February 2013 - DealDash Blog

Tips on Winning DealDash Auctions – “BIN” It to Win It!

Online auctions are a great way to save money. Everyday people save up to 90 percent buying products in DealDash’s easy to win Internet auctions. The savings and the selection of products is why DealDash has become the Internet’s #1 source for legitimate auction bargains. The only catch is that different bidders will be able to take advantage of this opportunity in different ways. Before starting to bid, it’s important to know how to to go about maximizing the savings potential available on DealDash. One way that many bidders overlook is by learning how to use DealDash’s Buy it now option (BIN) to help them save big bucks!

DealDash’s “Buy it now” option is a unique feature that lets bidders purchase the item at a regular price if they don’t win (or if they think they won’t win) an auction. This feature is always available on all of the items featured in the auctions, and the best part of it is that bidders get all of the bids back that they used in the auction. Didn’t win that $20 Amazon gift card? No problem. Pay the twenty bucks and get your bids back to try again in a different auction. It’s pretty simple, it’s just like paying for a regular auction win, and clever bidders recognize that using the Buy it now option can help win auctions. Not kidding: paying the regular price can help you save money on DealDash. Here’s a few suggestions from some big DealDash winners on how planning to BIN can help them win the auctions!

Look at the BIN price before deciding on whether or not you want to participate in the auction. Everything looks good when you enter an auction expecting to pay a couple of dollars. Looking at the BIN price and asking yourself if that’s something you’d consider paying for the item can help you prioritize your auctions and decide on where to concentrate your bids. Focusing your bids in a few auctions helps you budget and get more for your bids, and it also makes sure that you focus 100% on getting that item you really want!
Budgeting is a really important component to consider when creating your bidding strategy. And even though you might not have control over how much bidding will happen in each auction, you do have control over how much you’re willing to spend on a particular product. Take this recent auction for a $10 Walmart gift card as an example:

The BIN price for this gift card is 10 dollars. Assigning a dollar value to the bids you use in the auction can be difficult, as this depends on when you purchased your bids (see the “DealDash Promotions Make Auctions Easier to Win!” blog entry for more information on how to save money when buying bids). However, you know that buying this gift card will never cost you more than 10 dollars. So when bidding in the auction, it’s important to keep in mind that winning the auction isn’t really winning if you wind up using too many bids. The BIN option gives you a great safety net if you find yourself using too many bids to win an item that you can buy for a reasonable price. Not only do you get the product you have your heart set on, but you get the bids back too!

If you prepare yourself for purchasing the item at the BIN price, conserving your bids doesn’t become so important. After all, if you’re going to buy the item anyway, you don’t have to worry about wasting bids. You can use as many bids as you want and get the product at that unbelievably low price (like this LG 32-Inch TV), or you can simply buy the item and get all of those bids back to use however else you’d like. Once again, you get the product you want and get it at the price you want to pay!
Different bidders will have different strategies they use to win the auctions, and some of them like to use what might be called an “aggressive” approach. This is in no way a better approach to saving money than what some other bidders like to use, but it can be useful to take a page from their playbook and use your bidding to let other users know that you’re going to get that item no matter what. Once again, the BIN option provides these bidders with a great safety net. If you use a ton of bids trying to let other users know you’re 100% dedicated to winning the product, and that backfires, you buy the product and get those bids back. Try this out on some lower priced auctions to see if it works, and you might be surprised to see how much you save!

These are a few of the tactics that real DealDash bidders use to help them save money in the auctions. The smart bidders know that winning on DealDash is about learning how to stretch budgets as far as they can and outsmart their opponents, and the BIN feature is just one of the resources available on DealDash’s website. Check out our Winning Tips, Tactics, and Strategies page for more advice on winning on DealDash, and don’t hesitate to leave comments with your own hints!

POLL: Vote for what kind of products you’d like to see more on DealDash!

[polldaddy poll=6924816]

And don’t forget to check out big DealDash winners on DealDash’s official Facebook and Pinterest pages! You can post pictures of your wins there to get free DealDash bids!

With a 100% satisfaction guarantee on your initial bid pack purchase, trying DealDash is a risk free proposition. Over 500 customers won their first auction with us last week, so get in on these great bargains by signing up for your free account today!

