During an auction, when is the best time to add bids?
You might have noticed that DealDash has three color codes:
- Green when you have plenty of bids left in the auction
- Yellow when your bids are getting low, which is like a warning or caution that you need to think about adding more bids before you run out
- Red when you are about to run out of bids and you might not have time to add more, especially if you must first buy more bids
Let’s say the auction is down to the last three players and you are one of them. Your bids might be getting low. It looks like you have a good chance to win, so you decide to add more bids. The question is: how will you choose to do it? Do you want the other two players to know you are adding more bids or not?
If you want to secretly add bids without letting the other players know, you must wait until your screen name comes up before adding them. If you add your bids when it’s your turn, the other players will never know. This is how I usually choose to add more bids—secretly. Why? I believe the other two players might get the idea that I am getting desperately low on bids if they know I just added more.
If you do want the other players to know when you add more bids, you must add them when it is not your turn. Whenever a bidder’s screen name shows up out-of-sequence, it means one of three things:
- One or more new players joined the auction
- One or more active bidders dropped out of the auction or
- An active bidder just added more bids
Some players choose to add more bids out-of-sequence –making it obvious to the other competitors. Why would anyone choose to do that? Perhaps it’s an intimidating way of letting other players know that you have no intention of quitting and plan to remain in the auction to the bitter end. However, the remaining players have no idea how many bids were just added—only a few or several hundred.
When and how you choose to add more bids during an auction is up to each player. However, you might think about what message you are sending to the remaining players.
Submitted by Barbara L. Sellers