Gas Club of America Review: Gas & penny auctions?
Gas Club of America was launched in late 2012 and is owned by parent company “Dream Starters LLC”.
Dream Starters LLC and Gas Club of America are based in the US state of Texas and are headed up by CEO and President, Troy Mason.
This appears to be Mason’s first MLM venture, although he has launched several non-MLM companies since the conception of Dream Starters LLC back in 1997.
A marketing video on Gas Club of America’s website goes into more detail.
Read on for a full review of the Gas Club of America MLM business opportunity.
The Gas Club of America Product Line
Gas Club of America has no retailable products or services. Affiliates are only able to market membership to the company.
A “members only” penny auction is attached to Gas Club of America affiliate membership, with affiliates able to participate in one penny auction a day on the company website.
Typically these daily penny auction is for gift and gas cards. I couldn’t see anywhere on the Gas Club of America website that stipulated how much penny auction bids cost, however the site does mention they are only available in packs.
Roadside assistance is also bundled with Gas Club of America affiliate membership, with affiliates receiving towing, emergency road service, essential fluids or supplies delivery, flat tire changes, emergency battery service and lockout service.
The Gas Club of America Compensation Plan
The Gas Club of America compensation plan pays affiliates commissions on the recruitment of new affiliates and purchase of penny auction bid packs.
Recruitment Commissions
For every Gold affiliate recruited, the recruiting affiliate is given a $25 VISA giftcard.
Pass-up commissions
Using a 2-up style compensation plan, affiliates must pass up half of their first two membership sale commissions to their uplines.
$5 is paid out each month on the first two Gold affiliate membership subscriptions sold (with $5 passed up on each sale to the affiliate’s upline), with the third and every affiliate membership thereafter generating a $10 commission.
In turn, recruited affiliates must then pass up half of their first two membership sales commissions too. This requirement exists for the third, fourth and fifth personally recruited affiliates only.
The first two affiliates recruited by these third, fourth and fifth affiliates is then passed up to the original affiliate. At this point the commissions process repeats itself (2nd, 4th, and 5th and then first two pass-ups etc.).
The Gas Club of America compensation plan video indicates that this monthly commission is only paid out on the sale of Gold affiliate memberships, whether it is paid out on Silver or Bronze memberships is unclear.
Matrix Commissions
Gas Club of America use a 3×10 matrix to pay out monthly residual commissions on the recruitment of Silver and Gold affiliates.
A 3×10 matrix places an affiliate at the top of the matrix with three legs branching out directly under them (level 1).
In turn, these three legs branch out into another three legs (level 2) and so on and so forth down 10 levels of recruitment.
Each leg position represents a recruited Gold or Silver affiliate, with positions filled either via direct recruitment or the recruiting efforts of an affiliate’s up and downlines.
For each Gold and Silver affiliate in their matrix, an affiliate is paid $1 a month.
Penny Auction Bid Commissions
Gas Club of America penny auction bid packs generate a 20% commission for an affiliate’s upline.
This commission increases to 40% once an affiliate has recruited at least three new affiliates.
Joining Gas Club of America
Gas Club of America has four affiliate membership options:
- Free – commission on penny auction bid purchases
- Bronze ($14.95 a month) – 30 auction bids each month
- Silver ($25 a month) – 50 auction bids each month
- Gold ($99 a month) – 200 auction bids upon joining and 50 auction bids a month thereafter
Conclusion
With no retailable products or services and commissions paid out on the recruitment of new affiliates (fees), Gas Club of America wanders into clear pyramid scheme territory.
The roadside assistance is marketed as being “FREE” on the Gas Club of America website, leaving the attached penny auction bids the only “product” being sold.
With bids bundled in with monthly membership and only one auction occurring daily, there seems to be little no incentive for affiliates to purchase bids.
And even if they did, there’s still the issue of no retail customers existing within the company.
Looking at the bigger picture, what we have with Gas Club of America appears to be a recruitment driven membership fee opportunity, with an attached penny auction and roadside assistance bundled in.
Aside from only hosting one auction a day, the penny auction itself appears to only be a half-hearted attempt in that giftcards are all that are offered.
Furthermore affiliates are also prohibited from winning more than one auction a week:
VERY IMPORTANT! Win limit is 1 per week per household, USER ID or IP address.
Any attempt to bypass this will result in termination of account/accounts and forfeiture of all bids and winnings.
The focus of the Gas Club of America business is clearly the commissions generated via recruiting new affiliates (matrix and VISA cards), with the idea being that they sign up at the Gold affiliate membership level.
