What are the best days of the week to shop? What is the best time of the day to shop – early in the morning, at noon, or late at night? How do we know how many bids to place to win an auction?
Experienced shoppers on DealDash.com probably already know. However, new shoppers on DealDash might want to know more winning tips so I will do my best to answer these questions based on my own experience.
The most important thing to know
It’s almost impossible to win if we do not use the automated bidder, BidBuddy. Just double click on the auction, a window opens and you will see where to place your bids. DealDash has made it so easy for new shoppers to learn how to use BidBuddy by creating a practice video. It’s a huge mistake for new shoppers to skip the training video. If you frequently place single bids you will only waste bids. Therefore, placing single bids will decrease, not increase, our opportunity to win.
The best time to stop
I believe there might be less competition on week days than on weekends. But figuring out the best time to shop can be tricky because it’s based on so many different variables:
One is the common-sense variable based on the customer base. Many DealDash customers probably have jobs during the week and, therefore, have less time to shop during week days and are less likely to shop late nights when they have to go to work the next day.
That does not mean working people never shop during the week days. Some customers love shopping on DealDash so much they might get up extra early just so they can do some shopping before they go to work, and some working customers might even use mobile devices to shop during their lunch breaks. I knew a nurse who did that.
The three-hour time zone differences from the East Coast to the West Coast can make a difference, too. Some customers on the East Coast might get out of bed to shop at 6 a.m. while customers on the West Coast are still sleeping because it’s only 3 a.m. there. However, most working people are more likely to shop on weekends when they have time off work.
I know many retirees also love shopping on DealDash. I don’t know how many DealDash customers are working people versus how many are retirees, but it appears to me there are more shoppers to compete with on weekends.
Some things we can do to minimize competition and win more auctions are:
- Open various auctions and only place bids in the auctions that have 30 or fewer competitors;
- Look for the screen names of power bidders and avoid competing in the same auctions with customers who consistently win more than one auction a day;
- Check the Winners’ List and avoid shopping with the screen names of customers who recently won a large big pack or a high-dollar item they may have exchanged for a large number of bids;
- Watch for the special feature where “No New Bidders” are allowed after the auction reaches only $1 instead of $5.
How many bids does it take to win?
Knowing how many bids it will take to win any particular auction at any particular time is nearly impossible. Sometimes I go by the average number of bids it took other customers to win the auction. Other times I look at the BIN and if the auction is valued at $250 I will place 250 bids. I try not to overbid the value of the auction. If we bid from the beginning of the auction, we will probably have to use more bids to win. If we wait until just before the auction reaches the $5 “No New Bidders” point to place the bulk of our bids, we might be able to win using fewer bids.
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.