TulipTools Internet Business Owners and Online Sellers Community

Quote:... a unique idea I just came across that is truly an example of thinking outside the box.

Limbo is an online auction site. Ha! Nothing new there, right? Try this on. You win by capturing the lowest unique bid on featured items. In other words, you could win an iPod for as little as a penny. A Sony PSP video game player recently sold for five cents.

"We're more like a game," Rob Lawson, one of the San Mateo, Calif-based company's three founders told internetnews.com. "You can always win at eBay with the highest bid, but with Limbo you don't have visibility into what everyone else is doing." You can bid up to twenty times a day.

Here's the deal. Limbo is designed to be "played" on mobile phones. It costs 99 cents to place a bid on auction items...

full article: http://www.ecommerce-guide.com/news/tren...hp/3577471

Quote:"We're more like a game,"

Uh huh, so what's the catch.  There's an old saying, it sounds too good to be true it usually is.

Ah ha......I found it.  I just started reading the rest of the article and here it is:

Quote:Here's the deal. Limbo is designed to be "played" on mobile phones. It costs 99 cents to place a bid on auction items which currently include a video iPod, Sony Plasma TV and Mini Cooper.

Quote:Every 99 cent bid earns you "Limbo Loot," a kind of credit that can be used to buy items in the Limbo store.

There are a couple of similar auctions in the UK

http://www.million21.com/Default.aspx

This one is a combo TV/mobile phone reverse auction:

http://www.tmcnet.com/scripts/print-page...125427.htm

At 0.99 per bid I think the novelty of bidding by cell phone would soon wear off for most people.  I think the "game" resembles gambling more than it does an auction.