I have been bidding on various auction sites for several years. DealDash.com has become my favorite because of the various benefits offered to the consumer. One…… they offer free shipping on everything they auction or sell in buy it now offers. Two, they offer the best customer service there is. If you don’t reach them by phone, you email and get answers right away. Three, all of their items are brand new, you do not have to guess what you will receive from their site.
When you talk about online auctions, the” fair to the customer” could not be more true than with DealDash. If you do not win an auction, the buy it now option allows you to purchase the item you were bidding on and get all of the bids you used returned to your account. Recycling the same bids over and over may not sound like much of an offer, but if you look at other sites the buy it now option is very costly and hardly worth purchasing.
Bid packs at DealDash can be sold for 60 cents per bid when they are full price, or if you watch for their special promotions they have offered bids for as little as 14 cents! This is a huge savings when compared to other sites that offer bids for 75 or 80 cents each.
NEW BIDDERS
As new bidders join DealDash, we tend to call them “newbies”, it is strongly suggested they read up on the blogs, articles, tips and hints available to help them be successful. When I first began bidding at DealDash I did not do this and regret that I did not know how to be more cautious, patient, and mindful of my bid counts. I did not know how to use the bid buddy and often found others kept bidding on top of my bids and I never won. Frustrated, I thought this was not a good site for me. Then I began reading, watching and learning how more successful bidders won their auctions, and the bid buddy became my friend.
BID BUDDY
The bid buddy allows you to put how many bids you are willing to spend on any given auction. Not only are you in control of your bid budget, but you are also in control of what you are willing to pay for the final cost of the auction. When an auction starts out with 30-40 bidders it is important to see how many of these bidders have their bid buddy set and how many are bidding occasionally. If there are more than four bidders with their bid buddy set, the selling price is probably going to go quite high. It appears the experienced bidders will begin, then stop bidding when the auction is busy with multiple bid buddy bidders, and slappers. Once the fast and furious bidders settle down, you can see a slower, more steady paced auction take place. After the three or four bidders are settled into a pattern the more experienced and cautious bidder may enter the auction to maintain his place in the auction. This practice takes skill, time and patience.
SLAPPER
A “slapper” is someone who will come into the auction with their 200 bids and hit every bid immediately after being placed. If there are 10 bid buddies set, this means for every one bid that is placed (10 in this scenario) the slapper will place 10. It doesn’t take long to see the slapper is going to burn through his 200 bid pack really quickly and not win the auction. This slapper then becomes the disgruntled bidder who complains DealDash is is not fair, it takes all of your bids and you win nothing, it is a ripoff, etc. Rather than see themselves as inexperienced this bidder wants to blame the site for their lack of successes. I was recently in two auctions with the same bidder. The first auction, I had set the bid buddy for a pre-determined amount and left for work. Even though I knew I could not watch the auction and see who my competitors were, I was willing to take the chance to see if I could win this morning auction while I was at work. I saw later in the day I had not won the auction but had come in second to an unknown, new bidder. Because of the buy it now option I was not deterred and bought the card for $25 to get my bids back to try again on another auction.
Later that evening the same card came up for auction. Since I save my gift cards for larger purchases, I was willing to take the chance to try to win this second card. The same new bidder who had won the early morning auction had also begun bidding in this second auction. I put one bid into the auction and decided to wait out the many bidders who were also interested. In the early evening DealDash can be very busy and auctions do get a lot of “ newbies” as well as experienced bidders. I waited until what I thought would be a good time to get into the auction. Since I had watched the entire auction and knew how many active bidders there were, I made my move into the auction armed with a few hundred bids. I was determined to win this auction. As I used all of my bids, 100 here, then another 100, then 100 again, I realized this new bidder had deep pockets and was going to go to any length to win. I stopped bidding and watched the auction until it was over. This “newbie” had put more than 600 bids on a $25 card. Even though bids are often on sale, this auction cost the new bidder an estimated $96 in bids with the cost per bid valued at 16 cents. The sales price when the auction was over was more than $17.00 so this had to be added to the $96 to determine the actual cost of the auction. Any reasonable person would know this was NOT a good win nor a smart win. It was a win in name only. In this case, the second place person was way ahead, he could use the buy it now option to buy his card and get all of his bids back to try again in another auction.
A lot of negative comments made about online auction sites are generated by uneducated bidders who think winning is automatic and won’t cost much. Also, they believe bidding is easy to do and the win can’t be far behind. The bidder mentioned above is likely disenchanted with the auction site since it cost them so many bids to “win”. In reality, a more experienced bidder would have stopped bidding and re-entered the auction when the group slowed down and the chances of winning were greater.
ALBERT EINSTEIN
Albert Einstein was credited with saying “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” I say the above mentioned bidder was practicing this. He will not become a regular bidder on any auction site. Knowing how to win takes a lot of practice, patience, and research. You don’t win auctions by placing the most bids, you win auctions by placing bids at the right place and time. Knowing when the time is right takes a lot of watching and learning. A “newbie” will get lucky and win one auction quickly for just a few bids. Unfortunately, that sets the new bidder onto a path of bid quick and win and frankly it just does not happen that often.
