Zoogboo

Has anyone tried out zoogboo? Any comments on the unique format?

Looks intersting but i highly doubt if any auction will ever start.For a $500 items their clock will start when more than $500 worth pf bid placed thou they mention a huge range for the hidden reserve price. In PA people can not wait for 24 hours for a seat auction to start who has time to wait for this auction to start.

I don't think the auction ever "starts"...From what I gather, once the reserve is hit, you win.

I think someone really needs to look into this. So basically they want bidders to "bid" until they cover their costs plus make a little extra, then the person that magically hits that number wins. So if lets look at the 9,500$ Private Island(keep in mind it says to purchase an island) At your price of .60 cents a bid, you would need 15,833 bidders just to cover costs. Not to mention if your company plans to make a profit. So basically at your plan, the people placing bids 1-15,832 are doing nothing but covering your behind. Bidder # 15,833 will win. Even if you start the clock once the reserve is met, bidders still have wasted 15,833 bids just to get the auction to where its winnable. You say the auction has a "secret" reserve between .01 cent and 299$ well 299$ would be 29,900 bids. Which would bring in about 18,000$. You can also look at US Virgin Islands Investment and also search for all of US, and you will not find an island under 30,000$ Especially in the Virgin Islands. Maybe some further replies from zoogboo could clear things up?

Also no closed auctions? I am seeing this right? Thats very odd. Wow every auction has a different highest it could go. And my money is on it hits near that high mark. The 2000 Cash auction says can go up to 60$, that would make 6000 bids at .60 cent a bid, so 3600$ for 2000$.. They may be legit, but they're going to try to get every penny they can for the auctions. I mean these auctions will be going on for weeks upon weeks.

Auction description very misleading to new comers to PA sites. This is from the motorcycle : This could be in your garage for under 400$. Does the winner get their bids back? also their how it works says clock starts when reserve is met, then winner at 0 wins. so i'm assuming they allow bidding. That is crazy here pay me 2000$ worth of bids, then bid it out to see who wins.

I think someone really needs to look into this. So basically they want bidders to "bid" until they cover their costs plus make a little extra, then the person that magically hits that number wins. So if lets look at the 9,500$ Private Island(keep in mind it says to purchase an island) At your price of .60 cents a bid, you would need 15,833 bidders just to cover costs. Not to mention if your company plans to make a profit. So basically at your plan, the people placing bids 1-15,832 are doing nothing but covering your behind. Bidder # 15,833 will win. Even if you start the clock once the reserve is met, bidders still have wasted 15,833 bids just to get the auction to where its winnable. You say the auction has a "secret" reserve between .01 cent and 299$ well 299$ would be 29,900 bids. Which would bring in about 18,000$. You can also look at US Virgin Islands Investment and also search for all of US, and you will not find an island under 30,000$ Especially in the Virgin Islands. Maybe some further replies from zoogboo could clear things up?

This certainly does seem like an unlikely model to catch on. Who would bother placing those first 100s (if not thousands) of bids?

However, the fine print on this island auction specifies that it is a one-week rental of the island, including some arifare. That at least makes the numbers make sense...

The island is a one week rental with 14 friends. We have planned on taking a few losses here and there. As all auctions do. When a penny auction sells an xbox for $0.17. Did they make a profit? Butr when the next item a ipod selld for $28.18 they do. Same concept here. Some auctions have a very very low reserve. While others have a set profit built in. Hence you win some and lose some, but over all the company turns a profit, and the user gets a high value item for a very low price. If the user places a bid and the clock starts, they win and pay the current price of the auction. We understand it will take much longer for an auction to end. But NO other auctions have this type of items.
Why buy 100 bids on another site to win a $50.00 gift card when you could just as easy win a new Camaro. Our site also makes it impossible for schill or fake bids. This is a huge prolem in the industry. Since the auction ends when the reserve is hit, nobody can run up the price on fake bids, and of course it only hurts us if we were to bid up the price without collecting the pirice of the bid. You know the auction is run in a fair and transparent way. We enjoy the feedback and welcome more questions

The clock is just the tool. It is only there to let the winner know they have won. If the clock starts it will not accept any other bidders.

As I mentioned in my previous post we have some very low reserves. We just sold a iPad for $0.10. Bidding early is not a bad thing. Sure your mind says to wait. But you just never know what we are up too!

