Deal Dash

gfm7175 wrote:
Before I get into the thread topic, I'll start by saying that I am still alive and am doing just fine (I haven't gone away or anything).

I've simply been really busy at work due to a coworker needing to undergo a procedure (so I've been thrown into a situation of immediately learning as much of his job as quickly as possible and now I am "holding the fort" until he's able to work again). In the short term it sucks but in the long term it is worth it because I am acquiring new knowledge/skills and I am increasing my worth to the company.

This is a good lesson that MANY people who incessantly whine about how little they make really need to learn. Plenty of people could easily increase their paycheck (even much more than a pay raise would increase it by) if they would simply work all available hours (including any overtime opportunities). Or do what I'm currently doing and acquire some new knowledge/skills that make oneself worth more to one's employer. Or take on the stress/risk/work of starting your own business... Such freedom and opportunity is truly wonderful.


Back to the thread topic, this is sort of related to IBD's "crypto scam" thread but this is instead about something that I've seen advertised on TV often enough called Deal Dash. If you've seen the advertisements, they show people bragging about how little they paid for various items, such as bikes, computers, food processers, etc... "Up to 90% off!!" blah blah blah... Sounds too good to be true, right?? Well, I have finally seen those advertisements enough times to where it annoyed me into going onto the Deal Dash website to see for myself exactly how it works (and what the "catch" is). This is essentially how the process works, as described by Deal Dash:

(1) Every auction starts out at $0.00
(2) Every bid placed increases the auction price by $0.01
(3) After every bid placed, a 10-second countdown timer starts and then re-starts every time a new bid is placed within the 10-second countdown window. (IOW, there is no "winner" until the countdown timer reaches 0 without any new bids being placed)

So what's the catch?? The catch is that in order to place bids, one must first purchase a "bid pack". Deal Dash describes it like this: "Before you can take part in an auction you need to buy bids. Bids are currently on sale for 13¢ each! This small fee makes the massive 95% off savings possible!" ... At this point you should already know what I'm going to say before I even explain it, but I'll explain it anyway for those who don't already "see it".

According to the website, bid packs come in various sizes, so if one were to purchase a bid pack containing 100 bids at the sale price mentioned above, then one would be paying $13.00 for the ability to place 100 bids on the website. Once those bids are used up, they are gone whether or not you end up winning the auction(s). IF you decide to click on the "buy it now" button (and pay whatever the 'buy it now' price is), THEN you can get all the bids that you used for that item's auction returned back to you for future usage on other auction items.

So let me quick run through a couple examples and provide my understanding of how the Deal Dash system works per what I've read on their website:

(1) A (normally $120 in stores) microwave is listed for auction on Deal Dash.
(2) 50 people purchase 100-bid "bid packs" to bid on this microwave. NOTE: Deal Dash has now already received $650 from these 50 people who all purchased 100-bid "bid packs" at the "sale price" of $0.13/bid.
(3) These people proceed to place their 5,000 bids (increasing the price by $0.01 per bid) on this microwave, bringing the final "selling price" for the "auction winner" up to $50.00 ... WOW, A $120 MICROWAVE FOR ONLY $50!!!! WHAT A DEAL!!!!!!!

So what ultimately happened here?? Well, the "auction winner" ended up paying $50 for the microwave, plus the $13 he spent on his "bid pack" to participate in the auction, so he paid $63 for a $120 microwave (shipping/handling/packaging is all FREE, Deal Dash makes a HUGE deal about that fact btw). But what about the 49 others who participated and didn't win?? Well, it depends on what they decide to do next. If they simply accept that they lost, then they are all out $13 for the "bid pack" that they purchased. If they wish to click on the "buy it now" button, then they can pay whatever that price is (obviously it'll have to be at least the $120 that the microwave is worth, if not a bit more) and then get their $13-worth of "bids" returned back to them for use on future auctions. Either way, they are ultimately out the $13 for the "bids", which seems to be a big part of how Deal Dash makes their money and is able to offer such "HUUUUUUUUUUUGE DEALS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!".

