swoopo.com Avoid these pay to bid auction sites like SWOOPO and ROCKYBID Cupertino California

Ok. here is the story. These sites offer you things like Consoles and GPS, TV's and Ipads. Yes most items end up selling at over 90% of retail. The catch. You need to purchase bids to participate and every time you bid you increase the price by 15 seconds.
 Just to go over a few incorrect statements you made. 1)  "The first deception is that as the timer counts down to the auction close Swoopo arbitrarily resets the auction clock to as much as 15 minutes so they can force more bidding." remember the idea behind these auctions is to mimic a real live auctions "going once, Twice, sold" unless someone else increases the bid and the process restarts. It actually fights the biggest problem with ebay, swiping. 2) "The second deception is that they purportedly have shill bidders that are paid to sit and run bids up and perpetuate the auction and coincidently these bidders seem to win the auction more often than not." This is difficult to prove either way, but I can only attest that I and others I know have won a handful of times. You need a solid proof with documentation to make such an accusation.  3) "By definition this is internet gambling because you have to buy bids and place them and win or lose your bid is paid. So it is a pay to play to win a prize which is by definition gambling." I am assuming you are not a lawyer. Look at the closed auctions at rockybid - you will see many names of winners are repeats, in fact many of these sites have put limits on the amount you can win. This is called the old 80 -20 rule. 80% is won (at least the good stuff ) by 20% of the users. How? Strategy! 4) "Every bid you make subtracts from your account so there is a fee assessed that is not refundable if you don't win" This point you made is the worst. It bothers me a lot when people can't read! First look at swoopo they now let you use up to 25% (they used to have the buy now option) of the bids you used on an auction and credit you towards the purchase of the item; Rockybid will give you the full credit of the bid you used and let you apply it to a winning auction of a 30 day period. Again - PLEASE READ THE RULES.

Now here is my take.

First on Swoopo. I too have played and won many times on the site. (10 + items) Its really about knowing how to play the game. Its 90% strategy, 9% luck, and 1% misc. I only made a marginal profit. The con was that I didn't do as well as I though I was going to. Again a marginal profit. But I did a bit better with Rockybid.

As far as rockybid.com is concerned. This is a great site to go shopping if Having fun is your number one priority. If you like to feel the rush of your blood as the clock ticks down and that you may be the next user to win that incredibly hot new 3d HD TV - then this site is for you. (Winning the product is a bonus- at least thats the way I viewed it) Anyway when you register you can some free bids. (That means you get to try it out for free - I like sites that let you taste before you need to buy) I also recommand to search for promotional codes.  I hope this helps. One more thing - READ THE RULES (This goes for any site for any reason)

I have to say it sounds like all these comments mentioned about,Swoopo.com are from people that have not won any of the items they were bidding on.

I have, I won an IPOD TOUCH 3rdGen64G for 67.00 and paid 48.00 dollars for the bids, 12.50 for shipping, you do the math and see that I paid 127.50 thats cheaper than Best By 379.00+.

And received it in 13 days they said 14 I love and use it daily, also I was referred by two people from Craig's list.

They win all the time and resell there items for more on Craig's List.

 I wait and start bidding on Auctions when it is almost over and WIN, and when I don't' I don't whine about it' Because I play for the fun of it, don't pay and play if your afraid to lose.

I ran across this site myself and couldn't believe what I was reading. Pay to bid. Are they nuts. As soon as I read that I left the site. Glad to see that it wasn't my imagination. People need to beware.