The island is a one week rental with 14 friends. We have planned on taking a few losses here and there. As all auctions do. When a penny auction sells an xbox for $0.17. Did they make a profit? Butr when the next item a ipod selld for $28.18 they do. Same concept here. Some auctions have a very very low reserve. While others have a set profit built in. Hence you win some and lose some, but over all the company turns a profit, and the user gets a high value item for a very low price. If the user places a bid and the clock starts, they win and pay the current price of the auction. We understand it will take much longer for an auction to end. But NO other auctions have this type of items.
Why buy 100 bids on another site to win a $50.00 gift card when you could just as easy win a new Camaro. Our site also makes it impossible for schill or fake bids. This is a huge prolem in the industry. Since the auction ends when the reserve is hit, nobody can run up the price on fake bids, and of course it only hurts us if we were to bid up the price without collecting the pirice of the bid. You know the auction is run in a fair and transparent way. We enjoy the feedback and welcome more questions

Sorry zoogboo - I wasn't trying to ruffle any feathers. Your auction style is interesting to say the least. Nice to know the timer is just for show - it'd stink to get the timer to start, then have to deal with people jumping in.

Do you allow the same user to place consecutive bids? With this structure, it doesn't seem like there is any reason not to allow one user to pump 100 bids into an item all at once, if they are so inclined...

No offense taken valhad. We love the Q&A. : ) Because we have quite a few auctions set at such low reserves we curently have the bid option set to one bid at a time. Otherwise someone could come in right now and really clean up. We want to be able to spread the wins around. This is not to say a member can't win more then once. We just want to keep the field level. BUT, of course the more bids that are purchased the better chance you have. We really hope this type of auction catches on. The industry could really use some safe bets. There are to many auction owners with there own finger on the trigger. We think everyone from the powerbidder to the member who buys 30 bids should have an equal chance to win. Please feel free to ask more questions. We feel we also can learn from the members here at auction watch. Hopefully your likes and dislikes will help us shape our auction into something everyone can enjoy.

I just checked out the site and bought some bids to give it a shot. It's kind of exciting to click "BID" in hopes that the clock starts counting down. I really like the fact no one else can jump in if it does start. If anyone here wins an item, please let us know when/if you receive it... once I know the site is legit and items are being delivered, I will feel better about continuing to use it.

I signed up, I want to use more then one bid on an item... Why cant you do that? Dont understand why I would buy 100 bids but only be able to use one bid on an item??

I signed up, I want to use more then one bid on an item... Why cant you do that? Dont understand why I would buy 100 bids but only be able to use one bid on an item??

I agree... I would rather use 100 bids on one item I really wanted than just being able to use 1 and sit around for days waiting on others to bid on it and it get sold to someone else.

I agree... I would rather use 100 bids on one item I really wanted than just being able to use 1 and sit around for days waiting on others to bid on it and it get sold to someone else.

Agreed. I think the auction format is interesting, but I wont buy any packages until I am able to spend as many bids on an item as I want. No point in buying 100 bids, only being able to 1 bid per item. Another note, their are like 10 items up for auction that means I can spend 10 bids total... what do I do with the other 90?

I hope people like this format. This is the exact style that I have been working on for almost 1 year. So, because my site is still being developed, I would appreciate (and I assume zoogboo would too) as much feedback and suggestions as possible on this format!

Hi Donzo & Kate, We have serveral auctions that have really low reserves. We are going to make this option available later on certian itmes. However we want to give all the members a chance to win. By buying massive amounts of bids "not that we don't want this : ) " But a few bidders will take over and knock the smaller members right out. We want a fair and equal chance for everyone. But they are coming soon!

Hi Donzo & Kate, We have serveral auctions that have really low reserves. We are going to make this option available later on certian itmes. However we want to give all the members a chance to win. By buying massive amounts of bids "not that we don't want this : ) " But a few bidders will take over and knock the smaller members right out. We want a fair and equal chance for everyone. But they are coming soon!

Thats unfortunate... I worry that you will have a huge problem with people creating fake emails to get those free bids. As their is no point to buy a bid package from you, thus spending money on your website since I can only spend 1 bid per item and their are only like 10 items up for auction.

See the problem?

Donzo, We are way ahead of you. Our system is built to deter this problem. How our system does this is a secret. But just for starters, it checks for IP address, email and home address. These are just the basics. Should a user sneak by and win. There account is checked against all other accounts. If they build 2 accounts there win is voided. We are very carefull with this.