Put in other words, Deal Dash is akin to throwing money away at lottery tickets, ultimately siphoning large amounts of money off of the large group of "suckers" (the participants) in order to slightly benefit a select few lucky people who "win the auctions", but with most of the benefit obviously going directly to the owner(s) of Deal Dash. How bad can this "bid buying" system get? Let me provide a second example to only ever so slightly dabble into it:

1) A (normally $500 in stores) Yeti Roadie cooler is listed for auction on Deal Dash.
(2) 200 people buying an average of 200 bids/each all decide to bid on this item. NOTE: Deal Dash has now already received $5,200 from these 200 people who all purchased various "bid packs" at the "sale price" of $0.13/bid.
(3) These people proceed to place their 40,000 bids (increasing the price by $0.01 per bid) on this cooler, bringing the final "selling price" for the "auction winner" up to $400.00 ... WOW, A $500 COOLER FOR ONLY $400!!!! THAT'S 20% OFF!!!!!!!

What actually happened here? Well, let's say that the eventual "auction winner" ended up using 1,000 bids to win this cooler. That means that this "auction winner" ended up spending $530 (the $400 auction price PLUS another $130 for all the purchased bids) to win the normally $500 cooler (IOW, he overpaid by $30)... The other 199 people all lost their 39,000 bids (or $5,070). So one "lucky" person ended up paying $30 MORE for the cooler than it is worth meanwhile the other 199 people all LOST an average of $25.47739/each for the purchase price of their "bids". But hey, FREE SHIPPING!!!!

HarveyH55 wrote:
As the auction progresses, certainly people will just drop out.

HarveyH55 wrote:
If you know winning isn't going to be much of a deal at some point, why continue bidding?

HarveyH55 wrote:
Maybe move on to another item.

HarveyH55 wrote:
Is there an expiration date on the bid packs? Any option to get refunded?

HarveyH55 wrote:
I've never been tempted, figured it was scammie from how much they spend on TV ads.

gfm7175 wrote:

HarveyH55 wrote:
As the auction progresses, certainly people will just drop out.

I would suppose that this happens to X extent, but my understanding is that it doesn't really matter (to Deal Dash, anyway) whether or not those people drop out early because they've already spent their money up front on purchasing X number of bids (and can then keep buying more whenever they desire). Deal Dash already has that money up front no matter how those people later decide to use their bids (such as dropping out after a bit, using as many bids as necessary to win, not using their bids at all, etc)... That's the beauty (for Deal Dash) of this particular "business model".

HarveyH55 wrote:
If you know winning isn't going to be much of a deal at some point, why continue bidding?

So that you're not "out" the money that you paid for the bids for nothing in return?

However, I don't claim to know how such easily-suckered people think... I just see the money siphoning nature of said "penny auction" website and I turn the other way and I run FAR away from it...

HarveyH55 wrote:
Maybe move on to another item.

I would still say that it ultimately doesn't matter to Deal Dash because Deal Dash has already received the money for those bids regardless. In fact, Deal Dash would love for that person to "move on to another item" and even eventually become addicted to placing bids and continuing to purchase more and more bids from them... Deal Dash really isn't any different than people gambling via putting money into slot machines and pulling the levers, is it? Or continuing to purchase lottery tickets??

HarveyH55 wrote:
Is there an expiration date on the bid packs? Any option to get refunded?

You'd have to read through their terms of service. I did quickly skim through it and I found a couple of areas where they speak of refunds:

"Users who have won an auction and paid for a product are not eligible for a refund on either Bid purchases, account activation fees, or product fees if their product has been shipped by the time of request."

"Unused Bids are eligible for a full refund only if the Bids have been purchased at their full price of 60c per Bid.

Example (normal priced Bids): John purchases 100 Bids for $60 and Bids 10 times. All the remaining 90 Bids are eligible for a total refund of $54 ( 90 * $0.60 ).

If the Bids have been purchased at a promotional rate of less than 60c per Bid, only the portion of the purchased Bids that the customer would have received at 60c each is eligible for a refund. The refundable portion of the Bids is always used first.

