Tag: tips

How To Conserve Your Bids

The next best thing to buying cheap bids on sale is conserving the ones you already have!

You might ask “How am I supposed to win if I am being thrifty with my bids?” Well, there are a few different ways to try and conserve your bids for another day, and I will try to teach you about some of the easiest ways to save your bids for later.

The first way is pretty obvious – only bid on items that you are willing to “go all the way” on, do your math so you know when to stop bidding to break even with your bids + final auction cost, then stop bidding! Remember, if you do your math calculations and you have reached the BIN price, use the “Buy it Now” option and pay retail price for the item. DealDash will when refund all of the bids you used on that item, and you can try again another day.

 

The next way to conserve bids is to enter the auction late. On most days at DealDash you have to get at least 1 bid in before the auction price has hit $5. These are called “No Jumper” auctions, and it basically means that DealDash doesn’t want someone who has no bids invested in an item to get to win it with just a few when other bidders have been trying hard (for hours sometimes) to win the item. However, DealDash has decided that $5 is the magic price, and as long as you get your first bid in before then you are good to sit back and wait until the competition is less fierce, say when there are only 3 or 4 people left in the auction. Some days the No Jumper auctions start at $3 instead of $5, but it’s always marked very clearly at the top of the homepage, so there’s no confusion.

The last way to conserve bids that I would like to talk about today is a little bit on the risky side – Going Mobile!! Sometimes there’s a particular auction that I am interested in that I won’t be at home to catch, so normally I would just load up my BidBuddy with the appropriate number of bids to break even if I win, and hope for the best. However, now that DealDash has made a great mobile site it’s easy to bid “on the go.” This way I can monitor the auction from my phone and step in at just the right moment instead of bidding from the beginning and probably losing to someone who started at the $3 or $4 mark. I say that this is a “risky” way to try and conserve bids because there have been MANY times that I have planned on monitoring an auction from my phone, but by the time that I remember to check it’s already passed the $5 No Jumper limit. So if it’s something that you are extremely interested in I would suggest setting an alarm on your phone to remind you to check the auction.

That’s it! Those are just a few simple ways to save your bids and get the most out of your bid pack purchases. Pay attention to what you’re doing, check out the auctions and see what you would really like to bid on, and try my tips to save bids. See you on DealDash everyone! Good luck and happy bidding.

How They Try to Make You Crazy With Mind Games

Most people think about romantic relationships when the phrase “mind games” comes up. However, mind games are also a common theme on DealDash.

 

What’s in a name? Did you think carefully about your bidding name when you signed up to DealDash? I can tell that some people thought very seriously about their name before they signed up, and their main thought was either to gain sympathy with a name such as “SingleMomof12Kids” or “WoundedKittenRescuer” or to intimidate with names like “IwillBiduntiltheApocalypse” or “IwillBiteyouIfyouBidafterMe”.

Other people take a different track, but still in the realm of playing mind games – have you seen anyone with a name such as “IonlyBidonlaptops” or “GiveMeAlltheMixers”? This track is slightly more subtle than the sympathy or intimidation names, but it gets the point across. If you were in an auction for a set of drums, and it was down to the final two, and your competition’s name was “ImADrummer” who do you think is definitely going to go to the end? I would bet my money on the person who has based their entire DealDash experience on the fact that they are a drummer.

If you’re looking for an even more subtle way to play mind games on your competition I suggest using a combination of your BidBuddy and single bids. If you aren’t using your BidBuddy regularly I strongly encourage you to give it a try. It’s really simple to use, each auction page has the bid button that says “Bid Now” and the BidBuddy, which is below the bid now button. Click your mouse on the white area and enter the number of bids you want to use and click “Book a BidBuddy” your BidBuddy will now be set. The BidBuddy will bid up to the number of bids that you booked. Most people are familiar with the BidBuddy, so if you are in an auction and you are using your BidBuddy but you start throwing in random bids here and there it can really throw people off.

