Exceptions to the Rules

Anyone who is old enough to shop on DealDash.com probably already knows there are often exceptions that can apply to nearly any rule – including the rules and/or guidelines I write about in my blogs here.

So far, I have written hundreds of blogs about shopping on DealDash.com. Many of my blogs discuss various winning strategies and ways we can save bids. Basically, I have written many guidelines on what we should and/or should not do to increase the opportunity to win awesome bargains. I’m certain that many shoppers have found some of my ideas and suggestions to be very helpful. Some things I have not yet written about, however, are exceptions to some of those rules and guidelines.

When I was shopping on DealDash today I was reminded of some of those exceptions, so I decided to discuss a few of them in this blog.

Exception No. 1

I wrote about how to prevent shopping in an auction where you would only be wasting your bids. I wrote that one of the first things we should do is to check the “Winners” list and write down all the screen names of other shoppers who just won a large bid pack and bidding in any auction where that screen name is actively participating.

For example, I did that today and I found one screen name that not only won a bid pack of 400 bids but shortly before that the same shopper won a huge bid pack of 7,500 bids. I knew that was the last shopper I wanted to compete with because he or she would be able to out-bid me for sure. Therefore, I looked at all of the auctions I placed bets in to see if that screen name showed up. Sure enough, it did. To protect myself from wasting any more bids, I immediately canceled my bids and looked for other auctions where this screen name did not show up. Unfortunately, this same screen name was actively participating in many of the same auctions so I stopped competing in all of them – at least for the time being. Now what do I mean when I say, “at least for the time being?”

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After Christmas Shopping

Most people are not born into wealthy families. Therefore, most of us have had at least some experience wanting items we could not afford to buy. I call those times our poor days.

I have had more than my share of poor days when I had to follow a strict budget to just pay for my “needs” and had little or no money left over to take care of my “wants.” Does that sound familiar?

During my poor days, I did a lot of “after Christmas” shopping. If I bought all of my Christmas gifts the day after Christmas, I could take advantage of 50 percent off sales. Then I could afford to give family and friends twice as many gifts for the same amount of money. Sometimes I even shopped for my next year’s Christmas gifts by taking advantage of “after Christmas” sales.

What does this have to do with DealDash.com? Actually, it might have a lot to do with DealDash because we can do some “after Christmas” shopping on DealDash as well. I tried it and I liked it. I won some awesome “after Christmas” deals on DealDash, too.

Here’s what I found:

Less Competition

While I was doing my “after Christmas” shopping on DealDash I noticed the fierce competition levels appeared to be much lower, especially during mid-day. It picked up a little later in the evening. Apparently, shopping at mid-day during the off season times might be the best times to win great bargains.

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Winning Strategies, Tips

Regardless how long we have been shopping on DealDash.com we can never learn too much when it comes to winning strategies and tips.

I decided to share some winning strategies and tips that have worked for me.

Always Use BidBuddy

Do not place bids from the home page. This is a given for experienced DealDash shoppers, but it takes some new players a long time to figure out where the automated bidder, BidBuddy, is hiding. If you have not yet found and use BidBuddy this is the first thing to do. Anyone who casts single bids from the home page will only waste bids and will not be able to see or know what’s happening behind the scenes.

To find BidBuddy, open the auction page of the product you want to bid on. A window will open up and that’s where BidBuddy is hiding. Place your bids into BidBuddy. If there are five other shoppers who placed bids into BidBuddy, it will automatically take turns placing one bid for each one of you. The shopper who places the most bids into BidBuddy will have the last bid and win.

DealDash has the best automated bidder I have ever seen because there is no bid limit and it is very easy to add or delete bids at any time. When we place our bids into BidBuddy, they will be safe there and will not be used until the clock gets down to zero.

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Lessons Learned, Relearned

I have been shopping on DealDash.com since Feb. 8, 2012, and over the years, I’ve learned several valuable shopping lessons. 

Perhaps the most important lesson I learned is that if I do not shop on DealDash on a regular basis, I might have to relearn some of the lessons I had already previously learned.

I’m sure you might have heard people say, “Practice makes perfect.” I never believed that. Instead, I correct that quote to say, “The right kind of practice makes perfect.”

After being away from shopping on DealDash for a while, I went back on the site today to once again do some serious shopping. In the process of doing that, I was quickly reminded of some of the lessons I had learned before that I failed to pay attention to and needed to relearn again.

If Not Winning One Auction, Find Another

It has been my experience that certain auctions tend to sell extra low or extra high. Let me give you an example. The 1X and 2X auctions usually sell extra low or extra high. Why is that?

When we first start bidding in an auction, we may only intend to invest a limited number of bids. But what happens if we see the auction is down to only one other bidder when it’s time for us to stop and go find another auction? We will be tempted to place more bids when it looks like we could win any minute. Once we start adding more and more bids in an auction, we often end up getting overly committed and all the more determined to win it. That happened to me today.

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