Since I have been bidding for two years on DealDash I feel I am experienced enough to make some valid points on the bidding process. I also feel I can make some suggestions to all bidders about what works and definitely what does NOT work. Slapping, bidding quickly on top of other bidders, and ALWAYS being the $4.99 bidder is not going to win auctions for you.
GREAT WINS
One of the easiest wins I ever achieved was a two-bid win on a ProSpera professional massager. Having been on an auction for several hours, watching, bidding, watching, bidding, then pulling out, I actually put bids on this massager and only two bids later I won! Talk about a surprise. I was really feeling lousy when I pulled out of the other gift card auction and here I was two bids later a winner! Never expecting I would win that auction so quickly, I was shocked when it came up on my screen. “Congratulations!” Gotta love those fireworks and the feeling of being triumphant!
Another auction that was quite a surprise was my HP OfficePro printer. I won this auction while I was at work! Expecting to find the name of the person who won that auction in the winners list, imagine my surprise when I looked at my account and I had won! I put a little over 100 bids on the auction before I left for the day. Being a winner on such a nice printer really made my day! I use it often now and really appreciated I received this shipment in only two days. How wonderful is that? I am very grateful to DealDash for these wins and their fast shipping. They are the fastest shippers on the Internet when it comes to online auction sites.
FREE BIDS AND PROMOTIONS
One other benefit I have not mentioned is the free bid meter at the bottom of your screen. When you first start bidding you see the green bar filling up, but it really does take a while to figure it out. This is a bid meter and the bidder is rewarded for being in first place. You must be logging seconds onto your meter for several minutes as you go through the various experience levels. Once this bid meter is filled you receive free bids. The meter fills for every second you are on top of an auction as the highest bidder. Just like any other clock, it is 60 seconds to one minute. Your time is kept for 9 seconds when your bid buddy is set and the green bar meter fills up. When the meter is full it says Congratulations, get your free bids. You click on the green meter and the bids appear in your account immediately. As your experience level increases, so does the amount of free bids you receive. The meter begins with just a few bids but as you reach the higher levels the free bid number increases. Right now I am over 550 bids per award. That is quite a reward for staying on top of the auction. This is one benefit that you are in control of and it depends on your ability to stay on top of an auction. When you are near the end of your bid meter,however, it can be very frustrating to have new bidders slapping so your timer does not fill up. Here is where the educated new bidder and experienced bidders have a better understanding of the DealDash benefits. I have noticed, too, over the past several promotions that the bid-slapping bidders have calmed down. This is appreciated very much by all bidders who are looking forward to their next free bid reward.
Not only is DealDash offering promotions during the week and on weekends, but the free bid meter is quite unique to DealDash.com. No other auction site comes close to offering free bids on a regular basis nor do they have the types of promotions that DealDash has.
After bidding for over two years on DealDash, I can honestly say the most fun is saying, “You just never know”. Some of your best auction wins may be surprises and auctions you never really expected to win. “Congratulations” accompanied by fireworks is also the greatest feeling of all. Sometimes you don’t see the fireworks on your auction win because you were away from your computer and did not see the win. Unfortunately you can’t get those fireworks back, but try try again is my motto and you will see them. When the fireworks were first introduced, I did not expect them to stay, but I really enjoy seeing them and am happy they have left the added glow to our auction wins!
USER NAMES
When you are selecting a user name it is important to keep it personal yet not revealing. It is fun to see what others have chosen for their screen names and I often wonder what prompted them to make their choice. There are many cat, dog, and pet names on the auctions. There are threatening names that you learn very quickly are really not threatening at all. There are several varieties of grandma, nana, grannies, and grandpas and pops too. Surprisingly, there is a great variety of grandmas on DealDash, however, their bios sound harmless enough. If you watch the bidding practices, though, you will see the bios are NOT a true reflection of who the bidder really is. “Looking for a deal”, is one of my favorites as the bidder continues to use twice the value of the auction in bids to try to win. Not what I would expect from someone who wants a “deal”. Try to select your username that makes you feel good when you see it on the auction page and especially when it is on the “Winners” page.
I am grateful to DealDash.com for allowing me to have the venue of writing my thoughts, comments, and observations on their blog site and on their Facebook page. Often we do not value what our observations are or the thoughts that we have that are really quite similar to what others are feeling or thinking. I know I have struck some chords from time to time when I read comments other bidders attach to my posts. Some bidders have had the same thoughts or observations but were hesitant to put them into words. I enjoy writing and am encouraged to see so many other talented and experienced bidders appreciate my points of view.
FINAL THOUGHTS
DealDash.com is the best online auction site there is on the internet. Period. With all they offer in the way of auctions, their buy it now option, their free shipping, and the bonus of earning free bids, they have stepped far out in front of other penny auction sites. If you are not having a good experience bidding on DealDash, try sitting out a few auctions and/or days and watch how the wins occur. There are plenty of auctions to be won and with the absolutely fair way DealDash has of limiting everyone to six wins under $200 and three wins over $200 per week, there are plenty of opportunities to be a winner too! Good luck to all of you bidders and please let’s not be Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity. We don’t want to use the same strategies over and over and be losers. Let’s try new ways of winning and different strategies to become successful DealDash winners!
By Joan Vith
