Are oodles worth the time?

[love2playnindy]

Doesn't everyone realize that an auction price is driven by the bidder? In other words, if we stop bidding so much, then the prizes will go for much cheaper. I don't know how long it took that person to get 400k + oodles, but that would take me years! I have about 175k and that took me about a year. I don't want to spend all of that on a $50 prize, but the other bidders are forcing those auctions to be high. So everyone needs to ban together and stop bidding so high and everyone will win in the end. Who's up for it? I sure am.

[breeziebeez1]

I know, I felt kind of bad bidding so much for the itunes. This is why it'd be nice if everyone could mention what they paid to win. At least then we wouldn't be jumping in so blindly. They did it in the past and Squishmar said she thought it was helpful.

[squishmar]

Doesn't everyone realize that an auction price is driven by the bidder? In other words, if we stop bidding so much, then the prizes will go for much cheaper. I don't know how long it took that person to get 400k + oodles, but that would take me years! I have about 175k and that took me about a year. I don't want to spend all of that on a $50 prize, but the other bidders are forcing those auctions to be high. So everyone needs to ban together and stop bidding so high and everyone will win in the end. Who's up for it? I sure am.

Of course we realize this, but there's not much to be done about it. Unless *everyone* bands together, it's pointless. The real shame is that there are probably hundreds of people who enter the auction (which costs oodles) and bid just slightly over the minimum... or maybe even double the minimum... not realizing that that is still nowhere NEAR what the auctions are going for. And the reason they are going so high is because there are few other options. With fewer and fewer "Buy-It-Now" prizes left (and none at all of any real high value), people are forced to use their oodles for auctions just to get *something* of value. Otherwise they risk just accumulating their oodles and have a chance that there may be NO prizes left to redeem at all... even in an auction. It's a no-win situation. Myself? I've earned a total of over 900,000 oodles in total but only have around 163,000 right now because over the years, I've spent them on the smaller prizes available... four years of a magazine subscription, several Books of the Week, and that great weekend of 2010, "Black Friday/Cyber Monday," when ALL the gift cards were available to BUY--not for auction or sweeps like they did last year. I purchased two $10.00 Starbucks gift cards and a $25.00 Walmart card. There were so many disappointed people this last holiday season when GSN decided to do all auctions/sweeps.

And then, for a while, they had those very scarce KeyBank $25.00 credit cards that were up a couple of times a week to buy. They were charging 35,000 oodles for them... basically telling us what they were worth but there is NO WAY you could get a gift card of that value in an auction for that amount of oodles. I think people would be thrilled to pieces if GSN offered several different types of $5.00 and $10.00 gift cards that everyone had a chance to outright purchase but that is not the way it looks like they are going. The prizes available for buying are getting cheaper and cheaper (magnets, lip balm, etc.) but costing more and more. 15,000 oodles for a GSN magnet? And they RAISED the price in the second or third week from 12,500. The price of the Book of the Week has almost doubled in less than a year's time too. It's very frustrating for people who have been here a long time and remember how it used to be.

[1stAmericanRose]

Squishmar: Can you tell me what the 'method' of ordering the Magazines are? When you press the button to BUY them do they use the Name & Address that GSN has as Your Personal Info(Like they do for regular Prizes) OR do you fill in a Separate SUBSCRIBER Name and address? Thanks for any info you can give me on this....

[chtiger1]

I spent my remaining 308,000ish oodles to win the $100 Exxon gas card about 2 months ago. I also got a $100 Home Depot card on cyber Monday for 219,000. Back in the good ol' days, I got a Blu-ray player, an ipod nano, and about $200 in other gift cards. I think every item arrived in less than 2 weeks, some in only a few days, so the oodles program has been good overall for me, but I would say it's not worth the time now unless you want the magazines or the book of the week. Lifetime oodles:1,301,561 current oodles:29

[squishmar]

Squishmar: Can you tell me what the 'method' of ordering the Magazines are? When you press the button to BUY them do they use the Name & Address that GSN has as Your Personal Info(Like they do for regular Prizes) OR do you fill in a Separate SUBSCRIBER Name and address? Thanks for any info you can give me on this....

I honestly can't remember for sure... it was over a year ago that I ordered my last subscription. I want to say that they DO ask you where to send the actual magazine but I just don't know. However, I DO know that if they don't, and it goes to the address you have on file, you can always call the magazine itself and have it changed over to whatever address you would like. Sorry I can't be more help... I was going to try to answer you when you posted above about wanting to buy the gift subscription but realized I wasn't quite sure.

[1stAmericanRose]

Thanks squishmar! I try to remember what I have for breakfast! That's why I started the games...to keep the memory for as Long as I can!