Swoopo Auctions - the next great shopping experience?

I recently discovered Swoopo auctions. It's a fascinating place and it can be quite fun - although somewhat expensive if one does not curb "bidder's frenzy". I've yet to win one of the auctions, but today I came *quite* close. I was bidding on an EEE PC 1000 w/40GB hard drive (one of those new 'netbook' computers) and the auction timed out just before I could place a winning bid - it went for, get this, $48.75! That's about 88% LESS than retail!

Of course, this auction site is not quite like eBay in that you must *buy* bids, for $0.75 each (and you can buy in convenient 30, 50, 100, 300 and 700 bid quantities) which you then use to bid on items. And that cost per bid used is NOT figured into the price one pays for a winning bid on an item. I'd estimate that the winner in the EEE PC auction probably 'spent' 100 bids, or $75 above the $48.xx he must pay for the computer. Still, for a brand-new netbook that retails for $500, shelling out about $150 is quite the bargain.

I'll post more as I figure it out.

So what's up with MickyD's?!?!?

Was in a rush. Had a family medical appointment early this morning which meant for the first time in several years, I needed to eat on the run. So I stopped in at one of the McDonald's on the way. Got a sausage burrito and a milk for my mom, and, I thought, an Egg McMuffin combo for me. Came to $8.15! So I read it out. Seems they didn't give me the combo, they broke the McMuffin, hash brown and milk separately. Okay, I can see $3.09 for the McMuffin - barely. And I'm already rather upset at the idea of the breakfast burrito (and it's not the McBurrito, but the SMALL one) cost $1.89. But then I noticed the milk. Two 8-ounce milks ran $2.59!!! That's $1.29 per CUP of milk!!!

Now I live in California and milk by the gallon runs $3.99. But if one buys a gallon of milk from McD's in little 8-ounce bottles, one gets the privilege of paying $20.72!

C'mon, McDonald's, where's your sense of shame!