Example (discount priced Bids): John purchases 100 Bids for $30 and Bids 10 times. Only the first 50 Bids of those 100 Bids were refundable ( $30 / $0.60 = 50 ). John has 40 refundable Bids and 50 free Bids left on his account. He is eligible for a refund of 40 * $0.60 = $24."

HarveyH55 wrote:
I've never been tempted, figured it was scammie from how much they spend on TV ads.

Bingo. Anyone with half a brain can sense "scammy" after seeing their ads. I most certainly did! But then it annoyed me so much that I just had to research into it to see precisely how "scammy" it is and precisely how they accomplish their scam. Now I know.

HarveyH55 wrote:
TV advertisement is a good indication of all kinds of scams. Just have to look at the price of the product, and consider production costs and airtime for running the ad. They have to sell a hell of a lot of units, at the advertise price. They usually imply, but never state shipping and handling charges apply. Obviously, the product is cheap crap. Customer service is in some third world country, barely fluent in English. Huge waste of time and frustration for most, not worth $30-$50, or whatever the scam.

Charity on TV are a huge scam as well. There are a few that run several times an hour, usually for a 'monthly' donation. Take quite a few donors, just to pay for advertising. Maybe it's just me, but donating to a charitable cause, I'd expect most of the donation to be used toward the 'cause', and not anything but. I'm pretty generous locally, but stay away from the national organizations.

Insurance ads... Mostly, insurance is a scam anyway. You live responsibly, you really shouldn't need a lot of insurance products. Medicare is pretty clearly defined by law, what must be included, and the price. The advertisements are just to up-sell products, that cover things seldom if ever used, to get all the 'free' benefits. You have to buy the whole package. I'm not retired yet, but get occasional reminders of having to enroll soon. Part 'B' medicare is mandatory, and $200+ a month. Part 'A' is what we have already paid for... I've got better insurance at work, and it doesn't cost near as much as just Part 'B'... Over 30 years, and only used it one time, ruptured appendix...

'Free' phone apps... They have to spend six-figures for ads, minimum. How do they make money, on a free to use product? A lot of money, to cover just the marketing. Cell phones are marketing data mines. There are never actually turned off, unless you remove the battery. 'Off' is really just putting it in low-power 'sleep' mode. User doesn't have to do anything for it to 'Wake up', and perform a quick task periodically. All user setting are basically meaningless, preferences. The operating system always has full control over all features, all the time, even in sleep-mode. Apps are suppose to be restricted to preferences and not allowed full control over the phone... There are still ways to play within the rules, and still extract user data. There are always ways to work around the rules, to get even more.

gfm7175 wrote:Back to the thread topic, this is sort of related to IBD's "crypto scam" thread but this is instead about something that I've seen advertised on TV often enough called Deal Dash. If you've seen the advertisements, they show people bragging about how little they paid for various items, such as bikes, computers, food processers, etc... "Up to 90% off!!" blah blah blah... Sounds too good to be true, right?? Well, I have finally seen those advertisements enough times to where it annoyed me into going onto the Deal Dash website to see for myself exactly how it works (and what the "catch" is). This is essentially how the process works, as described by Deal Dash:

IBdaMann wrote:

gfm7175 wrote:Back to the thread topic, this is sort of related to IBD's "crypto scam" thread but this is instead about something that I've seen advertised on TV often enough called Deal Dash. If you've seen the advertisements, they show people bragging about how little they paid for various items, such as bikes, computers, food processers, etc... "Up to 90% off!!" blah blah blah... Sounds too good to be true, right?? Well, I have finally seen those advertisements enough times to where it annoyed me into going onto the Deal Dash website to see for myself exactly how it works (and what the "catch" is). This is essentially how the process works, as described by Deal Dash:

Great writeup. For those who want a more in-depth look at what you just described, this video is rather thorough and rather funny.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICC1tF6ZCDQ

This guy really got into his research. I particularly enjoyed the part where his bank blew it for him by putting a hold on his credit card transaction with Deal Dash because they suspected it was fraudulent activity ... and that alerted Deal Dash to what he was doing. I got a hearty laugh out of that.