TopDogBidZ BETA Contest

[Dan]

TerranceN @ 18th October 2010, 2:35 pm wrote:

The venture capital can actually come from the auctions themselves. Depending on the price for bids and how much a bid increases the auction price, the auction price only has to get to a fraction of the retail price of the item in order for the house to make a revenue great enough to cover the cost of the item, and as long as it seems like a good deal, people will keep bidding (giving the house a sizable profit). Then the item can be bought after the fact, and shipped to the winner.

This is exctaly why I am asking that question. It may seem to works in theory, but if they don't achvece enought bids the hole thing falls apart. Meaning that biders are left not recving the items they won or the site goes down well they have unused bids. It's also some what dishonest to be auctioning items you do not have and only inintend to buy with the bidders money.

Using this method, also clearly makes it gambling and not auctioning. The only diffrence is that the money is replaced with a discount on an item to be purcached for the winner.

[SNIPERDUDE]

Just as one would consider raffling gambling.

[DanShadow]

I've been doing a bit of research .

TopDogBidz is a penny auction web-site who paid for a template by www.Pennyauctionsoft.com
This template costs $799-$1000, including site setup.

Based on what i've seen/read, the people financing TopDogBidz.com don't have a good understanding of PHP/Javascript/MySQL, so they are (in a way) asking for help in the form of running a contest for free bids on their web-site (compensation for services rendered you could say).
Additionally, due to this lack of knowledge, the owners of TopDogBidz.com were using this request as a means of seeking prospective programmers proficient in PHP/Javascript/MySQL, and potentially (at some point) ask to hire them.

In terms of venture capital, it would seem likely that the owners have some measure of money to invest in this "penny auction" business venture, as the template software costs $799-$1000.

So Codey Burdett (aka Viper), if you are interested in hiring a freelance computer programmer proficient in numerous programming languages (specifically in relation to your project: PHP/Javascript/MySQL/CSS/AJAX), consider me.

I have been programming for nearly 10 years, have a college education, and charge approx. $25 per hour on contracted work.

If you want to make sure your web-site works in time for your official launch (and streamline the process, make adaptations as required), I'd be willing to help you in that venture.

Let me know,

- Dan

[Brightguy]

DanShadow @ Tue Oct 19, 2010 2:56 am wrote:

TopDogBidz is a penny auction web-site who paid for a template by www.Pennyauctionsoft.com

Well, if what you say is true that helps explain things. Heh, that was pretty surreal. Somebody asking "help me figure out why it fails to tell the user the account was created" when there was no attempt to tell the user that! I figured I was being dopey or he posted the wrong file. But are they really trying to administer a PHP driven site without knowing PHP...?

Also, I know nothing about penny auctions but if they are so commoditized that you can buy an off-the-shelf solution that is not a good business sign. That's just basic economics.

[rdrake]

How many free bids per hour does this work out to be?

DanShadow @ Tue Oct 19, 2010 2:56 am wrote:

I've been doing a bit of research .

TopDogBidz is a penny auction web-site who paid for a template by www.Pennyauctionsoft.com
This template costs $799-$1000, including site setup.

Based on what i've seen/read, the people financing TopDogBidz.com don't have a good understanding of PHP/Javascript/MySQL, so they are (in a way) asking for help in the form of running a contest for free bids on their web-site (compensation for services rendered you could say).
Additionally, due to this lack of knowledge, the owners of TopDogBidz.com were using this request as a means of seeking prospective programmers proficient in PHP/Javascript/MySQL, and potentially (at some point) ask to hire them.

In terms of venture capital, it would seem likely that the owners have some measure of money to invest in this "penny auction" business venture, as the template software costs $799-$1000.

So Codey Burdett (aka Viper), if you are interested in hiring a freelance computer programmer proficient in numerous programming languages (specifically in relation to your project: PHP/Javascript/MySQL/CSS/AJAX), consider me.

I have been programming for nearly 10 years, have a college education, and charge approx. $25 per hour on contracted work.

If you want to make sure your web-site works in time for your official launch (and streamline the process, make adaptations as required), I'd be willing to help you in that venture.

