Comments on: Game theory, for money

Game theory, for money

imperium — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 03:53:02 -0800

Humraz is an auction site with a twist. Pay to bid, then once enough fees have been received, the lowest unmatched bid wins. Shall we play for £500? Or a house?

By: imperium

imperium — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 03:55:49 -0800

For what it's worth, this model isn't listed in Wikipedia's auction categories. Also, given the info in the status messages, I wonder how happens when groups of people share bid information?

By: metaxa

metaxa — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 04:18:12 -0800

"There has been a problem loading the default page for this site." Fab.

By: Serial Killer Slumber Party

Serial Killer Slumber Party — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 05:00:21 -0800

Without actually looking at the link, I gotta say this sounds an awful lot like those awful SMS competitions on daytime TV.

By: yoga

yoga — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 05:04:54 -0800

Sounds like limbo.

By: triv

triv — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 05:23:04 -0800

It just screams *SCAM*. I'm not convinced we should be giving it the oxygen of publicity, frankly.

By: BrotherCaine

BrotherCaine — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 05:35:08 -0800

It's like gambling without any odds transparency. Wheeeeee.

By: pompomtom

pompomtom — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 05:41:59 -0800

So, stupidity tax, but for smart people.

By: DU

DU — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 05:45:52 -0800

Can I bid using real numbers or am I limited to 2 measly decimals?

By: smackfu

smackfu — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 05:51:42 -0800

That's pretty hysterical. I was wondering why there would be any sellers if "the bids start low, and they stay low", but apparently they are the only seller, and they charge $5 for each bid. So that explains that.

By: Mayor West

Mayor West — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 05:52:11 -0800

Seems like a slightly cooler, slightly more legitimized gambling operation, but hey, I'd spend $6 to have a chance at buying a house for under $1,000. And there's a modicum of skill here, especially if you game the system by sharing information. I hesitate only because I can't see the profit mechanism for anyone else involved in the process--in order to sell something for 3% of its market value, you have to convince enough people to pay $6 a bid to make up the difference. Something tells me that there won't be enough people using this service to make up hundreds of thousands of dollars that way.

By: delmoi

delmoi — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 06:14:33 -0800

Boy they sure like their bold and BOLD ALL-CAPS type. Anyway, yeah, none of what they're doing makes any sense, other then a way to gamble.

By: vacapinta

vacapinta — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 06:19:21 -0800

I suppose people will get sucked in by the psychology of it. The phrase "Person X bought this $100k house for $2!!!!" sounds better to people than "Person X was the lottery winner." even though its the same thing.

By: HuronBob

HuronBob — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 06:25:51 -0800

I'm with Triv on this one... a scam for stupid people, not worth a FPP.

By: edd

edd — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 06:29:37 -0800

A scam would be a dishonest scheme. This seems perfectly honest about what it does. However, that doesn't mean you'd not be a sucker to play the game.

By: smackfu

smackfu — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 06:31:53 -0800

It seems like basically a raffle, but with a tiny bit of skill added in. Around here, raffles are normally banned except for charity. I assume there's some reason for that?

By: jeffburdges

jeffburdges — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 06:42:43 -0800

flagged as other:scamish

By: cillit bang

cillit bang — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 06:46:18 -0800

Yeah, they do this all the time on daytime TV in the UK. It's basically a raffle. Nothing novel about it.

By: miss lynnster

miss lynnster — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 07:46:35 -0800

Our auctions offer an affordable route to acquiring assets such as PROPERTY, GOLD and CASH. Well wow! It looks like John Hodgman WROTE their COPY! Coolio!

By: divabat

divabat — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 08:05:15 -0800

Ha! There's a TV show here (Bid It) with that exact concept. I was running autocue for one of its episodes. Never got to watch the show, but after Bid It launched, the idea caught on like fire all over Asia.

By: fire&wings

fire&wings — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 09:09:44 -0800

I'm sure this type of auction was deemed an illegal lottery and banned from UK TV last year.

By: liquidindian

liquidindian — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 15:14:01 -0800

It's a type of lottery, isn't it? I ask the Humrazzers. They wince. They don't think that's accurate. Because when a person bids, they are informed whether the current winning bid is higher or lower than their own. "So I think it's far more skill-based than a lottery. You can work out how to position yourself." So it's more like poker? "Well..." Asmat cringes again. "I suppose some of the skills are poker-based." For a bidder to position themselves with any degree of accuracy they'd probably have to bid a few times at £3 a go. I envisage one of my home-hungry friends bidding £12 a week to stay in the game – £12 a week that might be better saved towards a deposit. This is, after all, a form of gambling. From the Independent, The £180,000 flat that is for sale to the lowest bidder.