals on brand new products such as iPod touches, game consoles, laptops, and on and on and on.

The hope of getting a bargain drives Swoopo shoppers to buy and place bid. 8 GB iPod touches routinely go for around a hundred dollars or less. Just looking at the closed auctions now, we can see one that went for just $68 a few minutes ago. And a Dyson ball vacuum went for $24, a Playstation 3 sold for $230, a Nintendo DS Lite for $132, and a 6th generation 120 GB iPod was had for only $87. Note that these are brand spanking new products, not used or refurbished. There are almost 300 live auctions happening right now in Swoopo.

So you’ve got the fever and you’re ready to jump in? Here’s a few tips for you. Watch Swoopo closely for a while, like a day or so, before even placing your first bid. This way, you’ll get the feel for the how the timer works, and that’s important because every Swoopo auction revolves around it.

Timing is everything at Swoopo. You can greatly improve your chances of winning by finding auctions that have fewer bidders. Since you can’t really see how many people are watching an item, you can bid late at night when there are fewer shoppers at Swoopo.

You should also consider making your first bids on Swoopo voucher packs. These are bundles of free bids that you can use in any auction and they are offered in chunks of up to 300 bids. If you can get a couple of bid voucher packs right of the bat, then your account is charged way up and you’re ready to go in for the kill.

Oh, and don’t forget to read the rules over at Swoopo before you attempt to dive in on an auction. Believe it or not, there’s a lot of noobs practically throwing bids away and you can use that to your advantage just by knowing all the do’s and don’ts.

There are different types of auctions at Swoopo, some of which are flagged as “100% off”. This means the winning bidder does not have to pay the final price. That’s right, the price is zero. Look for bid voucher packs that are 100% off and go for those first. The more bids at your disposal, the better chance you have of landing a great deal on an iPod touch or other item at Swoopo.

Swoopo limits the number of auctions you can win to 8 auctions within any 28 day period. This is designed to give more bidders a chance to win. This also means that you cannot bid on over 8 auctions at a time.

Another interesting aspect is that Swoopo doesn’t give a hoot if you change your mind after winning an auction and don’t want to buy the item. If they don’t get a confirmation from you within 21 days of winning the auction, they assume you changed your mind and move on with their lives. No questions asked.

Swoopo’s business is incredibly brilliant because they can actually make a great deal more money than they spent on the product in the first place. For instance, yesterday we watched a new iPod touch go for $49, which was a fantastic deal for the buyer. Swoopo, however, made $1,200 on that one auction alone. It’s one of those, “I wish I had thought of that” businesses, but don’t be tempted to build your own version just yet. Swoopo has US patent pending on the mechanics of their auction.

Go check out Swoopo now and see what we mean. You can get brand new iPod touches and other items at a very steep discount, but be forewarned, Swoopo is insanely addictive. More than a few times we found ourselves glued to Swoopo for hours on end. Now if you’ll excuse us, we’ve got our eyes on a 42″ LCD HD TV and there’s only 15 seconds left.

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