Author: DealDash community

What? How in the world could “less be more and more be less?”

I know this sounds ridiculous but when applied to DealDash.com and our own bidding habits this often proves to be true.

Many of us know that DealDash now has millions of customers, but to keep the math simple I will give you a ridiculously small example: Which way would DealDash make the most money? Would they make more money by selling 500 bid packs of 300 bids for $36 each or 100 bid packs of 300 bids for $60.00?  If five times more people bought bid packs on sale for less that means DealDash would actually make more for (charging) less.

This kind of thinking outside the box often works well for DealDash customers, too.  Let me give you an example. As a regular DealDash customer I’m using real data from this weekend just to prove this to you.

I decided to focus on the North Dakota 500 bid pack, which I bid on five times each and every time it came up for auction between yesterday and today before I finally won it. 

• The first time I placed 30 bids on it Friday, Aug. 13, and I could have (and should have) easily won it because it only had 21 competitors and it sold early at only $2.98. I messed up because I allowed myself to become distracted by a phone call and failed to return to the auction in time to add more bids. How many times have you made this mistake?
• The second time the North Dakota 500 bid pack came up for auction, I was so determined to win it that I overbid and wasted 509 bids before I finally gave up. The winner of that auction overbid a lot more than I did and placed 594 bids to win the 500 bid pack. I made the mistake of competing with a competitor from one of two states I usually never compete with because those two states tend to have more than its fair share of stubborn, no-quitter over-bidders. I knew my one and only competitor was an over-bidder because I checked the “Winners’ List” and saw that same screen name consistently overbids to win. Therefore, I should have quit a lot sooner.
• The third time I used 56 bids and I could have (and should have) won it because the winner of this auction only placed 17 bids. That irritates me when the winner of the auction placed fewer bids than I did. That hardly seems fair, does it?  But it was my fault because once again I allowed myself to become distracted. On the other hand, if I had been paying close attention to that auction I might have been tempted to back out of it because it had 109 competitors. It is highly unlikely for any auction to close early with that many shoppers in the auction, but this was an exception to that rule because it sold early for only $2.66.
• The fourth time I joined the auction late, shortly before the “No New Bidders” banner popped up. I used 168 bids and I was about to add a lot more bids because I was one of the final two players. However, I quickly changed my mind and canceled all my bids, purposely letting my one and only competitor win. Why? I checked the “Winners’ List” and saw that my competitor had recently won a 1,000 bid pack so I knew she had a lot more bids to burn than I did. It made more sense for me to invest in another new auction than to try to battle it out with a shopper with all those bids … and I’m sure glad I did.
• The fifth time I entered the North Dakota 500 bid pack I placed 100 bids and walked away to make dinner. When I returned to my computer a few minutes later I was so surprised and happy to see that I won this auction after using only 12 bids. It sold early for only $1.01 but because it was a 90 percent off feature I only had to pay 10 cents. Wow! What a deal! Walking away from my previous auction and placing my bids in the next auction instead was the right decision. If I had placed more bids in the fourth auction I would most likely have lost more bids and won nothing. By purposely letting my competitor win and starting a new auction, however, I ended up winning the next auction for only another 12 bids.

That certainly proves that if we are consistent and learn from our mistakes we can all become winners. It also proves that often times “More means less and less means more.”

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.

When you shop on DealDash.com do you have the King Midas Golden Touch?

Of course, the main purpose of Greek mythology is to teach a lesson. In this story we learned that King Midas so greedy that he wished everything he touched would turn to gold, and Dionysus granted him his wish. When he learned that even his food and wine turned to gold, King Midas nearly starved to death. He even accidentally killed his daughter Marigold (Zoe by some accounts) when he touched her and turned her into gold and could not turn her back again.

King Midas then prayed Dionysus would reverse his wish, which had now become more like a curse. Dionysus felt sorry for King Midas so he told him he would have to visit the Pactolus River to wash himself from the curse to make everything become normal again.

