April 2016 - Page 3 of 4

Thinking About Mistakes We Make as Bidders: Part 1

Everyone makes mistakes. Let’s see how we can try to prevent some of them.

Are you a new bidder that feels like they just can’t win? Did you get for first few wins easily and now find yourself in a bidding slump where you feel like you just can’t win again? Or are you a more seasoned bidder who has quite a few wins under your belt but feel like you have just hit a plateau with your bidding? Well, let’s examine how we are bidding and maybe we can improve your bidding so you can go on to get that next big win at DealDash.

The cost of bids – Are you paying too much for your bids? If you’re buying your bids at full price then the answer is “Yes! You are paying too much for bids.” It’s a much better practice to wait for a big sale on bids and buy the largest bid pack than to buy bids whenever you run out and pay top dollar for them.

Just imagine yourself in a bidding war over a laptop – you’ve already put hours and hours into the auction, you’ve put a ton of bids in and you’re not about to give up…But then…you’re almost out of bids…And the current bid price that day is .18! If you had bought bids a few days ago they might have only cost .16, .15, or even .12 on special sale days. If the person that you’re bidding against in this fictional auction had bought their bids at .14 versus you buying them at .18 they are going to be able to bid significantly longer than you yet spend the same amount of money.

Long story short, the person who pays the least for bids and buys them in the biggest bid pack is going to be able to bid for longer, outlasting the competition on auctions. Also, if you’re buying tiny bid packs whenever you run out of bids instead of buying big bid packs when they are on sale then you’re just wasting money, and that in itself is a mistake.

Not setting goals for yourself – The other mistake that I would like to talk about today is not setting goals for yourself. You have to crawl before you walk, and walk before you run; so why are you trying to bid on a 50″ TV before you have even won at $10 gift card? Bidding smart means that you have to start small, get to know the bidding terrain around DealDash, study the competition, and get a few small wins before you try for the “big score”. If you are trying to win a $200+ item before you have won a few small ones to see how things really work then that is a mistake. However, it’s easily corrected by setting some goals for yourself and work on achieving them before you move on to more difficult auctions. For example:

Win a $10 gift card to Burger King
Win a $25 gift card to Shell gas
Win a $50 gift card to Target
Win a $100 gift card to Wal*Mart

If you’ll notice, these goals are all to win gift cards. The reason being most people would eventually use all of the above gift cards, so even if you don’t win these auctions while you are practicing your bidding you can BIN (Buy It Now) them for face value, get free shipping, and you are not out any extra money. Once you have attained your bidding goals and feel confident then you can move on to bigger, better, and more difficult to win auctions.

I hope that you found this article helpful in your quest to better wins at DealDash. Please keep an eye on DealDash Blog on Wednesday for Part 2 of this article. Good luck and happy bidding everyone!

Just Keep Swimming With DealDash

Today’s article is all about swimming! Not only is swimming fun it’s also great for your health and an important life skill to have.

Okay, let’s see a show of hands – who knows how to swim? All of you?! Excellent! As I’m sure you already know, swimming is a wonderful life skill to have that is a wonderful gift that you can give to your children. According to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) There are approximately 3,500 fatal unintentional drownings (non-boating related) annually in the United States — that’s about ten deaths per day. An additional 347 people died each year from drowning in boating-related incidents. About one in five people who die from drowning are children age 14 and younger. As you can see from these statistics it’s extremely important that you and your children know how to swim, just in case.

In addition to swimming being a skill that everyone should master, it’s also extremely healthy and good for your body. Even elderly people who have trouble walking long distances can usually swim for their health and enjoyment because in the water you are practically weightless, so therefore there is very little stress on your bones, ligaments, and joints that can lead to pain.

Swimming is a good all-round activity because it:

keeps your heart rate up but takes some of the impact stress off your body.
builds endurance, muscle strength and cardiovascular fitness.
helps maintain a healthy weight, healthy heart and lungs.
tones muscles and builds strength.

If the safety and health benefits aren’t enough reasons for you to go swimming, then how about the fact that swimming is extremely fun an loved by both young and old? Every single kid I know loves going to the pool, and most of the adults enjoy taking them as well. Swimming is a great family activity because everyone can participate, even babies can get in the water as long as they are being helped by Mommy or Daddy.

Wouldn’t it be great if you didn’t have to go somewhere to get all of the great benefits of swimming? Well, thanks so DealDash you can! DealDash occasionally has above ground pools up for auction as well as all manner of pool accessories and toys.

Swim N' Play 15ft x 36in Above Ground Pool with Port Hole Heritage Automatic Swimming Pool Cleaner

If you’re interested in getting a pool or some great pool supplies be sure to check out the Hobbies, Toys, Outdoors, & Games section on DealDash located at think link here. You can set your Bid Buddy and get one of these great products for a fraction of the cost! If you don’t happen to win the auction, though, you can still be a winner by using BIN (Buy it Now). When you BIN you get the product that you wanted, all of your bids back, free shipping, and keep all of the bids that you won as being the highest bidder. Good luck and happy bidding everyone.

Continuing Your Quest for Fitness With DealDash

On Monday we talked about getting a great body in time for the summer using exercise. Today we are talking about the second part of the equation – eating healthy.

We all have a pretty good idea of what it means to be a healthy eater – everyone know that they should be limiting their carbohydrate and fat intake and boosting their veggie intake. However, sometimes making healthy food choices can be difficult because you are accustomed to eating your favorite junk foods, sweets, pastas, and other delicious but so so healthy foods.

