strategy Archives - Page 23 of 25

Let’s Talk About the Importance of Monitoring Other Bidders

Have you been paying attention to your fellow bidders? Well, you should be. Monitoring other bidders can be a great strategy.

If you are a newer DealDasher you might just be jumping right into auctions without doing your research. Well, that’s not a very good idea. Not only should you be researching the items that you plan on bidding on, you should also be doing research on your fellow bidders. If you’re new to DealDash you might be amazed at some of the awesome deals that people seem to get by chance. The more seasoned bidders might make it look easy to win, but I can almost guarantee you the winners of most of the bigger ticket auctions not only watched many of the auctions to see what the final auction fee was, but also took note of the bidders who were in for the long haul.

If you are interested in a certain type of auction, say laptops, then you should be watching and observing every laptop auction that you can find, even if it isn’t the particular laptop that you plan on bidding on. If you have been watching the laptop auctions and you see that Bidder A, Bidder B, and Bidder C show up to almost all of the laptop auctions and stay until the final auction fee has surpassed the BIN (Buy It Now) price, then you might want to try and find a different laptop auction that Bidder A, Bidder B, and Bidder C are not involved in. Every bidder has a win limit of 9 items per week, so if you are patient you might be able to find a laptop auction when Bidder A, Bidder B, and Bidder C have already used up all of their win slots.

Alternately, if you wait until DealDash has one of their “Free Auction Weekends” when there is no final auction fee you might be able to snag a win even if Bidder A, Bidder B, and Bidder C have been bidding on an item. Most (but not all!) bidders tend to try and stay within the BIN price, and will stop bidding once they know that they would be losing money by continuing to bid. Once Bidder A, Bidder B, and Bidder C have stopped bidding and have decided to either cut their losses or BIN the item, then it’s your time to go ahead and start bidding. Just make sure that you have already placed at least one bid before the $5 No Jumper limit has been reached.

In case you don’t know what the “No Jumper” limit means, here is an explanation straight from DealDash’s FAQ section:

The big difference between No Jumper™ auctions and normal auctions is that new bidders can’t enter the auction after $5.00. This means you won’t have to compete with users that didn’t bid in the auction from the start, before the price reached $5.00.

I hope this helped some of you newer DealDashers! If you’re interested in reading even more tips and tricks check out the “Tactics & Tips” section on DealDash. Good luck and happy bidding everyone!

Newbies Make Mistakes – Here are the Top Three

Let’s face it, everyone makes mistakes. However, if you’re a newbie to DealDash maybe I can help you avoid the top three mistakes that beginners tend to make.

Mistake 1 – Not having a plan. Okay, so you found a great item on DealDash that you would like to bid on and win. Excellent! There are many different bidding strategies that you might like to try, but the absolute worst bidding strategy that I can think of is to put every single bid you have into your BidBuddy and walk away. Of course, some people do win and get great deals this way, it’s also possible to spend a lot of money (in bids) on a particular item and still not win. Or, even worse, “win” the item but overbid by more than the BIN (Buy It Now) price. The best thing to do is to calculate how many bids will equal the BIN price, and put that amount into your BidBuddy. Of course, this only works on a day when they are having free auctions, if it’s a regular day and you have to pay the final auction price, then you must also calculate that in with the price of bids. It’s a little difficult to calculate what the final auction price will be, so in my experience it’s smart to check back on the auction occasionally to make sure that if you win the auction you don’t end up paying more in bids + final fee than it would be to just BIN the item when you reach your budget limit.

Mistake 2 – Going for a big ticket item before you’re ready. Most people who are reading this blog have probably seen the DealDash commercial where the ladies show you what awesome items that they won for amazing prices. And yes, those ladies really and truly did win those items, however they are seasoned bidders who have a lot of experience bidding on DealDash and had hundreds of smaller wins under their wings before they tried for “the big score.” Winning anything like a laptop or a big TV takes practice and smart-bidding skills, which need to be honed over time. Start honing your skills by bidding on smaller auctions and especially bidding on items you would buy anyway such as gift cards for Target and Wal-Mart, household items that you use on a regular basis such as laundry detergent, or presents for your kids to hide away for a birthday or holiday. Remember, if you do your math calculations and you have reached the BIN price, use the “Buy it Now” option and pay retail price for the item. DealDash will when refund all of the bids you used on that item, and you can try again another day.