By the end of this story, King Midas learned the important lesson to be careful what he wished for. He also learned the most important things in life are often right in front of us and we simply need to recognize and appreciate what we already have.

Do you ever see shoppers on DealDash who win so many auctions that they appear to have the King Midas Golden Touch? How many of us are like King Midas and are so greedy and determined to win that we even overbid the value of the auction product.

I won my share of auctions in the past, but if I want to continue to win auctions now, I must follow my own set of rules, which I did not always do this weekend even though I know better. I guess we all have our off-days.

From now on I think I’ll keep a list of the following “Don’t Do’s” as a reminder:

1. Do not bid in auctions that have more than 30 shoppers. This is something I seldom do because the fewer the participants, the lower the competition. This is not always true, however, when everyone places only one bid.
2. Do not place all of your eggs in one basket. In other words, it might not be a good idea to place too many bids in just one or two auctions. It has been my experience that an auction usually sells very early or very late, so I usually win more and better deals if I place fewer bids in several different auctions.
3. Do not allow yourself to become distracted by other things. If I had been paying close attention I most likely would have won the first 500 bid pack that I participated in because it sold early. If we know we might get distracted it might be a good idea to place more bids in the first place to cover our absence.
4. Do not compete with a power bidder or one or more “no-quitter bidders.” A “no-quitter bidder” is any shopper who has been bidding in an auction from the very start and is still there after the “No New Bidder” banner goes up. “No-quitter bidders” are usually determined to stay in the auction for the long haul. They are seriously in it to win it – even if it means they will have to over-bid the BIN price of the auction. I never before saw more over-bidders than I saw this weekend. It’s not always easy for any of us to quit bidding when we know we should. Many of us are better off not even trying to out-bid a “no-quitter bidder.”

We cannot all have the “King Midas Touch” where everything turns to gold, but if we discipline ourselves enough to follow our own common-sense rules the next time we shop on DealDash we will get back on the winning track.

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.

As much as we love shopping on DealDash.com I’m sure we all experience some irritations – mostly from new customers who do not yet know how to play.

Thankfully, DealDash has already done a lot to alleviate and/or solve the most common irritations.

Irritation No. 1 – Bidding from the front page

Irritation Number 1 for me has to be players who cut the clock and vote from the Home Page, placing bids every other one.

This used to be a much bigger irritation than it is now because DealDash already solved half of this problem. At least the clock-cutters are no longer “stealing” our free bids. Whenever Newbies cut the clock DealDash still gives us credit for our full 9 seconds on the clock for each and every bid we place.

It irritates me, however, when Newbies do this because they have not yet found and learned how to use the automated bidder, BidBuddy. Since I have the screen name SorryMyTurn I sometimes waste a few of my own bids on purpose to give new players a hint that maybe they are doing something wrong and should be taking turns instead of wasting their bids.

Some Newbies catch on a lot faster than others and it’s certainly to their advantage to do so. By placing a bid every other one, it never helps them to win and it simply wastes a lot of their bids for nothing. I would think that when Newbies see they are placing more bids than anyone else they would get curious enough to contact DealDash customer support to ask why.

As long as the rest of us are still getting credit on the clock for each and every bid we place, why should this irritate us, anymore? Perhaps it is just a little more confusing when we try to count how many serious players are still left in the auction. I never count Newbies as serious players because I do not see them as being competitive. I know they will soon run out of bids by playing this way.

Possible Solution: Perhaps DealDash customer service could watch for these players and give them a phone call to explain to them how to save bids by using BidBuddy.

Irritation No. 2 – Jumping in and out

Irritation No. 2 has to be players who place one bid at the beginning and then jump in and out several times during the auction and/or dump a truckload of bids at the end – just when it looks like we have a pretty good chance to win. Of course, any of us could do the same thing and this might be just a smart way to play. It’s still irritating when it’s being done to us.