Let me know,

- Dan

[Dan]

DanShadow wrote:

In terms of venture capital, it would seem likely that the owners have some measure of money to invest in this "penny auction" business venture, as the template software costs $799-$1000.

Well that explains why their site looks exactly like some of the scam sites such as swipeauctions.com.

I wounder if they relay payed upwards of $800 for such low quality code.

DanShadow wrote:

So Codey Burdett (aka Viper), if you are interested in hiring a freelance computer programmer proficient in numerous programming languages (specifically in relation to your project PHP/Javascript/MySQL/CSS/AJAX), consider me.

I have been programming for nearly 10 years, have a college education, and charge approx. $25 per hour on contracted work.

I highly recommenced not working for them. Even if you do manage to get payed (which i find doubtful) it's not an ethical business which you will permanently have your name linked to. At least with other start ups when they fail they just take their investors money with them, with this one they will end up screwing over clients either by not proving prizes or leaving them with unused bids. However that's relay beside the point since even when they are not going under they are basically taking money from all but the winning bidder in return for nothing.


Penny auctions are just a loop hole to get around online gambling laws.

Consider for a moment what the game sounds like if you remove the words auction and bidding and consider the prize as it's dollar value:

code:

Players sit around a table with a predetermined pot of money. Each player may bring an unlimited amount of money to play the game. In a turn a player chooses if they want to up the ante by a set amount, if they chooses to do so the pot decreases by a set amount times the amount they bet. The amount they bet is just gone forever to the house. The game ends when a round goes by and no players bet. The last player to bet wins whats left of the pot, and all the bets are taken by the house.

It's a classic war of attrition game model.

The only difference here is that the pot is replaced with a discount on some item and bets are in the currency of bids rather then dollars.

[DanShadow]

If I were to do any work, it would be on a contracted basis, so if I didnt get paid I could take legal steps to obtain my payment.

I am not a fan of this kind of service, as I tested it out in his beta, and spent 20 minutes with 1 other person sniping an auction at the last 3 seconds.. then I just said screw it. (was watching a movie at same time, so wasnt too boring).

Overall, money is money.. and money can help fund startups for one of my 3 other projects on the go which require more of my time than I can give

P.S. TopDogBidz seems to give around 100 free bids per day in their beta phase, but the sites states you do not get to keep any won items. You will likely lose all free bids when the site officially launches too.

P.S.S. Its possible they bought the code (there are some things in the code they havent changed yet, like DB messages that represent a different penny auction name then theres - lol), but the could have been given it by a previous buyer, or downloaded it.

[Viper]

Anyone With The Skills So Elegantly Described By DanShadow Wishing To Be Considered By TopDogBidZ For Contract And Or Permanent Employment Please Contact Codey Burdett At CodeyBurdett@topdogbidz.com.

[DanShadow]

Wanted to let you guys know how this "project" panned out

After beta-launch, the site owner offered a promotion with free bids/free shipping, and posted a couple relatively cheap items (10$ amazon g/c, bidz, etc).

After the 5 or so auctions finished, no other auctions were put on, and after a few days the site is no longer operating. (rather, it redirects to a default page in their cgi-bin)

My guess is: the site didnt reach the critical mass during its beta launch necessary to generate any forseeable income to fund the auctions.
Their "Buy Bids" feature never worked though, so I doubt anybody lost any money.

Thats what happens when you invest in a project without adequately advertising, having little understanding of the software your using, and having a low investment capital.

[rdrake]

I still see it redirecting to the main site, though there are no auctions or anything on there.

I do like to see them getting screwed out of money instead of their potential suckers/clients.

[Viper]

We Are Still Actively Working And We Will Be Having Another FREE Day Tomorrow (WED 27). We Have Stopped Showing Auctions And The Redirect Was Due To A Few Changes And Will Be Available Shortly.

All Is Well And We Will Be Announcing Our Official Launch Date After Wednesday's Event.

Also We Never Had The Buy Bids Activated Because People WOULD Have purchased Bids Not Knowing We Are In BETA ( Contrary To The Giant TITLE) And Just Caused Frustration On Both Ends. It Will Be Available After Wednesdays Event.

[SNIPERDUDE]

Kind of off-topic here, but why does every word start with a capitalized letter?

[Insectoid]

That was bugging me too.