James Siminoff

What is the BigDeal?

I can not help but try out new companies and products, it something I have done since I was a little kid.

So when I saw that Josh Kopelman and First Round invested in a company called BigDeal I had to check it out.  However unlike most web based businesses, this one cost me a few bucks, about $55 to really understand it.

Basically BigDeal is like eBay and Poker mixed together.  So the eBay part, every item starts at zero and has a ending time.   Unlike eBay each bid raises the price at a fixed amount of $0.15.  When the item gets to below 30 seconds is when the poker comes in.  Each time someone bids, the item time resets to 30 seconds.  So basically the Poker part is that you need to figure out when all the other schmucks bidding against you are going to stop bidding that one time it goes to zero and then you got the product.  Oh and the kicker is that a bid costs you $0.75 for each one so it is not like you can just fire out a thousand bids to win.

If you don’t understand the system I describe above, then you are just going to have to blow $50 like I did to fully get it.  But let me tell you, Josh did his homework on this one, BigDeal is a really big deal in my opinion.

The prices things sell at are ridiculously cheap, that is what makes it so damn sticky.  Here is a screen shot of what things sold for that I took Sunday night:

As you can see, things are literally selling for 90% off the retail price.  But remember it is not like you can just buy these items at these prices, you have to be the lucky one who is the high bidder when everyone else gives up or thinks someone else will bid so that they do not blow through their bids too quickly, remember a bid costs you money each time you do it.

My first 2 tries I was totally outmatched, just could not figure out the winning strategy.  The third time I felt like I had this thing a bit more figured out, and I did, I won Guitar Hero 5 Bundle (worth $98) for $9.85.  Now my bidding cost me $16.50 (22 bids) so my total cost was $25.95, or a savings of 73%.

I can see BigDeal really taking off.  It is fun and has a lot more too it then I describe in this short, poorly written post.  I have played with other sites like this in the past but this one seems to have really cracked the code on every level.

Now I just need to figure out what to do with that Guitar Hero Bundle.  If anyone knows of a kid or charity that would be able to use it please just put in the comments below, I will send it to the one that seems best.