Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
This whole thing is a scam and pure rubbish but after reading through this entire thread I'm totally confused as to how this works.
Where does $500. come in if the pre-determined price is $500k?
What does lowest unique bid mean?
This makes no sense to me.
What I'm reading is that a person pays $100.00 for a seat at an auction for a house. Now you and 9,999 other people are sitting in a big auction house (not literally but whatever) and can bid a price that they'd for the home. What I'm not understanding is where $500.00 enters the picture and how the winner is determined.
This whole thing is a scam and pure rubbish but after reading through this entire thread I'm totally confused as to how this works.
Where does $500. come in if the pre-determined price is $500k?
What does lowest unique bid mean?
This makes no sense to me.
What I'm reading is that a person pays $100.00 for a seat at an auction for a house. Now you and 9,999 other people are sitting in a big auction house (not literally but whatever) and can bid a price that they'd for the home. What I'm not understanding is where $500.00 enters the picture and how the winner is determined.
Anyone who falls for this is just so foolish.
You buy your seat at the auction, as you said. Then you sit in a Virtual auction house, and you "bid". The bidding range has been defined as $.01 to $500, in one cent increments. So you can bid any amount you want between one cent and $500. There are 50,000 possibilities. The winner of the "auction" is the person who has the lowest number that was not also chosen by someone else, te "lowest unique bid." Then, to make sure the house is SOLD, and not given away, the winner purchases the house for the amount of the winning number. The woman setting this up explained that this keeps the house from being considered a prize. She also tried to convince me that there is some skill or strategy involved in placing and changing your bid to give yourself a better chance to have the winner. I still say it's just a scam. I don't believe that they WANT there to be any winner. If there was actually a lottery, and someone won the right to buy the house, the "auctioneer" would be obligated to pay off the mortgage and taxes etc. They want to have the auction fall short of selling out. Then they'll keep your seat purchase fee and give you a "credit" to sit in on another auction.
Nope, never played, don't buy raffle tickets and I don't spend that much on the kids on a regular basis. Kids don't have to cost so much. You are right in that lots of people play the lottery but that doesn't make it smart (although it seems to make you feel better about it)....sorry if you don't think that is a 'nice' thing to say but my mom taught me not to suffer fools gladly.
Do you not see that EVERYONE in this thread thinks this idea is a scam or at best a VERY BAD idea?? But, I'm sure everyone is wrong and you will be fine. Good luck.
I never said I spent that money on a regular basis nor did I say I buy lottery tickets regularly. You know what they say never assume. Believe me I am listening to everyone but what I don't understand is why you are all so nasty. Negativity is one thing but there isn't any reason to be so nasty and make it so personal.
I never said I spent that money on a regular basis nor did I say I buy lottery tickets regularly. You know what they say never assume. Believe me I am listening to everyone but what I don't understand is why you are all so nasty. Negativity is one thing but there isn't any reason to be so nasty and make it so personal.
You're not listening....you are continuously justifying and defending a ridiculous scammy idea. If you were listening your next post would be....
"Thanks all for your help and insight. I now see that this is a stupid and scammy idea and I won't pursue it further."
As far as being nasty...that is a matter of perception. You should be GRATEFUL that so many people are here warning you of the cliff you don't see although you are about to fall off. So what if they are a bit 'nasty' in their presentation....You're about to fall off a freaking cliff and you're worried that people aren't warning you nicely enough???
Dmmcauley, I know you're trying to sell your house and think this might be a good idea. I understansd wanting to try something new, but consider this. Let's assume this auction is perfectly legitimate and absolutely ethical and legal. I know you think it is, so OK, let's go with that. Let's say you decide to put your house in one of these auctions. As a seller, what's your goal? To sell your house, right? You want enough people to sign up to be part of your auction so your house will be sold. Now look at this board as a guide to how successful you will be. This thread is nine pages deep, and not one person has said this sounds like an interesting opportunity. Two people have said you should sign up to be a buyer and let us know how it goes, but none of us has said we are interested in doing this ourselves. 10,000 bidders is a lot of people. That kind of auction is going to have to appeal to people from all over the place, because there aren't even close to enough local buyers where that house is.
It doesn't matter how creative and new this auction is ... if enough people aren't interested, the house is not going to sell. Assuming this is all legitimate and nobody's going to get ripped off, the house is not going to sell if people don't participate. Look at the response in this thread: it's too good to be true, it's a scam, it's a ripoff, only a fool would do this. Even if you're right and we're wrong, the house is not going to sell because there's no way that 10,000 people are going to try this.
As a person who is a renter and would love nothing more than to have a house of my own, I wouldn't participate in this for anything. It reeks of a way for someone to make some heavy duty cash at the expense of those who cling to the hope that just maybe they will win.
These types of scams prey on those with little to no money who will scrape up the hundred in hopes that they could win when in reality if 10,000 other people are involved, there's very little chance that they will.
I could see this attracting bidders in depressed areas where people tend to buy Lotto tickets and pray for a windfall to help them make their way. This type of thing is just cruel.
What if the house is worth $200k and they collect a million dollars in entry fees from the bidders. How much money does the homeowner get? I'm sure very little compared to the "house" who will make a killing off the backs of the people naive enough to participate.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