Sitting at the top of the pyramid is none other than Gas Club of America CEO and President Troy Mason, with no less than 5 positions in the company:
“Troy1 Mason” appears to be the first affiliate account entered into the system on December 3rd, 2012.
As with all pyramid schemes, once those at the bottom fail to recruit new members they’ll stop paying their membership fees.
Those above them stop earning their commissions and also stop paying and before you know it the entire scheme has collapsed.
Meanwhile what any of this has to do with “gas” I have no idea. Gas Club of America do state that membership to their company does grant affiliates the right to ‘market our program through retail locations‘, which I suppose encompasses gas stations.
Other than that the only other link is that the VISA cards paid out can be used to purchase gas.
Neither link however is central to the compensation plan or the Gas Club of America business model itself.
Update 2nd June 2013 – Yesterday Gas Club of America’s owner, Troy Mason, added a retail option to the company.
Retail customers can now sign up for free and purchase auction bids. They are of course also unable to earn any commissions from the Gas Club of America compensation Plan.
Hopefully over time this will now become the core of the business.
As a prospective Gas Club of America affiliate, I’d naturally encourage you to check with your upline as to how many retail customers they have, as well as how much revenue they bring into the company vs. that of any recruited affiliates.
Anything less than around 50% of revenues from retail customers would indicate that, despite its introduction, the retail customer option has had little effect on Gas Club of America’s revenue generation.
I’m going to guess that he had gas club in mind, hoping to get some sort of fleet discount on gasoline then sell the membership to get such discounted gas to people, but realized there’s no money in that, then tried to use the name for some other business, and retained the “road service” thing just to keep some relevance to auto club.
Could be. The penny auction still sticks outlike a “me too!” sore thumb though.
1st of all I will be honest here, yes I am an active member of GCA and yes I have made money in GCA and yes I have win a few auctions on GCA
There is now more then 1 auction being ran a day, and as the membership numbers grow there is plans to add even more auctions.
A lot of people will look at GCA and say they don’t like it based on its MLM roots. Just like any other business there is good and bad MLM companies out there.
Then other people will look at GCA and say they don’t line it because of its penny auction roots, the penny auction business makes big bucks, but the problem with most sites is they try to expand to fast and hold toady auctions, then get behind on sending out wins, then eventually just go out of business. GCA will not fall into that trap.
the above article review states there is no product being marketed and then goes on to say the product is the penny auctions themselves.
No retailable product being marketed.
You sell affiliate membership and earn a commission on it, and that makes GCA a recruitment driven pyramid scheme.
And how many retail customers do you have, customers buying bids and using their own money to pay for the bids?
A penny auction doesn’t make money when people are using the bids, it makes it when people are BUYING the bids.
Using bids is like paying with monopoly money.
E.G. if you’re a Gold member then 200 bids are included in your monthly $99 membership fee.
* If you don’t spend any bids, your supply of bids will remain stable at 200 bids.
* If you spend 50 bids in an auction, your supply of bids will be reduced to 150 bids.
* If you spend all the 200 bids your supply of bids will be reduced to zero.
None of the 3 scenarios above will bring in any money to the company, other than the $99 you paid for the Gold membership. Bids will not be “converted” into money when you use them.
The VALUE of 1 bid when used in a Penny auction is $0.01 = 200 bids will raise the price of an item with $2. The “winner” will have to pay $2 more for the item if a “loser” have spent all his 200 bids bidding on the same item.
You can’t actually get retail customers in GCA. It’s an “affiliate only” auction.
Hello everyone I am the owner of Gas Club of America and I thought I would chime in about this review. First off this penny auction / mlm stuff is ruff!
Normally I get awards and pats on the back for the companies I have created. Lol. But this business is soooo different.
First this review was done a little prematurely. I am still learning all of this penny auction and mlm stuff and making the proper adjustments!
So I am only going to address a couple of things that I have read in this review. I will be happy to address more if necessary.
First it was stated that their is no product. Well I have auctioned off thousands of dollars of gift cards and if you do not purchase my product you can not participate in the auctions. This is no different than any other penny auction.
Second you stated that their is no customers and people are only paid for recruiting. You would be correct if people never joined for free and purchased bids as they need them. Or they joined and were on autoship but continue to buy more bids to participate in the auctions when they ran out.
You see what is actually what is happening is the reverse of what your review states. Most people join and do not go on autoship. They prefer to purchase a bid package when they need more bids.
