What are the biggest mistakes shoppers make while shopping on DealDash.com?
Did you ever watch an auction wondering if you should place some bids or not when you suddenly saw it sell and close before your very eyes? I cannot count how many times that has happened to me!
One of the biggest mistakes I make while shopping on DealDash is hesitating to place enough bids to give myself some thinking time. More often than not, when I have a feeling that I should place some bids in an auction, my instincts are usually correct. It hurts to be a second too late.
Therefore, I decided to write this blog about the biggest mistakes I see bidders make when shopping on DealDash. Let’s take a look at some of them:
No. 1 — Not Using BidBuddy
This is probably the biggest mistake new shoppers on DealDash make. It’s easy to tell when bidders are not using the automated bidder, BidBuddy.
When shoppers cut the clock and place bids every other one, we know they are bidding from the home page. Most likely those customers have not yet discovered how to find and use BidBuddy by clicking on the auction to open the window where BidBuddy is located.
If we place our bids from the home page, we will run out of bids in a hurry. Most winners place their bids in BidBuddy. Bids that are placed in BidBuddy will not be used until they are needed. If five shoppers put bids into BidBuddy, the automated bidder will take turns placing one bid at a time for each of those five shoppers until no more bids have been booked. The shopper with the last bid will win the auction.
The best thing about allowing BidBuddy to place our bids for us is that we are not tied down to our computer or other electronic device like a laptop or phone. After booking our bids, we can take a shower, go shopping or go to sleep and come back later to see if we won. Of course, it’s a good idea to check back every once in a while to see if we need to add more bids.
No. 2 — Not Knowing our Competition
Before we start shopping, it’s a good idea to simply watch to become familiar with the reputations of various shoppers.
Many DealDash customers say in their bio section that they are on this site to “win bargains and save money.” If we play smart we definitely can win some great bargains. To do so we must first know what we are doing. There is more to winning auctions than just clicking the bid button. Perhaps the first step to shopping wisely is by reading blogs like this. The second step might be to learn what kind of bidders we should avoid. It is impossible to “win a bargain” if we are competing in the same auction with the wrong kind of shoppers. I’ve learned there are basically four kinds of shoppers on DealDash:
- Power bidders who always seem to have an endless supply of bids,
- Over-bidders who consistently over-bid the “Buy-It-Now” price of auctions,
- Recreational willy-nilly bidders who are only shopping for entertainment and fun, and
- New inexperienced bidders who do not yet pose much of a challenge
I have a list of screen names and I strive to avoid shopping in the same auctions with the power bidders and over-bidders. If I see one of those screen names pop up, I cancel my bids and place them in another auction. When the auction gets up to $5 (or $3 during a special feature) and all new bidders get locked out, I run my mouse over all of the icons of qualified players to make sure none of the screen names on my list are in the auction. The auction could be down to three shoppers but that does not mean no one else will jump in as soon as one of the others drops out.
No. 3 — Not Playing Smart
What do I mean by “not playing smart?” I mean failing to pay attention to details that could make a winning difference. Her are a few examples:
I might be one of the last three shoppers fighting it out to win an auction. I might feel I might be able to win because I have 100 bids left and the other two bidders have not been identified as a power bidder or over-bidder. Nonetheless, it’s a good idea to check those two screen names from the recent winners page on DealDash to see if either one of them recently won a bid pack. Once when I checked the winners list I learned one of my competitors recently won a 750 bid pack. I immediately canceled my 100 bids to save them for another auction. No way would I be able to out-bid that player.
We should also look at the previous winners of our auctions and check two things: First, have the most popular power bidders already been eliminated from that auction? Second, what was the average number of bids previous winners used to win the auction?
If we avoid making the most common big mistakes and take a little time to learn how to play smart, we can successfully win great bargains on DealDash, too.
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.