Best Time to Bid on Swoopo?

Back in the Wild West days of Swoopo (remember 2008?) there wasn’t a single bit of advice on the Internet about how to win on Swoopo. It simply didn’t exist.

When I first discovered the site, I needed to use old library books and lots of trial and error to learn Swoopo techniques. Soon, the first Swoopo guide appeared on the market. It was called “Beat Swoopo” and it was a 7-page PDF with some research on a few thousand auctions. It left purchasers very “underwhelmed” to put it kindly.

A second guide appeared right as I was getting ready to launch the Swoopo Manual. This guide was called “Win Swoopo” and offered more advice and tips than it’s predecessor. One of the strategies it advocated was the “1 Second Rule” which stated that if you’re casting single bids, you should wait until 1 second is shown on the Swoopo clock.

Did It Work?

This advice was logical and mildly effective. If you cast bids at 7, 10, or even 20 seconds on the clock, you have little chance of remaining the high bidder when the clock reaches 1. I included the 1 second rule in my own Swoopo Manual upon launch, and practiced it regularly on Swoopo.

But it wasn’t too long before other Swoopo bidders and I began to notice the flaws in the 1 Second Rule. For one, Swoopo sometimes has issues with “lag” which make the 1 Second Rule nearly impossible to execute consistently. Secondly, the best bidders on Swoopo use BidButler to their advantage to bid and win. Casting single bids at the last second seems a bit like bringing a knife to a gun fight.

Is the 1 Second Rule Still Relevant?

I don’t have a good answer to this question, so I’m opening it up to you in the comments and in the forums (if you’re a Swoopers dot org member). Do you think the 1 Second Rule still makes sense for Swoopo bidders? Are you using it with any success?

Do you have any other tips about the best time to bid on Swoopo?

Swoopo Shill Bidders

On Shill Bidders

I’ve handled a few emails from skeptical Swoopo bidders in the past few days. They are interested in Swoopo, but ask “Can you prove there aren’t shill bidders on Swoopo?”

Bad news: I can’t

No, I can’t prove their aren’t shill bidders on Swoopo. And I cannot prove that UFOs aren’t real and that aliens haven’t secretly been walking the earth for years.

Here’s what I can tell you…

Swoopo has existed for a few years now. They’ve had employees come in and out of the company and currently employ no fewer than a few dozen employees. They have offices in California as well as Germany. They received venture funding in 2006 in Germany and again in 2009 by a major venture capital firm in the United States.

With Swoopo Analytics, we track almost every single auction on Swoopo. We can see the bidding history of every single bidder. We’ve haven’t noticed a single thing in all this data that would suggest shill bidders.

I’ve read every single article and study written about Swoopo I can possibly find. They all have interesting conclusions regarding the Swoopo business model. But none has ever suggested with any proof that Swoopo does anything other than run auctions exactly as they describe.

I’ve won items on Swoopo’s site and received them exactly as described and in short order.

A healthy dose of skepticism is good for everyone. But at the end of the day, you need to rely on facts.