Soon, I will be writing a post about why I intend to quit Dubli. But first, let me say something to potential dubli customers: You can get really, really good deals on dubli, even after factoring in the cost of the credits, shipping and the annoying foreign exchange fee. (My experience is within the US, I don’t know if my experience is the same for those that live in other countries.)

FOR CUSTOMERS THINKING OF USING DUBLI (info current as of post date)

I have personal experience buying from dubli. Here it is: They are often slow to ship, the credit card transaction must originate in a foreign country because I am always charged a small FX fee, the tracking of shipments is non-existent, and the customer service regarding orders is less than steller. But, I always received what I bought in good condition, packed well and, on average, after all costs included – credits valued at the retail amount of $.80, for 15% below what I could find anywhere else. My purchases included Apple products and Visa and American Express giftcards, which never go on sale anywhere.

A secret: I run (ran, I guess is a better term – haven’t done much lately) a website called biddingtracker.com. I posted all of the prices that I saw on dubli when I checked them. At one time, we had quite a few other participants and we shared the prices we saw. This helped in two ways (really only on the Xpress Auction, more about the Unique Bid, below): 1) If you were interested in an item that was on dubli AND was also posted on biddingtracker, you could know what the last price was; so you knew the highest you would pay. 2) You could (can still, actually) look back over the many items posted and see the rate that items decrease in value. (Visa giftcards drop in price and sell much more quickly than Bose music systems, for instance.)

BUT, you don’t need to run (or use) another website to get the good prices. Just check the price over a day or two on an item you want. (Less than a day, usually, on giftcards.) BE CAREFUL to check the price on the same item. Every item on sale has a unique number that you can see in the URL and only in the URL. For example, there is an American Express $200 giftcard on dubli as I write this. The URL is http://us.dubli.com/American-Express-200-Gift-Card__5_10378?BArefno=7967766 After the description, there is an underscore and then the number 5. The number 5 indicates that the card is in the Xpress Auction (3 for Unique Bid). Then there is another underscore and the number 10378. This is the item number for this item. After this Amex card is sold, another one exactly like it will be put up on the site. BUT, it will have a new item number. If you didn’t know this, you would check this Amex card in the morning, decide not to buy and take your chances that it might come down in price, and then come back in the afternoon, after it had been sold and check the new Amex card, with a new and different item number and wonder why it had gone UP in price. It didn’t, it’s just a new item. (BTW, the info after the ? in the URL, is the information dubli needs to know to assign you to me, as my customer, if you click and look at the Amex card and then decide to sign up for dubli.)

OK. Another secret. I’ve seen some talk on some forums about the fact that people can’t REALLY be getting the prices that dubli posts as sold. “Why would someone bid and then NOT buy an iPod for $15 and then allow someone else to buy it for $10, or for $0.00?” They think it must be a scam for this reason. It’s not. Here’s the thing: dubli will say the reason people are getting the prices that you see is because more and more people are coming to dubli and the prices are going down so quickly that the person who saw the iPod at $15 couldn’t act quickly enough or just took a chance that they could get it for cheaper in a second or two. This is incorrect (but possible in the future, I suppose). Here’s what is actually happening: Dubli Business Associates who still have a lot of credits and who do not plan to renew their licenses are clicking prices down to unbelieveable levels so that they can get SOME value out of their dubli investment. If a former business associate goes in late at night and starts clicking on a $200 giftcard and gets it for $0.00, those credits that she used were worth $200. If she does nothing with them, they are worth $0.00. It is counter intuitive to think that someone would use a credit that has a face value of $0.80 to reduce an item by $0.25, but if you have 5,000 credits that you’ve had a hard time selling, why not use them for that? It would take forever to click on single items once or twice and hope for the best when you have 5,000 unused credits. And, its always possible that there are current business associates that believe it is a good investment for them to lower prices on dubli items before buying them so that they can point to that item as why someone new to dubli should either join as a customer or an associate. In any case, someone really got the items for the prices shown. (They just may have used more credits than a normal customer would.)

As a potential customer without thousands of credits, what does this mean to you? It means that you might get lucky and click on an item that is in the middle of being clicked down by a frustrated business associate and actually be able to get the iPod for $15. (And, if not, with a little record keeping, you can get it for 15% off or so.)
So, potential customer, take a look at when those items that sell for ridiculous prices end. Often, they end in the middle of the night. Maybe you could use that info to your advantage…

Let’s talk about Unique Bid. On biddingtracker, we had a group of people that posted different strategies that could be used to increase the chances of getting an item there. There was some discussion on the public site, but most of the good stuff went on behind the scenes, via private messages among members. And, some of those members were very successful. But I never got a Unique Bid item. I tried for a couple of 24” iMacs and was once $0.25 away from getting one of them. And let me say that just like in the Xpress Auctions, I believe that there are a lot of former business associates trying to make use of their very numerous credits to try out the Unique Bid. The thing is that, unlike in Xpress, a lot of business associates trying for the same item in Unique Bid actually DECREASES the chance of a normal customer getting a good price.

That said, the best strategy for unique bid is to place a lot of single bids at different price points early in the auction and then keep track of when you get notice that someone else has bid that same price point. You can judge the level of interest in the item that way. Then, just before the 5 minute mark, when you can still make large ‘range’ bids – bids that cover a large amount of prices like $1.00 to $10.00 (which I think would use 36 credits) – you use the info you’ve gathered and make a large range bid, or two (or three). You can track the price that the same item went for the last time, or the last 10 times, to get more info that can be used to bid. If you use 200 credits at $0.80 each and get an iMac for $320, you’ve spent $400 for an iMac. Of course, if you use 100 credits and don’t get an iMac, you’ve spent $80 for nothing. You can use information that you get as you bid and as subsequent people bid to modify your next bid and increase your chances. No doubt that there is a lot of risk but try that with a slot machine.

Biddingtracker.com is still there. I won’t be doing much with it right now, but if other people wish to discuss things dubli, especially strategies and bids, it’s there to be used. (I will still be moderating and getting rid of spam.) If any current dubli business associate wishes to advertise there, send a PM to the admin there or comment here and I will get back to you with prices and such. (There are some creative ways you can advertise.) Long term, I am probably going to turn the forum into a discussion about all unusual web sites for purchasing goods – penny auctions, reverse auctions, etc.

As for this site, I will begin posting information about other opportunities and other ventures. I’ve found that I do like to blog, when I have the time.

Please post your comments and questions about dubli…

Stay tuned for my post about my experience as a dubli business associate and why I am quitting.