Mistake 3 – Being rude or disrespectful to other bidders. This is a bit of a tricky subject, but I feel that a lot of newbies seem to make the mistake of “jumping” on other people’s bids. Jumping on someone’s bid basically means to bid immediately after someone without letting the first persons “time clock” run down to a couple of seconds. You see, not all newbies know this, but DealDash does a wonderful thing for their bidders – for every second that someone is the highest bidder in an auction they earn “free time” that is shown at a bar on the bottom of the screen. When the bar is filled up then DealDash will give you however many free bids that you are eligible to “claim.” When a bidder “jumps the clock” and bids right away after someone else does it usually makes the other person very annoyed, and depending on the person they may overbid on the auction just to win to spite you. Of course, mistakes happen and sometimes you might accidentally jump someone elses’ bid, but in my experience if you only do it once most people know that it was just an accident. It’s when you do it multiple times in the same auction that makes people upset. Of course, you are free to bid however you like, but in life as in DealDash I personally don’t try to annoy people on purpose, especially if it might cause me to lose money!

highestBidder

So my dear DealDashers, those are just a few mistakes that beginners tend to make. Pay attention to what you’re doing, check out the auctions and see what you would really like to bid on, try some easier auctions to build up knowledge, and you’ll be winning awesome stuff before you know it! See you on DealDash everyone! Good luck and happy bidding.

My Tips for Using the BidBuddy

“What’s a BidBuddy?” you might ask on your first day of discovering DealDash – The secret is in the name. It’s your new best friend.

This (hopefully) helpful article is for those of you new to DealDash who aren’t yet familiar with the BidBuddy. It might be mystifying to you to see people that seem to be bidding on DealDash around the clock. “When do they sleep?” you might ask. You also might be curious why certain groups of bidders on auctions seem to place their bids in the same order every time, with 9 seconds in between. The answer to both of those questions is by using the BidBuddy!

The BidBuddy is an automatic and free to use bidding tool used on DealDash, and is by far the most important secret of how to win auctions. Here’s a few different ways that the BidBuddy can help users win auctions:

You are in charge of telling the BidBuddy to use a pre-set number of bids in each auction. Once you have inputted the number of bids you would like to use, the BidBuddy will automatically place your bids before the bid clock counts down to 0. When you set your BidBuddy you’re guaranteed to get your bids in no matter how many people are in the auction, and no matter what their bidding style. You’re free to leave the computer and do other things while the BidBuddy will automatically start bidding for you, you don’t even have to have your computer on. It’s extremely handy for people who don’t know if they will have access to a computer or smartphone when the auction begins. The BidBuddy will bid up to the number of bids that you booked, and you can adjust that number up or down anytime that you like.

If more than one bidder has a BidBuddy set on a certain auction then the BidBuddies will take turns placing the bids. Most bidders know this and they look for these patterns, and if they see more than a few BidBuddies taking turns they’ll know that they won’t win until the BidBuddies have run out of bids. You might want to try putting in just 2 or 3 bids into your BidBuddy and watching the auction, when you see a pattern you can tell whether other bidders have their BidBuddies set up. Almost all auctions on DealDash are won using the BidBuddy, so try using these tips to help you win more auctions, the BidBuddy will never let you down, even if the power in your house goes out the BidBuddy will still faithfully bid as many bids as you have “fed” it before the auction.

Top 4 Secrets of a Successful Bidder

If you’re just getting started with DealDash you might be interested in learning my Top 4 Secrets of a Successful bidder. Read on, but keep it a secret, shhhhhhhh.

