4 ms·
This type of auction model is really just a brilliant scam. It's 100 people subsidizing the cost of the item for one person. So, one person gets a great deal,
by blehn 16y ago
This type of auction model is really just a brilliant scam. It's 100 people subsidizing the cost of the item for one person. So, one person gets a great deal, 100 people throw their money away, and Wavee brings in profits that may be even greater than selling the item at MSRP.
- moe 16y agomay be even greater than selling the item at MSRP Orders of magnitude greater, look at one of the finished games and do the math. It's quite an old scam, first described in 1971 according to Wikipedia; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_auction http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_auction The first mainstream'ish implementation I know is swoopoo.com (2008). Since then a large number of clones have popped up, likely motivated by the fact that, for some reason, gambling laws in many countries don't seem to cover this scheme.
- pak 16y agoDo gambling laws in the US really not cover dollar auctions? For some reason I always thought such laws would be why every promotional sweepstakes in the States, e.g. McDonald's Monopoly or Coke bottle codes, etc. have a rule in fine print about "No purchase necessary to enter. To enter, send a self addressed envelope to... " etc. so it could be argued the sweepstakes is not pay-to-enter. Even then, such promotionals usually have further notes about not being able to enter in three or four out of the fifty states. It would seem regulation would be desirable for such auction sites, since the consumer has to place a significant about of trust in the auctioneer not to bid up his own products to make more money, or throw non-profitable auctions to a self-owned account... the end-user currently has no practical recourse if this happens. Hopefully grellas or another IAAL can throw in some knowledge.