Originally, I had only planned to review websites related to multimedia production but I have now decided to expand these reviews to cover any website I have had experience with including retail websites and other online shopping sites. uBid.com is a site that I have done several transactions with over the past few years. They specialize in b-stock items and like ebay, they rely on auctions for most of their offerings but also offer many items with a "buy it now" price.
I have purchased everything from new watches, refurbished car audio amplifiers, new car audio subwoofers, to DVD players from this website. All the items I purchased were bought below retail pricing however, the shipping is normally 2-3 times the cost of other online retailers which you have to keep in mind when looking for a good deal.
The bidding is a bit different than ebay. Normally, there are several units to be had in one auction. In fact, you will find that you will get the best deal when the listing is an auction of 10 or more items. The winners are the top bidders for the amount of units in the listing. If you have 10 units for example, and there are 9 bids for $10... then you can bid $10 and this will make you the 10th winning bidder. However, being the last one in line for winning bids is a sure way to get outbid at the last moment or sooner. The bidding has a deadline but it continues as long as someone makes a higher bid in the following hours after the deadline unlike ebay. It stops when bidding stops really. So, the best idea is to bid early and bid the highest amount you want to pay for that item (remember to check shipping costs and figure that in as well).
Now... here's my "buyer beware" warning. While most of my purchases from uBid.com have been fine... I did have a couple that went sour. First one, one of the subwoofers I purchased actually had a cracked frame and I didn't realize it until my 30 day warranty period was over. I had left it in a box when I got it until I could get it installed. I had another I opened immediately and it was fine and never thought to inspect the second speaker. The other item I had issues with was a refurbished car audio amplifier. This was the worst example of a refurbished product I had ever seen. It was a bit beat up and one end of the amplifier was missing screws to hold the end cap with the connections in place. I was about to return it when I found screws to hold the end piece in place and after testing, I decided to keep since it did work and it was a "decent deal" but I could have gotten better deal from individual on ebay though. I had also pruchased a DVD player which ended up not working either but again I didn't test it out in time to return which was my fault. However, I think I would have had to pay shipping to return it and it was only a $20 DVD player so didn't think it was worth $40 in the end with my shipping charges if I returned it.
So, no longer do I purchase "refurbished" items from ubid.com and I make sure to inspect anything I do get very well upon arrival. To be honest... I really don't buy nearly as much from them as I used to. Too many times I pass good deals up simply because after shipping and handling... the good deal wasn't so good and I am often surprised how high some people will bid some items as well which is another example of people not knowing how to spot "good deals" and buying on impulse in my opinion. This site used to be good for buying items and reselling for a profit such as on ebay but I think that time has passed.
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