Secret 1 – Watch, don’t bid…YET. If you’re new to DealDash you might be amazed at some of the awesome deals that people seem to get purely by chance. The bidders might make it look easy to win a Nooka Zem Zoo Night Steel Watch valued at $325 for just $2.23, but I can almost guarantee you the winner of this auction watched and studied many Nooka watch auctions before deciding to bid on this particular one. For example, if you were to look up the upcoming Nooka watch auctions you might want to pick a few offered at different times of the day and see what time the watches tend to end. Morning? Evening? Late night? Take your time, study, watch, then bid!

dealdash bidbuddy

Secret 2 – Use your BidBuddy. If you have just signed up for DealDash and haven’t used the BidBuddy yet I strongly encourage you to give it a try. It’s really simple to use, each auction page has the bid button that says “Bid Now” and the BidBuddy, which is below the bid now button. Click your mouse on the white area and enter the number of bids you want to use and click “Book a BidBuddy” your BidBuddy will now be set and you can even turn off your computer and the BidBuddy will take care of everything. The BidBuddy will bid up to the number of bids that you booked, and you can adjust that number up or down anytime that you like. 95% of the auctions that I have personally won have been using the BidBuddy.

Image result for person looking at multiple windows on computer

Secret 3 – Don’t spread yourself too thin. I personally suggest not bidding on more than 2 or 3 auctions at a time, especially if you are actively bidding on them and not using your BidBuddy. Auctions can change so quickly, going from 5 active bidders or more down to the final 2 in a matter of moments. If you miss your window to jump into the auction you might not get your chance because someone else might be seeing the “Congratulations!” on their screen while you are still scrolling through the other auctions that you are interested in.

Secret 4 – Get free bids by posting photos on social media. After you have won and received your auctions you can get free bids by just taking a photo of yourself holding the item and posting the picture on social media with a quick message such as “I got this -name of item won here- @DealDash for -number of bids used- bids & $ -final auction price-. I love it! #DealDash also gives #FREE shipping!” Here’s a link to get the full details on how to get even more free bids, it’s easy to do and is a great deal.

Petco -Where the Pets Go

What do most DealDashers have in common? Pets!!

At least, reading people’s little bios and looking at so many different pet avatars it would seem like most DealDashers have at least one pet, if not more. I’ve seen bios referring to cats, dogs, birds, and even some more exotic pets like lizards and goats! I don’t personally have any exotic pets like that, but I do have two tanks of saltwater fish. And I don’t know about you, but the very first place I think of when it comes to getting pet supplies is Petco!

Petco has just about every item that I have ever needed or wanted, and even more items that I didn’t even know existed until I saw them in the store. They have pet supplies for just about every pet including your average cat, dog, and fish but also ferrets, rats, turtles, hermit crabs, and more!

When you think of a national chain pet store you might think that their offices are only thinking about the “bottom line”, but Petco is actually has a “Think Adoption First” philosophy, which means they always recommend that anyone who is looking to add a new pet to their family to first consider adopting a companion animal in need of a new home, rather than purchasing one – even from a Petco store. Petco and the Petco Foundation work with more than 8,000 local animal-welfare partners to find homes for more than 250,000 animals every year through in-store adoption events. Petco has never sold dogs or cats. They do however have ferrets, hamsters, bunnies, and more available to purchase.

In case this is the first time that you have heard about the Petco Foundation, They are an independent nonprofit organization, and they have raised more than $125 million since it was created in 1999 to help promote and improve the welfare of companion animals. Petco and the Petco Foundation work with and support thousands of local animal welfare groups across the country to host in-store adoption events and help find homes for adoptable dogs, cats, and other companion animals. That’s what I call “Thinking Adoption First.”

My favorite thing about Petco versus the other major pet retailer in my area is that Petco actually has saltwater fish and corals. I can get the exact same type of Clownfish (Ocellaris) for $10 at Petco that I could also get at my local fish store, except they charge almost double the price! I will go with the $10 Petco Clownfish every time. Also, Petco has consistently lower prices on dry goods such as salt mix, fish food, and fish medications. I foolishly bought a coral medication at my local fish store over the weekend for $24.99, and when I compared the price at Petco today I realized that I could have gotten it $5 cheaper. Lesson learned – check the Petco price before buying anything at a local shop.

Luckily for us pet-loving DealDashers DealDash now has Petco gift cards available! They come in $10 and $25 denominations, and you can spend the gift cards in store as well as online. They are really convenient, and since I know that I am always going to have an occasion to spend $10 or $25 in Petco I always bid them up to the limit. Give it a try, you never know when you might get lucky!