Would this have worked ?

[DJ...]

Draw up a business plan. That is your first step. This thread will not give you what you're after. I run a company that specialises in taking ideas to businesses - we work with entrepreneurs (mostly disadvantaged) and take them to finance stage.

Once you've put together a business plan I'd be happy to go over it and help you out in my spare time.

Your business plan should contain the following (using my template):

Executive summary
The offering
Market and competition
Management team
Sales and marketing
Business system and organisation
Implementation schedule
Risks
Financial planning
Financial appendices

 

[Nerfherder]

Also you need to look at how people might scam you.


Like can you make multiple bids ?

So... if I want something that there is very little interest in, can I put in 10 bids, all R1 apart that are just above the minimum bid ?

ie The item is 1.5k and the min bid is R800 with bids @R30 and you want at least 10 bids.

One guy comes in makes 10 bids at R800-R810 and gets the item for R110.

This means that realistically your min price needs to be R1k and the bids must be R50, less appealing to bidders.
Even if you block multiple bids they can still have multiple logins.

 

[InTheCube]

What happened to good old fashioned, pay good money for a good product, and if you can't afford it, stay without it, and save up until you can?

 

[Arthur]

Very narrow niche will play once or twice, maybe.

Most people won't pay say R10 with a 90% certainty they'd lose it to someone else's better bid. Three straight losses will put most players off forever, so you'll have to find new players, taking you perilously close to a Ponzi scheme.

You need to find a creative way of keeping players. Make sure the losers always get back say 90% of their play price (not the item price bid), which they can play again. Your gambling/bidding algorithm needs to keep track of bids, supplier cost, player wallets and your profit, and display each user's kitty. In the end you must make sure you actually get real cash from your players and your suppliers are paid. The diffs is yours, and that's what your algorithm needs to manage.

 

[Dolby]

Draw up a business plan. That is your first step. This thread will not give you what you're after. I run a company that specialises in taking ideas to businesses - we work with entrepreneurs (mostly disadvantaged) and take them to finance stage.

Once you've put together a business plan I'd be happy to go over it and help you out in my spare time.

Your business plan should contain the following (using my template):

Executive summary
The offering
Market and competition
Management team
Sales and marketing
Business system and organisation
Implementation schedule
Risks
Financial planning
Financial appendices

Thanks for the comments and advice DJ. Much appreciated!

Also you need to look at how people might scam you.


Like can you make multiple bids ?

So... if I want something that there is very little interest in, can I put in 10 bids, all R1 apart that are just above the minimum bid ?

ie The item is 1.5k and the min bid is R800 with bids @R30 and you want at least 10 bids.

One guy comes in makes 10 bids at R800-R810 and gets the item for R110.

This means that realistically your min price needs to be R1k and the bids must be R50, less appealing to bidders.
Even if you block multiple bids they can still have multiple logins.

No I wouldn't worried about getting scammed - I'd worry that people would take a single look, and lump it with traditional penny aucions. At the time I thought of it initially, these things were popping up everywhere ... so it'd easily have been overlooked

Regarding multiple bids - you'd still have no idea what the highest is. Using the Mede8tor at R1999.00 - I really want one and plan to buy one at the end of the month. I'd come on with a single bid of R1,800.0 - 90% of the product price. But you'd have no idea .... so you'd may do 10 bids, but there's no guarantee of any one of them being ahead - plus you'd need to pay the winning amount too.

So in your example, he's pay the R810.00 - not only the bidding

Very narrow niche will play once or twice, maybe.

Most people won't pay say R10 with a 90% certainty they'd lose it to someone else's better bid. Three straight losses will put most players off forever,

That is a concern, yes

 

[Anony-mousse]

no