 

 

A bold way to play mind games with your competition can actually earn you free bids! After you have won and received your auctions you can get free bids by taking a photo of yourself holding the win and posting the picture on social media with a quick message like “I got this -name of item won here- @DealDash for -number of bids used- bids & $ -final auction price-. #DealDash also gives #FREE shipping!” If you are looking to play mind games with people then only pick the biggest and best prizes that you have won and put them on social media. That way, people think that you always go to the limit and win big! Think about it, would you be more impressed with someone who won a bunch of $20 DVDs and small household items or people than seem to continuously win laptops and other high-end prizes? If you skip posting your small wins and only stick with your over $200 prizes then people will assume you “go big or go home”. Here’s a link to get the full details on how to get even more free bids, it’s easy to do and is a great deal.

I hope this helped you think about playing DealDash using some strategic mind games! If you’re interested in reading even more tips and tricks check out the “Tactics & Tips” section on DealDash. Good luck and happy bidding everyone!

 

 

 

How I Got My Biggest Win

Neato on DealDash

What’s your biggest win on DealDash? My biggest (and favorite) win is my Neato Robotics XV Signature Robotic Vacuum.

 

There is honestly no big secret of how I got my biggest win on DealDash. It was just a combination of different factors – Having enough bids saved up to go the distance to BIN (Buy It Now) if I needed to, doing research on the item and my competitors, using my BidBuddy, and having a little luck on my side!

I have written many blogs before on some of the best ways to win items on DealDash, and it really usually comes down to those simple factors that I listed above. Broken down, here are my DealDash “Best Practices” suggestions that I used to win my Neato Robotic Vacuum.

  • Have enough bids to BIN the item if you need to. The BIN price on the Neato Robotic Vacuum is $381. That means that if this happens to be a free auction weekend I could bid approximately 2,381 – 3,175  times, depending on what price I paid for the bids, and still come out even with the BIN price. However, if it’s a half-price auction or a full-priced auction then you need to be careful that you don’t accidentally bid too many times if you are factoring in bid cost + final auction cost. In this particular situation my Neato’s final auction cost was $53.11, so that means that I could bid a maximum of  2,050 – 2,733 times (depending on bid price .12 – .16) and still come out even with the BIN price. Yes, it’s a lot of math, but it’s worth it to do the calculations to make sure that you don’t accidentally overbid and win. Of course, if you “win” and you paid more in bid cost + final auction cost than the BIN price, it’s not really a win, now is it? Be smart, do your math!

 

 

  • The next thing that I always mention when giving tips to people is to make sure that you do your research on the item and your competitors. When you have found something that you would really like to win and you feel like you can commit yourself to going all the way to the BIN price if you have to, then start checking out every auction for the item you want, as well as similar items. Just put them on your watch list by clicking the little star in the upper right corner, and DealDash will save the auction for you so you can come back later and check it out. While you are doing your research on the item, pay attention to who is bidding on the item you want as well as similar items. That way you can get a feel if they are the sort of person that just tosses in 100 bids and walks away, or if they are in it for the long haul.

  • When you have finally decided on the best auction for yourself, checked out the other items and competition, then it’s time for the best tool that DealDash could ever offer – the BidBuddy! When you have decided that it’s time to stop watching and really get into the auction, then do your math that we talked about earlier, put your bids into your BidBuddy, and hope for the best! Remember, if you do your math calculations and you have reached the BIN price and still haven’t won, use the “Buy it Now” option and pay retail price for the item. DealDash will when refund all of the bids you used on that item, and you can try again another day.

  • The last component of how I got my biggest win was just a little bit of luck on my side. I was able to get my Neato by placing about 800 bids, which is around $96 since I typically only buy bids when they are .12. So $96 + $53 = $149 for an item that has a BIN price of $381 is a profit of $232, and I think that’s quite lucky, indeed!

So, my fellow bidders, that is the story of how I got my biggest win on DealDash. Go ahead and check out the auctions and see what you would really like to bid on and WIN! See you on DealDash everyone! Good luck and happy bidding.

Let’s Talk About the Importance of Monitoring Other Bidders

Have you been paying attention to your fellow bidders? Well, you should be. Monitoring other bidders can be a great strategy.

 

If you are a newer DealDasher you might just be jumping right into auctions without doing your research. Well, that’s not a very good idea. Not only should you be researching the items that you plan on bidding on, you should also be doing research on your fellow bidders. If you’re new to DealDash you might be amazed at some of the awesome deals that people seem to get by chance. The more seasoned bidders might make it look easy to win, but I can almost guarantee you the winners of most of the bigger ticket auctions not only watched many of the auctions to see what the final auction fee was, but also took note of the bidders who were in for the long haul.