We have some of the top penny auction bidders in the world bidding on our website. This was a big surprise to me! But it made sense when I thought about it. It is pretty easy to win and I always deliver. (Simple formula, right)
People join and buy bid packs all of the time just as they would with any other penny auction website. Most of them NEVER recruit anyone because they don’t want the competition!
So again if I do not have a product I challenge anyone to win an auction without purchasing my product “The Bids”.
I can bet you this, if you join for free and purchase a bid package you will have the time of your life bidding against the other bidders. It’s actually quite fun!!
Any way I am doing the best I can and you will not find a more honest and upfront mlm owner.
I figure Oz and M_Norway will not believe a word I have written here to which I can only say this. I know a lot of people you guys review are probably not on the up and up, but look at my background. For the past 15 years I have helped kids set positive career goals for a living and I brought positive light to educators while helping them to manage their files.
It is the money that I earn from my other businesses that makes it possible for me to hold Gas Club of America auctions each night.
One last thought, the reason I named the company Gas Club of America is because I liked the name. Nothing more or nothing less.
Troy Mason
Hi Troy, I can appreciate you’re new to MLM and running a company so I’ll be brief.
As of right now, how many retail customers does GCA have who are obviously not affiliates and have spent their own money on bids?
How many affiliates are there in the company?
Gift cards are not a product.
You are not “any other penny auction”, GCA is an MLM company. You have penny auctions only affiliates participating in the compensation plan can bid on. This means there is no retail revenue being generated in your company.
Yes but none of them are retail customers.
Furthermore to date not one MLM penny auction has proven to be successful over the long haul. And we’re talking millions of customer accounts here.
GCA has an alexa of 2 mill and as per the website, 2,000 or so affiliates.
Bids are an exchange of currency that hold no value outside of the company and compensation plan, they are not a product.
I would like to respond to your comments to better understand your point of view.
First, as of right now, how many retail customers does GCA have who are obviously not affiliates and have spent their own money on bids?
So Oz are you saying I have to give people the title of customer who only wish to bid and not earn any money? Shoot it is easier to get customers than it is to get people that sponsor others. Lol
Second, you are not “any other penny auction”, GCA is an MLM company. You have penny auctions only affiliates participating in the compensation plan can bid on. This means there is no retail revenue being generated in your company.
So are you saying when people purchase bids to bid and and do not earn any commissions they are not retail customers, they need the title of customer to be OK?
Third, yes but none of them are retail customers.
So when people only purchase bids do they need the title of customer for me to be OK? Are you saying if I did not pay my bidders any money I would be OK?
Fourth, furthermore to date not one MLM penny auction has proven to be successful over the long haul. And we’re talking millions of customer accounts here.
So are you suggesting that I give up?
Fifth, bids are an exchange of currency that hold no value outside of the company and compensation plan, they are not a product.
I checked out the definition of product and it is different from your definition take a look: A product is something that provides vales to the user that once it is consumed, destroyed, dissipated, wasted, or spent, the end user must obtain more of the product in order to continue receiving the benefit associated with the product.
If your definition is correct and this one is wrong please help me to understand why.
Thanks for taking the time to explain this to me.
Troy Mason
But that’s exactly what a customer is… If you’re selling bids.
Since you act surprised, I’ll have to assume that GCA’s business is NOT selling bids, thus making the penny auction entirely irrelevant.
What I was saying was abundantly clear:
As it stands you have no retail customers, it’s ok to admit it.
Of course running an MLM company, it’s certainly not ok in the business sense. You need retail customers in MLM. No ifs or buts.
If they can earn in the compensation plan, they are not retail customers. Period.
You can bestow whatever titles on them you want. If they can earn commissions they are not retail customers.
You can do whatever you want. Facts are facts.
Bids are an exchange of currency with no value outside of the compensation plan. You could claim value if you had retail customers purchasing bids outside of the compensation plan, but you don’t.
Thus any argument GCA bids hold value is null and void.
Thank you Oz for taking the time to explain this stuff to me! The vast majority of the people that join Gas Club of America join as a Free Basic Member and never refer anyone. They just like bidding on the cards.
I have changed it so that they no longer can earn commissions from our compensation plan.
If you feel I need to make any other adjustments please let me know.
Thanks
Troy
Sounds like you need to hire a MLM lawyer or a comp plan specialist to look over your comp plan, rather than MLM skeptics.
Sorry I did not know you guys were mlm skeptics.
Great to see you added a true retail option to the business model.
Now you can track whether or not product wise your business is viable. If the majority of your revenue is still coming in from affiliates, you’ve got a problem.