Swoopo - crazy cheap online auctions... - Page 3

Blumpster · 02-14-2009, 07:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Soriak

1261 bids at 0.75c = $945.75
winning bid buying = $21.61
cost of price = -$1,000
Loss = $32.64

If one of their own bots won it, they'd be ahead. Not a fortune though...

Ah fuck I'm retarded, I knew college should have been in my plan for life.

Njorls · 02-14-2009, 07:38 PM

It seems fishy as all hell, I just watched a Wii go from 5 secs left to bid to 8 minutes left to bid.

Anyone who bids there is a sucker.

Vehn · 02-14-2009, 08:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blumpster

Ah fuck I'm retarded, I knew college should have been in my plan for life.

I saw on the site that $1000 was recently auctioned off for like $140, so that right there netted them ~$9,000

Blumpster · 02-14-2009, 08:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Njorls

It seems fishy as all hell, I just watched a Wii go from 5 secs left to bid to 8 minutes left to bid.

Anyone who bids there is a sucker.

I saw this as well, a Wii was jumping up from under 10 seconds numerous times, I tabbed to a different window for a minute, tabbed back, and it was up to 5 minutes. Maybe it's something they put in if there are too many bids in the "red zone"?

Njorls · 02-14-2009, 09:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blumpster

I saw this as well, a Wii was jumping up from under 10 seconds numerous times, I tabbed to a different window for a minute, tabbed back, and it was up to 5 minutes. Maybe it's something they put in if there are too many bids in the "red zone"?

Actually I think it has to do with bid butlers, Auction | Cheap TV laptop ipod auctions - bid & win on Swoopo

What I like about the site now is watching all the suckers waste their money, someone must have put 20 bids on a laptop and didn't win it.

AladainAF · 02-14-2009, 09:36 PM

Do the Bidbutlers fire @ 10 second mark?

It seems that when someone manually bids to reset the clock to 15 seconds, the bid butlers dont kick in until the 10 second mark.

Kaio · 02-14-2009, 11:27 PM

Theres probably a way to exploit non-popular items to get them cheaply after a lot of observation.

And it's probably not worth the time.

Desidero · 02-15-2009, 01:40 AM

After reading this thread, I decided to watch the site for a bit just to see if any auctions actually ended. The two I was watching went from a 1-20 second refresh battle that lasted quite a while to magically being at 30 minutes and 1 hour, respectively. The jumps occurred when the timers were around 12 seconds, so it wasn't as though a ton of people are going to spam the bid button at that time. It'd be interesting to see if they mess with the system at all.

Snugglebear · 02-15-2009, 02:19 AM

This is hilarious. It's like going back to pay-by-the-hour internet service. We have Ebay with free bids... now we pay per bid? I'd love to see the volume of customers on the site, to get a feel for whether thousands upon thousands of people are bidding, or if the site admins are giving it a bit of 'help.'

Craelin · 02-17-2009, 11:35 PM

Wow, this website is insane. It's almost addicting to watch the bids increase and think about how much money the website owner is making every 30 seconds.

Seriously, this is how we should pay for the bailout.

Tyen · 02-17-2009, 11:51 PM

What do you think raffles are? I've been doing this shit since I was in 1st grade going door to door. It hasn't been innovated yet to the internet.

It's not the product that makes it popular, it's the medium.

Some of these timers are like 15 seconds. If you find a slow time of the day you could rape.

aarkh · 02-18-2009, 04:00 AM

We had a couple of these pop up in Finland last summer and they were quickly ruled to be a form of lottery which the state has a monopoly on by law. Half a week and both had relocated operations to some other country and seem to be going strong still. Pretty wicked business idea anyway.

Tyen · 02-18-2009, 06:10 AM

I registered, going to try it out.

Auction | Cheap TV laptop ipod auctions - bid & win on Swoopo

Tenks · 02-18-2009, 06:59 AM

I remember when the site first came out they were using largely opened up .js and AJAX to handle most requests and I was certain anyone with a bit of time and knowledge of how to slip into the various holes AJAX has could open the site wide open.

I didn't really feel like doing that at work. I am not sure if they closed up their source or not but I had access to the Javascript source that was handling bid placement and it appeared if I could inject my own requests I could smurf myself as another user to play the system for a bit until I would then use my own bids. Haven't been to swoopo in months so I'm not sure if they filled the holes or not.

