Spring Cleaning

It’s that time of year again – time to do some spring cleaning throughout our entire house. Perhaps we could do some spring cleaning outside in our yards as well.

Spring cleaning usually involves thoroughly dusting and cleaning each and every room, getting rid of clutter and replacing old, worn-out items with new ones. In other words, this is the perfect time to throw away our old sheets, dishes, silverware, pots and pans and replace them with new ones.

Home Improvement Week

DealDash.com is going to help its loyal shoppers do just that during its “Home Improvement Week” from April 26 through April 30. That’s one event we won’t want to miss because DealDash will be highlighting many products we might need for our home.

A good way to start planning for the DealDash “Home Improvement Week” might be to make a list of some of the products DealDash already has available such as: An ergonomic office chair, massage chair, knife sets, sheets, duvet covers, sewing machine, laptops, popcorn machine, ceramic dish set, pancake pan, stainless steel cookware sets, placemats and a very popular cast iron casserole bowl.

After making my list, I went through my house to see which items I already had and which items I might want to replace. One item I would like to replace is my office chair because the one I’m using now is rather old and has tears in the fabric on the arms and seat. To have good enough back support I have to put an extra pad in the office chair, so it would be nice to win an ergonomic office chair that probably offers better back support, which is especially important for senior citizens.

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Go Figure

Many DealDash.com shoppers want to know how many bids they will need to place to win certain auctions.

Of course, we can never be certain exactly how many bids we need there are ways to get a good idea. If we are any good at math there are a couple different ways we can simply “go figure.”

Smiling female math student sit on couch studying on laptop doing research calculating,  positive young woman pay bills online from home make calculations on calculator, check home expenses

There is a fast way or a slow way that takes a little more time and effort.

Past Winners

The first thing we must do is to look at the data from past winners.

The fastest way would be to check the data on the last 10 winners and look at the highest number of bids past winners used to win the auction. For example, let’s take a look at the 950 bid pack. Looking at the last 10 winners the most bids a previous “winner” used was 1,071 bids, so that “winner” overbid and lost more bids than he won. We would not want to do the same, so we might look at the most bids used without going over the BIN value of the auction, which were 567. Therefore, we could feel confident that we could win that auction by placing at least 567 bids or more to win the 950 bid pack.

Another way to come up with a ballpark figure might be more accurate but takes more time. Looking at the last 10 winners, two of them overbid the value of the auction and most shoppers will not do that. Therefore, we might want to throw those two figures out. Then add up the number of bids the other 8 winners used without overbidding — 388, 63, 49, 567, 124, 184, 225, and 315 and then divide by eight. I come up with 1,865 bids those eight winners used. If I divide that number by eight I come up with about 238 bids – the average number of bids it took to win that auction. Therefore, it would tell us that we probably should place at least 238 bids to win that auction. We could also consider the fact that five of the last 10 winners used fewer than 238 bids.

Other Factors

Doing the math definitely gives us a ballpark idea of how many bids it might take to win auctions.

It is impossible, however, for us to know exactly how many bids we will need to win an auction because of many unknowns and other factors that are always subject to change.

Some of other factors that can affect the closing cost of auctions are:

  • How many other shoppers are participating and/or seriously competing in the same auction
  • The experience level of the other shoppers competing in the same auction
  • How many bids the other shoppers have to burn
  • The day of the week and/or the time of day or night
  • At what point we enter the auction (from the beginning, middle or end before all new bidders are blocked)
  • The type of feature DealDash is running at the time (some features are more popular than others)
  • How many shoppers have already won the same auction and have now been eliminated

Because of all of these other unknown factors we could win the auction with fewer bids than we anticipated, but if we “go figure” and go with the highest number of bids without overbidding, we will have a good idea how many bids we need to place.

Click to go to DealDash.com

This sponsored blog post was submitted by: Barbara L. Sellers. Barbara was compensated by DealDash for this blog post. Blog posts are written by real DealDash customers. The opinions and advice here represent our customers’ views and not those of the company.

Bad Shopping Habits

I wrote an article once about some of the most important life lessons I’ve learned in my 74 years. One of them was that we should try hard not to develop bad habits because once we develop some bad habits they are so very difficult to break.

That lesson could apply to bad shopping habits on DealDash.com too. Ask yourself. Are you developing any bad shopping habits?  Perhaps you are wondering what I mean by that.  Let’s take a close look at some of the worst shopping habits anyone can have:

Overbidding

When shoppers develop the bad habit of overbidding, they not only hurt themselves but they also hurt other shoppers who come to this shopping site to win some great bargains. When customers overbid they help DealDash make money but even that is a catch 22. If too many shoppers consistently overbid and prevented anyone from ever winning good deals, eventually DealDash would lose customers too. Therefore, too much overbidding is not really good for anyone.

break bad habits, build good habits – motivational reminder on colorful sticky notes – self-development concept
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Motivation Factors

Since DealDash.com first started it has remained in business now for more than 12 years and that, my friends, does not happen by accident. No, that happens by design – a desire to keep customers happy and the determination to continually look for more and better ways to improve.

motivation factors written on chalkboard with vintage stopwatch used instead of O

Every once in a while we see comments by long-time members who brag about how many years they have been shopping on DealDash. Whenever people become such loyal customers that they keep coming back year after year for more that does not happen by accident either. No, that means the company has successfully put a significant number of motivating factors in place that makes shoppers like us return time and time again.

Just ask yourself, “Why are we still shopping on DealDash?” If I asked 25 people that question, I might get 25 different answers, but let’s take a look at some of the most important ones:

Reputation

One motivation factor that keeps DealDash customers coming back is its outstanding reputation. DealDash earned our trust and we all want to shop with a company we can trust. That never comes easy but DealDash worked hard over the years to develop the reputation of being a fair and honest shopping site.

Like any other growing company DealDash had some challenges over the years. While DealDash only had a small number of employees they were faced with a sudden, huge growth spurt, which also meant the company had to make some huge adjustments to keep up.  Regardless, they still managed to get all of their orders sent out. DealDash always found a way to meet those challenges head on and still managed to come out even stronger and better than before.

Customer Service

A second important motivation factor is the superb customer service that DealDash provides. Some companies hide their contact phone numbers but not DealDash. They make it super-easy to contact them and I never had a problem reaching a customer service representative. They have even responded to my questions at all hours of the day and night.

DealDash customer service representatives are always super-polite and helpful. I can honestly say I never dealt with a more pleasant group of customer representatives anywhere and I doubt they have a mean, cranky or rude bone in their body.  In fact, DealDash customer service representatives often go above and beyond the call of duty.

For example, I once expressed disappointment when I won a high-dollar purse that did not come with a shoulder strap because I never buy a purse without a shoulder strap. Guess what! The customer service representative found one for me that went perfectly with my handbag. I don’t know how or where DealDash found such positive and helpful group of employees but they are the best we’ll find anywhere in the world.

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