There are a plethora of gambling and auction sites on the internet. Many users intend to win or gamble on luck to hit the jackpot. Penny auction sites do not resemble gambling in working, but they do for many losing users.
DealDash has been an industry leader in penny auction sites since 2009. Although the company claims to safeguard its users’ interests, there are still risks of losing money for you.
DealDash works on the bidding and auction business model. Suppose you do not plan well and make good use of promotions; highly likely that you’ll lose money. You may get a cheap deal on expensive items, but bear in mind some of the risks involved before you begin.
1) Bid Pack Prices are Complicated:
Product bidding at DealDash starts at $0.00, with each bid, the price increases by $0.01 only. But the bid itself costs much more than $0.01.
With normal DealDash pricing, each bid can cost you $0.60 or sixty cents. Bids also come in packs of 100,200 and up to 5000 bid packs.
Each day the bid pack pricing can be different. DealDash runs promotions and sales on these bid packs. Even if you win an item for the same number of bids as any other bidder, you may be at a disadvantage. One customer may pay a bid price of $0.15 today, and the next day without promotion, it can be $0.60.
2) Winning the Auction is not Just Luck:
DealDash product bidding starts at $0.00 for every product. It may take several hours before the final auction bid is declared a win. You’ll have to plan the bidding strategy for each product category carefully.
The best tool for you to securely use the bids is to automate the process through BidBuddy. If you do not set the bid budget and limits, you may lose the bids frequently.
Unlike other auction sites, winning auctions on DealDash requires paying for bids before the auction begins. For new users, it can be an overwhelming experience and potentially result in the loss of money.
3) Product Quality and Limited Brands:
One of the biggest disadvantages and risks of using DealDash is its limited brand variety. Even reputable brand products may come from overstock or liquidation inventory. That puts customer expectations at a shockingly discontented level.
Beware of the risk of receiving second-tier brand products. Also, many household items, electronics, and small-volume products may not be listed by reputable industry brands.
Critics have pointed out the lack of top-tier brands for many product categories on DealDash. Also, the listed products for auctions are very limited.
As of the writing, we could only spot 40 items on auction for the Electronics category. With most of the valuable products labeled as “coming soon,.”
4) You May Pay More Than the Actual Product Price:
Losing money with unsuccessful bids aside, you may lose money by actually winning an auction. The risk of paying more on an item with bidding potentially comes for any auction site. DealDash is no exception because customers may actually pay higher prices by winning the auctions.
Do not fall for the deceptive “auction” word for each product. Carefully evaluate the item’s total price and plan your bidding strategy.
For example, if you buy a bid pack of 100 on promotion for $30. Each bid costs you $0.30. It will take 3000 bids to reach the price of up to $30, and it may go beyond that.
Even if you spent only 100 bids, you save no money. You may have to spend more bids to win the item if there is a stern competition.
5) Order and Shipping Delays:
DealDash offers customers two options: buy it now or through auction bidding. However, many items under the buy it now option get delayed and come with an availability date.
The items are then processed after that availability date. Unlike other e-commerce sites, it puts DealDash users at a big disadvantage.
Another risk with the DealDash shipping policy is the returns are only for the purchased items. It means any bidders winning auctions may not get a shipping return if the product quality does not meet their expectations.
Although DealDash offers a money-back guarantee but is valid for first-time bidders only.
If you reside outside the US, the item shipping can cost you even more money. Your product, if significant enough, will be shipped only through a third-party forwarder.