DealDash Promotions Make Auctions Easier to Win!

An important, often overlooked tactic for saving money on DealDash is to take full advantage of the different pricing options available through the promotions. You can almost always get bids at a huge discount by buying while they’re on sale: more than 80% if you buy at the right time! These promotions are almost always running, so it’s important and really not too difficult to capitalize on these great savings and leverage the benefits into more (and bigger) auctions wins. Not only can you save money, but often the rules governing the auctions will change during promotions, which gives bidders the opportunity to apply their strategies in new ways.

Cheap Bids are only part of the Savings

One of DealDash’s recent promotions, for example, reduced the cost of bids to 12¢ each. Buying bids at 12¢ each is equal to getting 5 bids for the price of 1. The benefits of this are pretty clear, but how exactly to leverage this benefit into your bidding strategy might not be so apparent. Some users might take the discount but not really change their approach to bidding, but leveraging the discount into a bidding strategy can help you win more auctions. The freedom to place 300 bids in an auction as opposed to 60 is a real benefit these discounts offer, as these extra bids can help you utilize more bidding techniques (such as relying more on the BidBuddy). Not everyone will buy bids during a certain promotion, so you shouldn’t assume that the other bidders are able to bid as freely as you. Remember, you’re bidding against other people, and a good bidder will focus on how to beat bidders and not the clock!

Special Auction Rules are an Opportunity to Win

You also need to keep in mind how special rules implemented during promotions can change the way bidders can or cannot bid. For example, during DealDash’s recent President’s Day promotion, auction winners were given 50% off the final price of their auction wins. A promotion like this not only reduces your costs by offering cheaper bids, but it also lets auction winners pay less for their products. To make the most of these savings, it makes more sense to take the opportunity to try and win bigger items. Auctions featuring big-ticket items (things that cost over $200) tend to be more competitive, so using those cheaper bids to take advantage of the bigger discount gives you a unique opportunity to really go for the big wins!

Budget Before Bidding

But the most important way to save money, and again this is something overlooked by many bidders, is to set a budget and stick with it. You can find lots of information about how much certain products go for by browsing through DealDash’s website, and you can always search through upcoming auctions or search for specific products to help you plan ahead. This doesn’t mean that you can’t be spontaneous about the auctions you bid in, but it does mean that you should plan whether or not you want to leave some extra bids to do this. Many successful bidders emphasize the importance of strategy and planning ahead, so don’t hesitate to spend some time looking through DealDash’s website. Winning bigger and better bargains is always worth spending the time, and don’t hesitate to leave your own tips in the comments!

WANT TO WIN SOME FREE BIDS? Check out DealDash’s Pinterest page for this great new promotion. This man won all of these great products (with a total retail value of 213 dollars) bidding on DealDash! Guess how much he paid to win, and the closest guess wins some free bids! Leave your guess on the Pinterest pin before February 27^th for your chance to win!

Check out DealDash's Pinterest page for contest details! — **Check out DealDash’s Pinterest page for contest details!**

With a 100% satisfaction guarantee on your initial bid pack purchase, trying DealDash is a risk free proposition. DealDash customers regularly save between 60-90 percent on the products featured in DealDash auctions, so get in on these great bargains and sign up now!

Win More Auctions on DealDash by Bookmarking

Digital marketplaces are popping up all over the Internet, and offer online shoppers new, innovative ways to purchase the products they love. Some of them specialize in certain niche markets, while others entice buyers by providing consumers with a more comprehensive source for goods. Some will take a more unique approach and combine certain types of products with other benefits, such as better services or package deals.

DealDash gives consumers the opportunity to determine how much they pay for their products by providing a competitive shopping marketplace. Customers purchase bids that they can use to shop by bidding in online auctions. With the freedom to set their own prices, DealDashers can save bundles on new, brand name consumer goods. Auction winners purchase the items featured in the auctions at a fraction of their retail price, typically between 60 and 90 percent! But it’s important to keep in mind that the savings potential, while considerable, is also determined by your skill as a bidder. Bidders decide how much they’re going to pay, and use the tools provided by DealDash to make it happen!