Possible Solution: DealDash might have just now come up with a really good solution to make this little irritation go away. Now some auctions are designated with a purple boxing glove. All customers playing in these auctions are required to use BidBuddy. Once we see the “No New Bidders” banner at $5.00 we can no longer jump in and out of the auction. From that point on, we must not allow BidBuddy to run out of bids or we are out of the auction. Once we run out of bids or quit we cannot re-enter the auction. I’m not sure yet how I feel about this feature, but I’m looking forward to using it to find out. It certainly eliminates the irritation of players who jump in and out throughout the auction.

Irritation No. 3 – Pick your fights

Irritation No. 3 for me would be power players who participate in far too many auctions at the same time – making it nearly impossible to find an auction they are not participating in. I have my list of power players I try to avoid and sometimes the same power players are all over the place.

In a way, DealDash encourages shoppers to participate in several auctions at the same time by offering free bids to players who place at least one bid in a specified number of auctions. That makes it even more difficult to avoid getting into an auction where these power players are not placing bids, too.

Once upon a time in DealDash land all customers had win limits but with high-dollar items like brand new cars, I don’t think win limits would work, anymore. It certainly does help, however, that shoppers are no longer allowed to participate in the same auctions they have recently won.

Possible Solution: Perhaps a possible solution would be for DealDash to designate special auctions where only shoppers who have not won an auction in the last month would be the only ones allowed to participate. It would be one way to turn losers into winners.

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.

Why would anyone want to shop on DealDash.com every day? Who can afford to do that?

Actually, I might say, “Who can afford not to do that?”

You see, there are many reasons why DealDash customers who shop on DealDash every day can make it work to their advantage and end up coming out ahead. I decided to list some of them:

Collect More Free Bids

By shopping on DealDash every day, we have the opportunity to meet the daily challenge and collect free bids. For example this challenge: any customer who joins in 5 gift card auctions today can get a reward of 10 free bids in return. We only have to place one of our own bids in 5 auctions and then we would not only get those 5 bids back again, but we would get 5 additional bids back absolutely free. If we collect and save these free bids every day for 30 days, we would end up with a total of 150 free bids because they add up. What a deal, huh?

Even better, we can be rewarded up to 30 free bids every day just by signing in. If we placed 30 bids the day before we can get those 30 bids returned to us as long as we consistently use at least 30 bids a day and sign in every day. If we miss a day, we will have to start all over again until we work our way back up to 30 free bids.

Become a Better Player

Based on what I see, frequent shoppers tend to win more auctions because they get more experience and soon become better players. Frequent shoppers are more likely to recognize the screen names of other players, too. Therefore, they are able to recognize how their competitors play. They quickly learn who they can beat and who they cannot beat.  

Never Miss a Special Feature

Customers who shop on DealDash every day do not miss out on special features. The other day shoppers were getting 5X on the clock. That is the most extra time I ever saw DealDash give us on the clock but I would not have known that if I had not checked in. By shopping today I knocked off several hours from my green timeline – five times faster than usual. Now my green timeline is very close to the end. Since I am on Level 76, I will soon be able to collect a huge pack of free bids.

We also do not want to miss out on a brand new feature. For example, today it appears that DealDash is introducing something they never before tried. On the home page I see a purple boxing glove with the words “No Re-Entry Auctions. Keep BidBuddy Active.” Wow! That looks interesting. In other words, any auction that is marked with that purple boxing glove it means we still must place our first bid before the “No New Bidders” banner comes up. However, once we place bids in that auction after the $5 we cannot allow BidBuddy to run out of bids or we will not be allowed to re-enter that auction. We cannot jump in and out of it. As long as we do not allow BidBuddy to run out of our bids we can continue to play. But once the auction reaches $5 if we allow BidBuddy to run out of bids we’re out and cannot get back in.

Be First to See New Items

Customers who shop on DealDash every day will also be the first to see and have the opportunity to win new items that go up for auction.

Part of the excitement of shopping on DealDash is seeing new items that we might not even know exist until we see them on this shopping site.

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.