Ending Our Advertising Relationship With BigDeal

techcrunch.com

13 points·cwan··6 comments

I clicked on an ad that led to this site once and was immediately displeased to find myself immersed in what seemed like a 90s web scam.

I clicked the ad because it seemed to be advertising a handheld GPS for pennies on the dollar, but when I clicked through the auction for that item had ended and some (probably fake I decided) person had won the item.

It's smart of Arrington not to associate with these guys. They are very intentionally misleading, and I think Arrington cuts them and their VC backers way too much slack . Everyone involved in this venture should be ashamed of themselves, or at least of how the business is being run.

Sadly, there are a lot of people who care more about making money than creating value.

I'm glad you said that because for a short time only I can sell you a guaranteed value-making proposition for 3 low charges of $19.95* Act now because you seem to be the sort of person who values value above all else.

* actual charge may be $29.95 plus corkage

BigDeal is a Swoopo clone. It's basically gambling dressed up as an auction.

That's cruel to gambling.

The first (and only) item I checked was a Kindle that had 1066 bids placed on it, before selling for $159.90. At $0.75/bid, that means BigDeal received $959.40 for a $259 item.

Even a sucker bet at the casino is far, far better value than that. (And more transparent as well.)

This should be required reading for everyone:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_auction

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