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Be Kind to the Newbies on DealDash

Everyone was a newbie at DealDash at one time, so let’s try and make our new arrivals feel welcome.

Once upon a time I was a newbie on DealDash, and while I felt intimidated by all of the other thousands of DealDash members that bid on auctions each day I was lucky enough to never run into anyone that made me feel unwelcome.

Quite the contrary, I actually was “given” a few auctions when I was new. I didn’t realize it at the time, but looking back I now realize that older, wiser bidders conceded a few auctions to me when I was fresh on DealDash and they could see that my sign up date was within the past few days. I wish I had caught their DealDash user names so I could thank them publically, but that was years ago and I have a terrible memory. So instead I try to “pay it forward” when I get a chance to help out a newbie that has only been bidding on DealDash for a few days. I would hate to be the person that scared off a DealDash newbie.

If you are a newbie and are reading this blog in hope of learning some DealDash tips, let me give you an important tip to take away with you – give respect to other bidders and they should give respect back to you. If you are a total newbie to DealDash one of the biggest ways to show respect to your fellow bidders is to not “jump” on other people’s bids. Jumping on someone’s bid basically means to bid immediately after someone without letting the first person’s “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. Two wrongs don’t make a right, but when a bidder feels disrespected on DealDash a lot of them tend to retaliate by overbidding. It’s also possible that they might remember your user name and re-pay the bid jumping in a future auction. Just to be on the safe side I would wait until there are only 2-3 seconds left on the time clock before you throw in your bid if you are bidding manually instead of using the BidBuddy.

highestBidder

Let’s all try to be kind to each other and show respect to the other bidders. Now go check out the auctions and pick something awesome to bid on! See you on DealDash everyone! Good luck and happy bidding.

Switching Up Your DealDash Strategy

Do you always bid the same way on DealDash? What’s been working for you in the past might not work in the future. Switch it up!

Are you only sporadic bidder who doesn’t visit DealDash very often? If you are the sort of bidder to pick a few random auctions and put in 10 bids here, 10 bids there, jumping around from auction to auction without any sort of cohesive plan then perhaps you should change up your strategy. Take your time, do a little research. Don’t be impulsive, be mindful of where your bids are going. It can only help you if you try a different strategy instead of throwing a few bids here and there. It’s very difficult to win that way.

On the other extreme, do you go decide what you want to bid on days or weeks before you even sign into DealDash? Do you make a plan beforehand then go through all of the different options on DealDash and patiently wait for your optimal auction to begin? Maybe you should switch up your strategy a bit and bid on something that you have admired in the past but haven’t yet done the research that you would normally perform before bidding. If other bidders know you as more cautious and less impulsive it might throw them off of their game and leave you victorious. Give it a chance!

Are you determined to win at all costs, no matter if you go over the BIN (Buy It Now) price? If you are the sort of bidder who jumps headfirst into every auction no matter who is bidding or how many people are in the auction then maybe it’s time to switch up your style. Typically unless you are a well-known power bidder that people are scared of, then this strategy wastes money and bids in my opinion. It’s much smarter to put bids into your BidBuddy and then check back on the auction occasionally, so how about giving a more gentle and less headstrong approach a chance next time.

What strategy do you use? Try a new strategy next time and see what happens. Remember, if your new strategy doesn’t work out for you you can always just BIN the auction for retail price and get all of your bids back to try a different strategy next time. Now go check out the auctions and see what you would really like to bid on. See you on DealDash everyone! Good luck and happy bidding.

DealDash Dashboard – Explained

Your DealDash dashboard is a very important part of your DealDash experience. If you’re just getting started it may look a little complicated.

If you go to the main page of your dashboard you will see the most important things right away – the items that you have won that are awaiting payment, your scheduled BidBuddies, and your bookmarked auctions. It’s important to be sure to check in with your dashboard’s home screen so you don’t accidentally forget to pay for an auction and lose the right to purchase the auction that you won.

If you look at the picture above, or on your own DealDash dashboard we will go down the list of items and I will tell you what each one means.