Cad · 02-18-2009, 07:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tenks

I remember when the site first came out they were using largely opened up .js and AJAX to handle most requests and I was certain anyone with a bit of time and knowledge of how to slip into the various holes AJAX has could open the site wide open.

I didn't really feel like doing that at work. I am not sure if they closed up their source or not but I had access to the Javascript source that was handling bid placement and it appeared if I could inject my own requests I could smurf myself as another user to play the system for a bit until I would then use my own bids. Haven't been to swoopo in months so I'm not sure if they filled the holes or not.

Surely they use authenticated sessions and the javascript just adds client functionality, not literally storing the user identification in js vars.. right?

I mean, come on. That would be ridiculous.

02-14-2009, 09:36 PM	#36 (permalink)
AladainAF Registered User Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Austin, TX Posts: 3,933 -42 Internets	Do the Bidbutlers fire @ 10 second mark? It seems that when someone manually bids to reset the clock to 15 seconds, the bid butlers dont kick in until the 10 second mark. __________________ Vexacion (Elyos) - Marchutan

02-17-2009, 11:35 PM	#40 (permalink)
Craelin :0 Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: New Mexico Posts: 117 -2 Internets	Wow, this website is insane. It's almost addicting to watch the bids increase and think about how much money the website owner is making every 30 seconds. Seriously, this is how we should pay for the bailout. Last edited by Craelin; 02-17-2009 at 11:42 PM.. Reason: grammarrrr

02-17-2009, 11:51 PM	#41 (permalink)
Tyen The future, I came from it Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Portland, Oregon Posts: 3,664 +3 Internets	What do you think raffles are? I've been doing this shit since I was in 1st grade going door to door. It hasn't been innovated yet to the internet. It's not the product that makes it popular, it's the medium. Some of these timers are like 15 seconds. If you find a slow time of the day you could rape. Last edited by Tyen; 02-17-2009 at 11:57 PM..

Thread Tools
Show Printable Version Email this Page
Display Modes	Rate This Thread
Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode	Rate This Thread:

02-14-2009, 11:27 PM	#37 (permalink)
Kaio Registered User Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 1,298 +4 Internets	Theres probably a way to exploit non-popular items to get them cheaply after a lot of observation. And it's probably not worth the time.

02-15-2009, 01:40 AM	#38 (permalink)
Desidero Registered User Join Date: Jun 2002 Posts: 596 +1 Internets	After reading this thread, I decided to watch the site for a bit just to see if any auctions actually ended. The two I was watching went from a 1-20 second refresh battle that lasted quite a while to magically being at 30 minutes and 1 hour, respectively. The jumps occurred when the timers were around 12 seconds, so it wasn't as though a ton of people are going to spam the bid button at that time. It'd be interesting to see if they mess with the system at all.

02-15-2009, 02:19 AM	#39 (permalink)
Snugglebear Registered User Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 1,950 -21 Internets	This is hilarious. It's like going back to pay-by-the-hour internet service. We have Ebay with free bids... now we pay per bid? I'd love to see the volume of customers on the site, to get a feel for whether thousands upon thousands of people are bidding, or if the site admins are giving it a bit of 'help.'

02-18-2009, 04:00 AM	#42 (permalink)
aarkh Registered User Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Finland Posts: 18 +2 Internets	We had a couple of these pop up in Finland last summer and they were quickly ruled to be a form of lottery which the state has a monopoly on by law. Half a week and both had relocated operations to some other country and seem to be going strong still. Pretty wicked business idea anyway.

02-18-2009, 06:10 AM	#43 (permalink)
Tyen The future, I came from it Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Portland, Oregon Posts: 3,664 +3 Internets	I registered, going to try it out. Auction \| Cheap TV laptop ipod auctions - bid & win on Swoopo

02-18-2009, 06:59 AM	#44 (permalink)
Tenks Registered User Join Date: Nov 2003 Posts: 1,622	I remember when the site first came out they were using largely opened up .js and AJAX to handle most requests and I was certain anyone with a bit of time and knowledge of how to slip into the various holes AJAX has could open the site wide open. I didn't really feel like doing that at work. I am not sure if they closed up their source or not but I had access to the Javascript source that was handling bid placement and it appeared if I could inject my own requests I could smurf myself as another user to play the system for a bit until I would then use my own bids. Haven't been to swoopo in months so I'm not sure if they filled the holes or not.