Winning on DealDash is easy, and everyday rookie bidders win their first auctions. But if you want to win big, and win often, it takes time to learn to do it right. The best bidders are the ones who learn how to use the different features of the website to their fullest. One great example of a feature that many bidders use but few use effectively is the bookmarking tool.

Bookmarks let you “mark” specific auctions so that you can find them quickly and easily at a later date. This might not sound like such a useful tool when it comes to winning auctions, but experienced bidders know how to leverage the bookmarking tool to help them stay focused and keep tabs on how the auctions are progressing. Here’s a quick video to show you how easy bookmarking is, and how useful it is when you use the “live list” in your dashboard.

By bookmarking the auctions beforehand and then keeping an eye on them in your “live list”, you can navigate through your auctions a lot faster, monitor who’s bidding, make adjustments to your BidBuddy, and just generally stay organized. You can always add more bookmarks, so if you have a few seconds you can search for more upcoming auctions and add them to your live list, or take away auctions you change your mind about. Approaching DealDash with this mentality also makes you think about what auctions are your top priority, which can help you budget your bids and guide your research. According to one experienced bidder, the bookmarking feature literally transformed the way she bids, and since adopting this approach she’s won 42 auctions on DealDash!

There are tons of other features on DealDash that makes winning in the auctions easy! Have a look through the blog, as well as the Tactics & Tips page on the DealDash website for more information. Feel free to leave any questions or comments you have here, or if you’d prefer get in touch with our friendly customer support team!

Customers love the great bargains they get in DealDash auctions! You can see photos and read testimonials from auction winners on DealDash’s new Pinterest page, and of course the official DealDash Facebook page. Every week customers post pictures of the great products they get from DealDash, and the best photo of the week wins a 500 dollar gift card! Max won last week’s contest with this picture of his fantastic win!

**Max won this 16GB iPad with a Retina Display for just $1! Way to go Max!**

With a 100% satisfaction guarantee on your initial bid pack purchase, trying DealDash is a risk free proposition. DealDash customers regularly save between 60-90 percent on the products featured in DealDash auctions, so get in on these great bargains and sign up now!

Win More Auctions with A Little Help from your BidBuddy

Winning auctions isn’t something you learn to do overnight, so using them to save money can seem tricky at first. You might see and read about people winning more great bargains than they know what to do with, but what you might not hear so much about is that winning auctions is not about luck: it’s all skill! Many of the really smart bidders weren’t born winners, they learned through hard work, patience, and by thinking about what they’re doing. DealDash works hard to provide bidders with a fair and honest auction experience, and is currently the longest running auction site of its kind in the United States! But winning auctions is up to the individual bidders, and every bidder can take his or her own approach to winning the great bargains available with DealDash!

One feature on DealDash’s website that a lot of new bidders aren’t familiar with is the BidBuddy. The BidBuddy is an automated bidding tool, and a skilled bidder can use it to save time and money, and also as a great resource to help them WIN AUCTIONS! Here are three ways to incorporate the BidBuddy into your own winning strategy!

1. The BidBuddy is Key to Winning with Last Second Bidding

One strategy a lot of bidders use is to try to place their bids just before an auction closes. Every bidder is pressed to bid before the clock hits zero. And of course, nobody wants to place their bids if someone else intends to do the same thing, as this just means they’re placing a bid instead of your opponents. The BidBuddy is a great way to avoid this dilemma: the BidBuddy is programmed to automatically place your bids just before the auction closes. Try setting up your BidBuddy even if you’re planning on bidding manually for the entire auction. This tactic will make sure that your bids are only placed when absolutely necessary, thereby letting you CONSERVE your bids for when you need them to win!

2. The BidBuddy Makes a Great Safety Net

DealDash auctions don’t end according to a set schedule: they stop when the bidding stops (just like live auctions). While this makes them more exciting and offers bidders better bargains, it does demand more attention and focus. The deals are better, but it take more skill and determination to win! The BidBuddy is a great tool to set up as a safety net, especially for bidders who like to pay attention to more than one auction at a time. When you set up your BidBuddy, it is programmed to place your bids just before an auction closes, making it a great way to make sure a momentary distraction doesn’t cause you to lose a long, hard-fought auction. Instead of panicking and switching between multiple auction windows in an effort to place your bids before the auction closes, why not set up your BidBuddy to participate for you? It won’t waste your bids by placing them earlier than necessary, and it leaves you free to check out additional auctions, do research on the products, or just popping in on Facebook to see what’s happening. You can even turn off your computer and take a walk or watch some television: the BidBuddy will keep on ticking to make sure you stay in the fight!

