| There seems to be a great deal of chat and | | | | The current price is determined by number of bids on |
| controversy about the origins and the concepts behind | | | | that products, meaning it increases marginally with |
| these auctions, for runners in the development of | | | | every bid that has been placed. |
| these auctions were telebid, and then swoopo, for the | | | | A ficticious example to illustrate the concept: A brand |
| sake of space we will illustrate just one of these | | | | new car is offered by telebid at a starting price of 1 |
| telebid although the concept is identical to swoopo or | | | | GBP. Approx. 500 visitors decide that they are |
| at least it seems very close.so whats the fuss about | | | | interested in buying a car at that price. Visitor 1 places |
| ?before we get into the concept let me say this, since | | | | a bid – the price of the car goes up by 10 pence. |
| the introduction of telebid and swoopo auctions there | | | | The timer for this product starts counting down from |
| have been a huge influx of wannabes, mostly people | | | | 15 seconds. Within these 15 seconds visitor 2 decides |
| selling swoopo or telebid clone each with a different | | | | that the car is still worth buying at 1,10 GBP and places |
| skin( template so they look different ) after having | | | | a bid when the counter shows 5 seconds to go. Again |
| purchased several of these so called clones one thing | | | | the price goes up by 10p. The timer restarts its |
| became apparent be it deliberate or a flaw in the | | | | counting from 15 seconds. Now visitor 3 decides to |
| code, you be the judge the clone have a tendency to | | | | place a bid… and so on. |
| fall part after a certain amount of products re listed | | | | Clear? |
| and a certain amount of visitors start using the site, | | | | So assuming each of those 500 people that initially |
| meaning if the site becomes popular and the owners | | | | saw the car popping up on the telebid website actually |
| start to see an abundance of members and list a | | | | decide to place a bid the price would be at 61 GBP |
| reasonable amount of products for auction the site | | | | which would still be a pretty good bargain for a brand |
| seems to slow down,burn up the servers etc. when | | | | new car, wouldn’t it? |
| you contact the sellers of the script the blame the | | | | What’s in it for Telebid? |
| customer for the problems claiming it's their servers, or | | | | Reading telebid’s aggressive advertising slogans |
| someone has hacked into the panel,or server and | | | | you are lead to believe that you can save tons of |
| ruined the script on purpose. this behavior is suspect, | | | | money by obtaining products at 90% off the retail |
| since it is highly unlikely that after this has happened | | | | price. Indeed, browsing through some old telebid |
| several time what are the chances of this same | | | | “auctions” gives the impression that telebid users |
| problem happening over and over to different | | | | buy products for quite a bit less than their worth. So |
| customers. and then you would have to ask the | | | | how does Telebid finance the whole thing? After all |
| question who benefits if these clone to don't work as | | | | there are not just bills to pay for the products telebid is |
| well as the original swoopo or telebid auctions, not the | | | | selling. The whole thing needs to be highly profitable as |
| purchaser of the script, not the customer who is trying | | | | well. Especially since Wellington Partners, the primary |
| to join and win ? the winners seem to be telebid and | | | | investor behind Telebid has pumped 3 million Euros into |
| swoop because as a last resort customers have no | | | | the startup. |
| choice but to use their site to win anything.during our | | | | To understand how telebid can afford to sell products |
| research we have found several odd coicidences, | | | | below their retail price and still make huge profit will |
| several of the sellers of these clones have reselers | | | | become clear when I tell you that visitors have to pay |
| who have reseller, all seeming leading back to guess | | | | for each bid they place. 50p to be quite exact. So |
| who, ????? | | | | take the example from above with 500 people having |
| Now I have found several developers who have | | | | bid on a brand new car. If you care to calculate |
| created their own custom versions of the penny | | | | Telebid will already have earned 250 GBP by the time |
| reverse auction script one being protopenny | | | | the price of the car has reached 61 GBP. Now, |
| I have purchased the script you can seeit at it works | | | | considering how many hundreds of people visit the |
| great a few bugs, but on my part not theirs, works | | | | telebid page at any given moment, how likely do you |
| better than swoopo/telebit and was developed to | | | | think it might be that during the bidding of those 500 |
| handle a large load if you want info contact me at | | | | people (approx. 10 minutes) another 500 will have |
| here is the views about the penny auctions rage? but | | | | decided that 61 GBP is a pretty good bargain? |
| the real issues seem to be are the vendoers allowed | | | | In the end the car might sell at a bargain price of 5,001 |
| to make a lot of money as long as the cutomers get | | | | GBP but telebid will cash in the 5001 plus 25,000 GBP |
| what they bargained for ? We say yes how about | | | | through bids. |
| you ?order to understand the heavy criticism and | | | | What’s in it for you? |
| controversy that Telebid caused in its home country it | | | | Not much unless you enjoy a good thrill and are willing |
| is necessary to understand the basic concept of the | | | | to pay accordingly. But then you might want to check |
| whole thing, i.e. how Telebid works. I’ll do my best to | | | | the nearest casino in your neighbourhood. My bet is, |
| explain. | | | | you’ll get more a hell of a time out of it there and |
| Telebid sells brand new stuff through a unique bidding | | | | even get away with loosing less of that precious cash |
| system. Those can be products such as ipods, | | | | than with telebid. No, seriously! Consider the odds. |
| LCD-TVs or even cars. Every product starts at a | | | | You COULD end up being the lucky one betting |
| ridiculously low price to attract the maximum number | | | | exactly within those 15 seconds when everybody else |
| of potential buyers. Everybody who is interested in | | | | has lost interest. But then you COULD also win the |
| buying can express their interest by placing a bid. As | | | | lottery… Or you could end up as one of those 999 |
| soon a bid has been placed a countdown for that | | | | bidders that (together) paid 25,ooo pounds without |
| specific product is set in motion. It counts down a | | | | getting anything out of it but a momentary thrill of |
| specific amount of time, e.g. 15 seconds. Should this | | | | dreaming about a bargain. Convinced? If not I am |
| countdown elapse with nobody else placing a bid, the | | | | curious as to how many lost bids is it going to take to |
| last bidder gets to buy the product at the current price. | | | | convince you. Go ahead and try it! |