Luckily you can take the sting out of cutting back on your favorite foods by substituting something similar that has less fats and calories. The best way to do that is to try and do a lot of cooking at home.

A few years ago I tried the Atkins diet to lose some weight. It was extremely difficult giving up so many different foods, and now that I am a little bit more well informed I know that the Atkins diet is possibly not the healthiest diet around, but when I was following it I learned a lot about food substitutions. For example, you can make an AWESOME tasting cheesecake filling with Neufchâtel cheese (lower fat and calories than regular cream cheese), Splenda instead of sugar (0 calories), a pinch of salt, and vanilla extract – throw that all into your KitchenAid stand mixer that you got from DealDash, whip it up, and there you have a cheesecake filling that is just as delicious and significantly lower in fat and calories than a traditional cheesecake filling recipe.

KitchenAid Artisan® Series Aqua Sky 5 Quart Stand Mixer

Another great way to attempt to eat healthier without feeling like you’re sacrificing too much is making delicious smoothies! You can make smoothies out of just about any yummy tasting fruit like strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, etc, and then add in some healthy vegetables such as spinach or kale and you won’t even be able to notice – and neither will your kids if you’re trying to get the whole family on board with healthier eating. Simply find any smoothie recipe online such as:

Simple Smoothie

1 banana
1 cup frozen strawberries
1 cup frozen blueberries
1 cup frozen cherries
4 ice cubes
1/2 cup orange juice
3/4 cup vanilla yogurt

Just blend it all together in your blender from DealDash, sip, and enjoy!

Hamilton Beach 70950 SaladXpress Counter-top Food Processor Electric w/Cones KitchenAid Artisan Stand Mixer, Apple Green T-Fal Initiatives 18-Piece Nonstick Inside and Out Cookware Set

I hope this article has encouraged you to try some of my strategies for trying to eat a little bit healthier. If you’re interested in getting some items to help you with cooking at home head on over to DealDash. DealDash has food processors, stand mixers, cookware, and plenty of other items that you can use. Check out the Kitchen & Appliances category and I’m sure that you’ll find something that you can use to make you and your family a little bit healthier. Good luck and happy bidding everyone!

1000 Free Bids go to…

The best photo of the week goes to Laura Howe. Congratulations! You just won 1000 free DealDash bids for posting this great photo of the $500 gift card at Home Depot that you won for only a penny during our Free Auction Wins promotion!.

Have you collected your free bids for your posting your winning photos to Facebook? If not, you’re missing out on hundreds of free bids and a chance to win 1000 bids awarded weekly for the best photo. Learn about how you can claim your free bids here.

Looking forward to seeing your photos!

Getting Your Summer Body With Help From DealDash

Everyone wants to look great for the summer, but most of us probably indulged a but too much during the holidays. DealDash is here to help.

There are lots of different ways to get healthy and regain that awesome body for summer, but almost all of the different ways are just a variation on the good old fashioned advice “Eat less and exercise more.” No matter what your fitness level, from couch potato to grandma to stressed out office worker most everyone is capable of taking a short walk every day. You might wonder, though, exactly how far you are walking and what exactly you’re doing to help your body. DealDash has a solution for that.

Most of us are familiar with the old pedometers that count your steps. There is anew breed of computerized pedometers that can not only track your steps but also connect with your computer via a small WIFI dongle to upload all of your information, keep track of it, and help you meet your fitness goals. Some of these trackers can even keep track of your sleeping and help you sleep better, which is also key in having better fitness. If you’re interested in learning more about these new high tech pedometers check them out on DealDash at this link right here.

One Wireless Activity and Sleep Tracker by Fitbit Fitbit Zip Wireless Activity Tracker

If you’re most interested in boosting your fitness and getting a beach body by walking and keeping track of your steps a great item to pair with your pedometer would be a treadmill. A treadmills are great for letting you get a workout accomplished during any time of the night or day and in any kind of weather.

Let’s look at it this way – treadmills are the indoor motorized equivalent of walking or running in place. You simply keep up with a belt that’s moving under your feet. Your treadmill workout will burn about the same number of calories as walking or running outdoors, yet in your lovely air conditioned, TV with cable, and internet equipped house. DealDash has a selection of treadmills that come up for auction. If you would like to check them out please click on this link here. If you are interested in one of these treadmills please click on the “Alert Me” button on the auction’s home page and you will receive an email when the auction for that particular item is about to begin.

Exerpeutic 400XL Electric Treadmill

Please remember, if you are just getting started on your road to fitness and you’re someone who hasn’t had any strenuous physical activity for at least three months, it’s recommended that you begin with walking. By training consistently (initially twice a week and then three times a week), you can gradually increase the intensity of your exercise by increasing your speed and incline.

If you have been sedentary for 6 months or more it would be an extremely good idea to have a check up with your doctor to make sure that you are healthy enough to start a fitness program. Also, they might be able to give you some great tips on fitness taking into account your own personal medical history.

In addition to exercising eating healthily is a huge part of fitness. Please check back on the DealDash blog this Wednesday for some more tips on fitness and getting your best body for summer.

I hope this article has encouraged you to think about your health and how different pieces of exercise equipment could benefit your fitness. If you’re interested in getting some items to get you started head on over to DealDash. DealDash has all of the pieces of equipment that we talked about, as well as water bottles, mats, and plenty of other items that you can use to get healthy. Check out the Hobbies, Toys, Outdoors, and Games category and I’m sure that you’ll find something that you just love. Good luck and happy bidding everyone!