3. People Know Not to Bid Against the BidBuddy

A lot of experienced users know how to spot BidBuddies in the auctions. When several bidders have BidBuddies in the same auction, they bid in a regular sequence, so they’re not so difficult to see. But even though bidders can tell when you’re using a BidBuddy, they can’t tell how many bids you’ve set it up with, or if you’re there watching. This makes using the BidBuddy a bit of a game changer. Bidding against a BidBuddy loaded up with thousands of bids will just mean everyone bidding against it is wasting their bids, but if a BidBuddy only has 10 bids or so then sticking with the auction can result in an easy, potentially very big win! Keep this in mind when you’re loading up a BidBuddy in the auction. When you think an auction is nearing its close try adding a few dozen bids to see if you can get some other bidders to give up the fight. You should also remember that other bidders will try the same thing against you, so don’t be too hasty pulling out of a fight with another BidBuddy! Take a moment to consider the item price, whether or not you’re familiar with your opponents and their bidding, and how much further you’re willing to go to win!

You can check out this video tutorial if you’re having trouble getting started with your BidBuddy. You can also check out the Winning Tips, Tactics, and Strategies page for more advice on how to win on DealDash!

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/45301662 w=538&h=343]

Customers love the great bargains they get in DealDash auctions! You can see photos and read testimonials from auction winners on DealDash’s new Pinterest page, and of course the official DealDash Facebook page. Every week customers post pictures of the great products they get from DealDash, and the best photo of the week wins a 500 dollar gift card! Last week Martha used the great bargain she got on her Lenovo 15.6 in. Laptop Computer to help her win BIG again on Facebook!

Four Common Mistakes New Bidders Make – and How to Fix Them

Written by Another Satisfied DealDash Bidder

Bidding at Deal Dash can be one of the best ways to find great products at unbelievable discounts of up to 85% or even 95% off retail. Nearly everyone bidding at DealDash.com visits the site after seeing an ad showing someone buying a monster flat-screen TV for under a hundred dollars or an iPad for less than twenty. Those deals do exist. For real. But with an increasing number of people entering the world of online bidding, winning big takes practice and smart-bidding skills.

If you’re new to the world of online bidding (new meaning you’ve been bidding for less than five months), there’s a good chance you find yourself repeatedly out of bids with nothing to show for your investment. If that describes you, the bad news is that you suck at online auctions. The good news is you can change that, starting today.

This is the first part in a series about the most common reasons new bidders fail at online auctions and how you can turn your luck around by bidding smarter.

YOU LACK FOCUS

You visit the home page. Buy a bid package – a small one. You browse the auctions for a few minutes. No, you didn’t take time to read the tips. But suddenly bidding on that hot surround-sound system, laptop, oh, oh and that 51” Plasma Television looks like a great idea. Many novice bidders jump into three, four or more auctions at once. They load up their bid-buddies and try to win a laptop, television, stereo, and DSLR — at the same time. After all, how hard can it be? Playing multiple auctions can be exciting but if you don’t have a plan, a budget – and a focused desire for each auction, it’s easy to drain your account faster than you can dig out your credit card and buy more bids — at full price.

THE SOLUTION:

Check upcoming auctions and make a list of the things you really want or need. Then spend at least one hour studying the list of wins for the times and dates those items sold for the least amount. Then wait for those days and times and only bid on the items you can afford one at a time and “afford” means items you’re willing to pay full price for if you lose the auction. Don’t get distracted by every shiny new camera or tablet auction that opens, hoping for that easy win. Yes they happen. But your chances of winning an auction and getting a decent discount are bigger than paying one cent for a television. There are other bidders out there waiting for you to get exhausted and bid-depleted. Throwing a few individual bids at a laptop that has four or twenty people with loaded bid-buddies waiting for you to become depleted means throwing your bids away. Choose what you want to bid on. If it’s a “No Jump Auction,” place one bid before the auction price reaches $3.00 or it’s too late to get in on it. Then bid on that and only that item after watching how that auction progresses and how many people got in before the “No-Jump” Timer expired. (“No Jump” auctions mean after the price of the item being auctioned reaches either $3.00 or $5.00, only those who have made at least one bid can participate in that auction.) Whether you’re an athlete, stock investor or bidder, a tip to being a winner is concentrated focus instead of depleting and scattering your energy.

