I am wondering how you work with telephone bids?  How are these placed?  Do you have any information on it that may pertain to the psyche of that bidder?

I would love to hear your thoughts.

Here’s what I replied to John (with a little more editing since the original was written in a hurry

Telephone bids are a relic of a by-gone Swoopo era when they were called Telebid and only took bids this way. They are no longer called Telebid, of course, but they continue to receive telephone bids into Swoopo auctions.

I would describe the phone in bidders just as I would the technique itself: relics of a by-gone era.

In my research VERY few auctions are won by phone in bids…and those folks are largely throwing money into the wind. I wouldn’t factor these people into your bidding strategy any more than I would a single bidder…and perhaps even discount their ability more. The real threat (and opportunity) on Swoopo lies with the BidButler and that will continue as long as the Internet works the way it does.

Hope that helps….and happy to hear you’re digging in!

So what are your thoughts? Have you had experience with phone in bids? Let me know in the forums…