The New York Times has profiled a site, Swoopo, that holds auctions for expensive items. The auctions often result in very low prices, but in order bidders are charged $.60 for each bid. And those bids really add up.

“In aggregate, consumers trying to obtain these products are overpaying,” said Glen Whitney, a mathematician and a former quantitative analyst at the hedge fund Renaissance Technologies, who was asked to evaluate Swoopo. “Unless you have an edge over other people who are bidding, and you can get them to subsidize your purchase, you shouldn’t do it. It’s a chump’s game.”