YOU PAY TOO MUCH FOR YOUR BIDS

Paying full retail for your bids is one of the surest ways to lose money. It’s also totally nonessential. Deal Dash often has sales on bids for as low as 13 cents each. If you purchase too small of a bid package and have to scramble and purchase bids at the last minute to stay in the game or if you pay full price for all your bids and someone else bought their bids on sale, they can bid three times as long as you for the same cost. You can complain all you want about how they’re paying too much, but the reality is: they’re not paying one cent more than you are. If you’re not careful, you can win the auction but lose money on the item. News: that’s not a win.

THE SOLUTION:

Buy a few bids to get yourself started, then, either win more bids in the auctions or watch for sales and specials and buy the bulk of your bids then. If you have the budget, buy more than a month’s worth of bids during the sales so that you won’t run out mid-month or worse yet, mid-auction and find yourself forced into paying full-price.

YOU LACK EXPERIENCE

Yes, you can win a home theater system for pennies on the dollar, but probably not in your first auction. Like anything else, being a successful bidder takes time and experience. That’s why some auctions are smarter choices for new bidders. Before trying for that $2,000 Apple laptop, go for that hundred dollar gas card. It’s not as exciting as the Big Win but saving money is smart no matter where you save it. If you lose a gas card auction, you’ll still walk away a winner by exercising the “Buy It Now” (BIN) option. DealDash will refund every bid you used and you spent your money there buying something you would have bought anyway – gas for your car. One hundred dollars of gas is one hundred dollars you would have spent on gas anyway. Develop your biding skills on those kinds of auctions and before long there’s a good chance you’ll be buying your gas for fifty cents on the dollar and that’s smart.

THE SOLUTION:

Start by bidding on smaller auctions and bidding on items you would buy anyway. Gift cards for Target and Wal-Mart, gas stations and your favorite restaurant chains are all smart auctions where you can learn the ins and outs of online bidding. Remember, if you reach your budget limit, use the “Buy it Now” option and pay retail price for the gift card. If you bid on things you always buy anyway, you haven’t lost. You get your bids refunded and you’re learning to bid smarter. Try again on another smart item. When you master the smaller auctions, then – and only then – it’s time to Bid Big.

YOU DON’T HAVE A BUDGET

Online bidding is fun. It can also eat a hole in your wallet if you don’t pay attention to how much money you’re spending. While it is possible to save big on great purchases, it’s also possible to spend a lot of money chasing a big win that turns into a loss. To keep from making a big financial mistake by spending money you can’t afford to lose, plan in advance how much you’re willing to invest in an auction. Then, keep your calculator near. Track the price of your bids plus the auction price of the item (unless it’s a “Free auction” – no price for the item, just the bid price) and then pull the plug by exercising the ‘Buy it Now’ option when you reach your budget limit. It’s smarter to pay full price for something you would pay full price for anyway that month and get your bids back than it is to throw good money after bad spending thousands of bids on an item that you have no intention of buying if you’re outbid.

THE SOLUTION:

Make a budget and stick to it. Decide in advance how much you’re willing to invest in your hobby – recreational shopping — each month and how much you’re willing to risk on any particular auction. Make your budget stretch by purchasing bids when they’re on sale and using ‘Buy it Now’ on items you would normally pay full price for anyway. It may sting your ego when you let IAlwaysWin take the auction, but it will boost your budget and make you the person who always wins.

Online auctions are an exciting way to shop for everyday purchases and for that occasional big-ticket item that you might just be lucky enough to win at a deep discount. But like any hobby, it takes time and experience to develop bidding skills and strategies. Set a budget, start small, and learn something from every auction experience. If you’re patient and bid smart, chances are good that soon you’ll pull in the big prizes and surprise friends and family with amazing gifts you purchased for pennies on the dollar and a few hours’ time spent in front of your computer.