![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mbarkerOh, that's sneaky...
Just saw a report on a new style of web auction that apparently is becoming popular in Japan. New to me, at least. Basically, they're offering remainders -- often one -- for auction. And people can get real deals such as new TVs for 9 yen (9 cents for a brand-new widescreen TV! WOW!). Short time auctions, just an hour or two, so you don't even have to wait very long to find out whether you got it or not.
The trick? Simple. You have to register for each auction. The one that this reporter was looking at costs 60 yen to register. And as they pointed out, if 1,000 people bid on that TV, that means the collected registration fees are 60,000 yen -- which is about what a similar TV will cost at the local electronics store, anyway. Toss in the 1,000 yen or whatever that the TV "sold" for, and actually, the seller is doing quite well. Yes, if only 9 people bid on a TV, they haven't done so well. But... most of the time, lots of people want to bid.
In fact, if that TV goes up to 2,000 yen... the buyer still thinks they got a real deal. And the seller, with 122,000 yen in their pocket, thinks they made out like a bandit. And they both did. Even the other 1,999 people don't feel too bad -- 60 yen out of their pocket doesn't hurt too much. And there's another auction starting right now!
Of course, if you persist in registering for auctions, that 60 yen can mount up. They interviewed one guy who apparently got wrapped up in bidding on these auctions and ended up investing serious money, without getting much in the way of goods. I guess he just kept registering, missing, and then trying another one. He seemed to think that they need more regulation or something. I thought he needed to learn some impulse control -- I'll bet they would love him in Vegas.
Caveat emptor, I guess. It's still cheap stuff, as long as you don't get too wrapped up in it.
Just saw a report on a new style of web auction that apparently is becoming popular in Japan. New to me, at least. Basically, they're offering remainders -- often one -- for auction. And people can get real deals such as new TVs for 9 yen (9 cents for a brand-new widescreen TV! WOW!). Short time auctions, just an hour or two, so you don't even have to wait very long to find out whether you got it or not.
The trick? Simple. You have to register for each auction. The one that this reporter was looking at costs 60 yen to register. And as they pointed out, if 1,000 people bid on that TV, that means the collected registration fees are 60,000 yen -- which is about what a similar TV will cost at the local electronics store, anyway. Toss in the 1,000 yen or whatever that the TV "sold" for, and actually, the seller is doing quite well. Yes, if only 9 people bid on a TV, they haven't done so well. But... most of the time, lots of people want to bid.
In fact, if that TV goes up to 2,000 yen... the buyer still thinks they got a real deal. And the seller, with 122,000 yen in their pocket, thinks they made out like a bandit. And they both did. Even the other 1,999 people don't feel too bad -- 60 yen out of their pocket doesn't hurt too much. And there's another auction starting right now!
Of course, if you persist in registering for auctions, that 60 yen can mount up. They interviewed one guy who apparently got wrapped up in bidding on these auctions and ended up investing serious money, without getting much in the way of goods. I guess he just kept registering, missing, and then trying another one. He seemed to think that they need more regulation or something. I thought he needed to learn some impulse control -- I'll bet they would love him in Vegas.
Caveat emptor, I guess. It's still cheap stuff, as long as you don't get too wrapped up in it.