Who’s on their limit? – You may win 9 auctions per week. If you’d like to see who has already won their 9 auctions for the week you can pay 1 bid and see the list of “Who’s on their limit”.
Public profile – This is the small section where you can choose your avatar and write a quick bio sentence or two about yourself. This avatar and your bio will flash on the screen when you bid so others can see it while you are the highest bidder.
Buy bids – Pretty self-explanatory, this is where you can purchase bids.
Buy It Now History – This is where you can see what items that you have “BINned” for retail price and received your bids back.
Transaction history – This is where you can see the bids that you have bought, received back from BINning, and gotten from participating in social media postings.
Bidding history – This is where you can see what you have been spending your bids on.
Won auctions – Also pretty self-explanatory, you can see what you have won in the past.
My orders – This is where you can see all of the items you have ordered, both from winning and BINning. There will also be tracking numbers with links to track your item when they are available. You will be able to see tracking numbers on most items except lower value gift cards, which are just sent by regular postal mail.
Account details – You can see your saved credit cards here.
Bookmarked auctions – You can see what auctions that you have bookmarked. You can bookmark an auction by either booking a BidBuddy for it, or clicking the little yellow star in the upper right hand corner.
Contact support – This is the last item on your dashboard list. If you click this you will be taken to a form where you submit a support ticket for anything from technical questions, refunds, or enquiring where your item that you ordered is currently located.

So my dear DealDashers, that is your DealDash dashboard, demystified. 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.

Let’s Talk DealDash Strategy

On DealDash what works for you might not work for others. Let’s look at some different strategies for winning auctions

The Planner – The planner is someone who does a lot of research on different DealDash auctions. They might decide on an item, and then go through all of the different options on DealDash and patiently wait for their optimal auction to be put up for bid. Or the planner might find the auction that they want, and then throw in a few bids to just see how the auction goes, see who is bidding, and see what the item goes for in the end…And then wait until the next time the auction comes up for bid to actually get serious and use what they learned on the previous auction that they were merely observing. This is a very smart way to play.

The Determined Bidder – The determined bidder is going to win at all costs. They don’t care who is bidding or how many people are still in the auction. They load up their BidBuddies and occasionally come back to see if they have won or if they need to plug more bids into their BidBuddy. They will do this multiple times until they either win or run out of bids. This strategy wastes money and bids in my opinion. It’s much smarter to put bids into your BidBuddy and then 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 (Buy It Now) the item when you reach your budget limit. When using the BIN option DealDash will when refund all of the bids you used on that item, and you can try again another day.

The Sporadic Bidder – The sporadic bidder is not a good strategy at all in my opinion. The sporadic bidder looks at the front page of auctions and puts in 5 bids here, 5 bids there, jumping around from auction to auction spending hundreds of bids and then wonders why they don’t win any auctions. Occasionally the sporadic bidder will win an auction, but it’s total luck and good timing. The sporadic bidder usually doesn’t stick around DealDash very long since they don’t tend to win many (or any) auctions.

Of these three strategies the Planner is definitely the best choice. What strategy do you use? Go ahead and test out the strategies – check out the auctions and see what you would really like to bid on. See you on DealDash everyone! Good luck and happy bidding.

Learn the Language of DealDash

When you first join DealDash it might seem like the bidders are speaking a different language in their bios. Here are some tips to learn the “language of DealDash.”

Bids – While it may seem self-explanatory, bids are the currency of DealDash. Each bid that you spend raises the price of the auction by .01, and whoever is the last bidder gets to buy the auction at the final auction value. If you see someone talking about “saving your bids” or “conserving your bids”, they are just trying to save money.

Jumper – DealDash has a “No Jumper” policy, which means that no one new is allowed to join the auction after the final auction value has reached $5. So a “jumper” is someone who tries to join the auction late in order to save bids. There is sometimes an exception to the No Jumper policy, occasionally DealDash runs a special where there are no jumpers allowed after $3.

Stomper – A Stomper is someone who bids immediately after another person without waiting for the time clock to go down to 1, 2, or 3 seconds. The reason that bidders don’t like Stompers is because when you bid on DealDash you earn “clock time” for every second that you are the highest bidder, and eventually you can turn that clock time into free bids provided by DealDash.

DealDash App – App is short for “application”, and the DealDash App is available on both iTunes for Apple products and the Google Play store for Android devices. The DealDash app helps you monitor your auctions while you are on the go so you don’t have to worry about missing out on any of the action. You can also pay for your auctions on the DealDash App, buy more bids, favorite auctions to look at later, set alerts, and of course bid on items!

BidBuddy – Your best friend in the DealDash world. The BidBuddy is a free service that DealDash provides that will tirelessly bid on auctions for you with as many bids as you load him up with. The BidBuddy takes turns with other BidBuddies that people have set to bid, and bid with about 3 seconds left to go on the clock, so people don’t think that you are “stomping” their bids. You can set your BidBuddy in preparation for the auction to begin so you don’t even have to have your computer on when the auction starts. Of course, if you have the DealDash App you might want to manually wait for the auction to begin so you can scope out your competition before you set your BidBuddy.

So newbie DealDashers, those are just a few helpful hints for your first few times playing on DealDash. Remember to pay attention to the rules, check out the auctions and see what you would really like to bid on, and try some easier auctions to start! See you on DealDash everyone! Good luck and happy bidding.