If you are interested in a certain type of auction, say laptops, then you should be watching and observing every laptop auction that you can find, even if it isn’t the particular laptop that you plan on bidding on. If you have been watching the laptop auctions and you see that Bidder A, Bidder B, and Bidder C show up to almost all of the laptop auctions and stay until the final auction fee has surpassed the BIN (Buy It Now) price, then you might want to try and find a different laptop auction that Bidder A, Bidder B, and Bidder C are not involved in. Every bidder has a win limit of 9 items per week, so if you are patient you might be able to find a laptop auction when Bidder A, Bidder B, and Bidder C have already used up all of their win slots.

Alternately, if you wait until DealDash has one of their “Free Auction Weekends” when there is no final auction fee you might be able to snag a win even if Bidder A, Bidder B, and Bidder C have been bidding on an item. Most (but not all!) bidders tend to try and stay within the BIN price, and will stop bidding once they know that they would be losing money by continuing to bid. Once Bidder A, Bidder B, and Bidder C have stopped bidding and have decided to either cut their losses or BIN the item, then it’s your time to go ahead and start bidding. Just make sure that you have already placed at least one bid before the $5 No Jumper limit has been reached.

In case you don’t know what the “No Jumper” limit means, here is an explanation straight from DealDash’s FAQ section:

The big difference between No Jumper™ auctions and normal auctions is that new bidders can’t enter the auction after $5.00. This means you won’t have to compete with users that didn’t bid in the auction from the start, before the price reached $5.00.

 

I hope this helped some of you newer DealDashers! If you’re interested in reading even more tips and tricks check out the “Tactics & Tips” section on DealDash. Good luck and happy bidding everyone!

Newbies Make Mistakes – Here are the Top Three

Let’s face it, everyone makes mistakes. However, if you’re a newbie to DealDash maybe I can help you avoid the top three mistakes that beginners tend to make.

Mistake 1 – Not having a plan. Okay, so you found a great item on DealDash that you would like to bid on and win. Excellent! There are many different bidding strategies that you might like to try, but the absolute worst bidding strategy that I can think of is to put every single bid you have into your BidBuddy and walk away. Of course, some people do win and get great deals this way, it’s also possible to spend a lot of money (in bids) on a particular item and still not win. Or, even worse, “win” the item but overbid by more than the BIN (Buy It Now) price. The best thing to do is to calculate how many bids will equal the BIN price, and put that amount into your BidBuddy. Of course, this only works on a day when they are having free auctions, if it’s a regular day and you have to pay the final auction price, then you must also calculate that in with the price of bids. It’s a little difficult to calculate what the final auction price will be, so in my experience it’s smart to 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 the item when you reach your budget limit.

Mistake 2 – Going for a big ticket item before you’re ready. Most people who are reading this blog have probably seen the DealDash commercial where the ladies show you what awesome items that they won for amazing prices. And yes, those ladies really and truly did win those items, however they are seasoned bidders who have a lot of experience bidding on DealDash and had hundreds of smaller wins under their wings before they tried for “the big score.” Winning anything like a laptop or a big TV takes practice and smart-bidding skills, which need to be honed over time. Start honing your skills by bidding on smaller auctions and especially bidding on items you would buy anyway such as gift cards for Target and Wal-Mart, household items that you use on a regular basis such as laundry detergent, or presents for your kids to hide away for a birthday or holiday. Remember, if you do your math calculations and you have reached the BIN price, use the “Buy it Now” option and pay retail price for the item. DealDash will when refund all of the bids you used on that item, and you can try again another day.

Mistake 3 – Being rude or disrespectful to other bidders. This is a bit of a tricky subject, but I feel that a lot of newbies seem to make the mistake of “jumping” on other people’s bids. Jumping on someone’s bid basically means to bid immediately after someone without letting the first persons “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. Of course, mistakes happen and sometimes you might accidentally jump someone elses’ bid, but in my experience if you only do it once most people know that it was just an accident. It’s when you do it multiple times in the same auction that makes people upset. Of course, you are free to bid however you like, but in life as in DealDash I personally don’t try to annoy people on purpose, especially if it might cause me to lose money!

highestBidder

So my dear DealDashers, those are just a few mistakes that beginners tend to make. 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.