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How Do Shoppers Decide How Much to Bid?

Did you go shopping on DealDash.com during Black Friday Week? If so, I’m sure you noticed a lot of great auctions and holiday deals. DealDash had special Black Friday promotions like an increased time as highest bidder multiplier, up to 90% off the final sales price of the auction, and Leaderboard Auctions. These features offer incentives to bidders, so sometimes it makes sense to adjust your bidding strategy in an auction and invest more bids than you would normally. Of course, the good news is that we could always BIN if we didn’t win. Here are some things that motivated me during Black Friday Week to adjust my bidding strategy.

Exciting auctions and unbeatable deals are always just a click away on DealDash.

Motivation #1

The first thing that motivated me was the DealDash features of 5X, 4X and 3X times on the clock. My progress meter to completing my level was near the end and I had 1,900 free bids waiting for me to collect. Therefore, my main focus was taking advantage of that extra time on the clock.

Most likely, many other shoppers were in the same boat and were motivated by the increased Time As Highest Bidder multiplier, too. I did not really care if I won the auction or not as long as I was bidding enough to move that clock all the way to the right, which was my main focus. It worked. I did not win my auctions, but I collected my free bids, so all was not lost.

Motivation #2

The second thing that motivated me was the Leaderboard Feature. Some shoppers are experts at taking the lead to qualify for free bids and knowing just when to leave to move on to other auctions where they can qualify for more free bids there, too. In fact, it appears some shoppers have it down to a science in knowing how to use that feature to rake in lots of free bids.

I thought I had it down to a science, too. However, it doesn’t always work out the way we might expect. A couple times I had so much lead time that I thought it was safe for me to leave the auction. I thought the auction would sell before anyone had a chance to catch up to me and overtake the lead. I was wrong. I seldom won as many free bids as I thought I would, but I learned a few lessons. First, when we have already qualified for free bids and the auction gets down to only one competitor, we might be better off to cancel our bids and allow our competitor to win to prevent anyone else from “stealing’ our free bids away. Second, if we want to remain in the lead during the Leaderboard feature, it’s important to check back and keep a close eye on the bidding.

Motivation #3

The third thing that motivates me is the 90 percent off the selling price feature. I don’t worry about the selling price if I only have to pay 10 percent of it at the end. Usually, I stop bidding when the selling price of the auction starts getting higher if I would have to pay the full amount. What we need to keep in mind is that other players are most likely thinking the same thing. Therefore, we might end up with too many players determined to shop until they drop, so it could be a very long auction.

I always look at the dates my competitors first started shopping on DealDash because it is often easier to beat new shoppers who don’t have much experience. However, sometimes those new shoppers surprise me at how long they are willing to hang-in-there. They must be reading all the tips I’ve been writing about in my blogs!

What can we do?

If we find we are not winning auctions, what can we do? That is the question. When I looked at the closing prices of some of the auctions I saw that some customers still won great bargains in spite of the fact that some shoppers were willing to hang in an auction longer. When I saw that, the next question I had was, “Why not me?” 

When I looked at what the winners were doing, I would have to say the answer is to that question is that I remained stuck too long on one or two auctions. Many winners were bidding in auctions all over the place. So the answer to my last question is to diversify. The next time DealDash runs a huge special I plan to diversify, diversify, diversify, and then I’ll see if that works out better for me. What will you do?

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.

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My Favorite Auctions

I have been shopping on DealDash.com since Feb. 8, 2012, and over the years I won many auctions at bargain prices.

Some of my favorite wins were luxury linens, cookware pots and pans and purses. Nobody can go wrong by shopping for such high-quality and useful items.

Luxury Linens

Thanks to DealDash, I now have plenty of luxury sets of sheets for both the king and queen beds in my house, with a few sets to spare. I also won some comforters that I just love because they feel so good.

The reason I shop for extra linens now is because they also make wonderful wedding and Christmas gifts.

Cookware Sets

DealDash has offered many different kinds of cookware sets that included small sauce pans to large pots and frying pans. My favorite pans, however, were sold individually and are made out of 100 percent stainless steel. They are sure to last me a lifetime. Nobody can go wrong by shopping for such high-quality cookware.

Purses

DealDash has also offered a variety of women’s purses, which I especially like. When it comes to purses, ask any woman. I doubt we could ever have too many. You might say most women like to have a purse for all occasions.

When I travel, I prefer to have a large purse that will not only hold all of my makeup, comb and lotion, but also has enough room to hold a book to read during my flight. Whenever I’m just making a quick trip to a grocery store or going to a movie theater, however, I prefer to use a medium-sized purse that is not too heavy. If I’m going out for the evening, I might want a small purse that matches the color of my dress.

Thank you DealDash!

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.

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DealDash Shopper Turns Sheets into Masks

When I first started shopping on DealDash.com in 2012, one of the first things I noticed was the feeling of being a part of a friendly and caring community. Now, more than ever, that feeling of “we’re in this together” has shown to be true.

Ever since COVID-19 has spread throughout the world, many caring people have come together in a big way, including DealDash. After announcing its huge donation of protective face masks, the effort to help contribute has now trickled down to include some DealDash patrons as well.

One DealDash customer got several sets of sheets that she is now putting to a much different use than expected. Instead of using them on a bed, this customer decided to use her sheets to make and distribute protective face masks to restaurants, doctor’s offices, nursing homes, gas stations and pharmacies. No doubt, providing these protective masks will end up saving countless lives.

Working Together

Often times during a crisis, such as COVID-19, we see the best characteristics come out in humankind as everyone works together toward a common goal. Knowing that DealDash and some of my fellow shoppers have joined in this effort makes me feel even more proud to be part of the DealDash community.

By working together, we will all soon see a light at the end of this awful period of quarantine. Let’s give a big shout-out of praise to DealDash and all of its patrons, especially this customer who put her winning sheets to such good use.

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.

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Go With the Flow

If you go with the flow when shopping on DealDash.com you will probably win more than you know.

Now what do I mean when I say, “go with the flow?”  It’s another way of saying if you see an auction that looks like it might close early don’t give it another thought because it probably will.

For example, a few moments ago, I had the feeling that the auction for the Metropolitan Magazine subscription looked like it was about to close early, so I quickly bought a package of bids with the idea of placing some bids on it. Just then a third bidder jumped into the auction, so I changed my mind. Well, I could just kick myself for changing my mind because moments later that auction did close early and I could have been the winner if had just gone with my first instinct. I cannot tell you how many times this happened to me. Most of the time I think an auction might close early, it usually does.

To play it safe, so we don’t miss another “easy win” auction, here’s what we should do:

  • If the auction is down to two or three bidders, immediate place enough bids on the auction to give ourselves some thinking time. So many times an auction closed while I was “just thinking about it.”
  • While we are thinking about it, count the number of other bidders in the auction. If 30 or fewer customers placed a bid in the auction and we do not see any screen names of recognizable power bidders, we probably should invest some more bids in the auction.
  • Check the sale price of previous auctions. If an auction closed for an extra high sales price one time, the next time it often sells for less.

Analyze it, but if we really want to win the auction and our gut instinct tells us it might close early, the best suggestion I would give you is to go for it. If we get into the habit of just “going with the flow,” we may be glad we did.

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.