Long-time shoppers on DealDash.com will usually develop different bidding styles to win auctions than new customers. We all develop our own different winning styles. Regardless, we all have a few things in common.
First, we love DealDash because it’s a fun and entertaining way to shop. For some customers it becomes a hobby to pass time and prevent boredom in retirement. DealDash is also a great opportunity to win bargains on gifts for children, grandchildren and friends. Over the last l0 years, I won several expensive products on DealDash that I could not afford to buy in a regular store.
Second, we all know we must place at least one bid in an auction before it reaches the “No New Bidders” limit, which is usually at $5. If we fail to do so, we will not be allowed to participate in the auction.
Other than those few things DealDash shoppers have in common, we differ greatly when it comes to our bidding habits and styles. Some of us are early shoppers, some are late shoppers, and some are what I call sporadic bidders. What kind of shopper are you?
If one style of bidding is not working for you, perhaps it’s time to choose another one. Let’s take a look at some of the pros and cons of bidding styles.
Early bidders
Early bidders will consistently place the bulk of their bids into the auction they want to win as soon as the auction opens or even before it opens. One disadvantage to this bidding style is that those shoppers will often run out of bids before the auction closes. One advantage to this bidding style, however, is that sometimes an auction sells early. That means whenever early shoppers do win, they always win at a minimal cost and get some of the best deals.
Knowing most shoppers only place one bid when an auction opens, I decided to place more than one bid (maybe 3 to 11 bids). Then when the auction closed early and I was the only one who placed more than one bid, I would have the winning bid. Sometimes that works!
Late bidders
Most experienced bidders like to save the bulk of t heir bids until the auction gets down to the last two to three players. That’s when they place the bulk of their bids, or at least that’s the plan. One disadvantage to this late style of bidding is that sometimes auctions unexpectedly close early and then those shoppers miss out on having the opportunity to win it because they are not there when it closes. Of course, the idea is to win an auction using the least number of bids as possible. Therefore, one of the advantages of being a late bidder is that it is one way to save bids. By not placing bids when there are a dozen or more competitors, late bidders save their bids to use only when they think the auction is about to close. When using the late bidder style to winning auctions, the key is knowing when it’s the best time to add the bulk of our bids. If too many of our competitors are using the late bidder style, then the auction could be running for a long time. So we must figure out the best time to add the bulk of our bids and know how many bids it might take to win. Do we add our bids at $5 or $15 or much later?
Sporadic bidders
These bidders are unpredictable. They show up when we least expect and we never know how long they will stick around or when they might suddenly disappear. The sporadic bidder might have a plan or a pattern of bidding or they might not. In an effort to save bids, sporadic bidders might only place 10 or 20 bids for every dollar the auction goes up. The greatest disadvantage to this kind of bidding is that it’s highly likely the auction might sell when they are not there. The greatest advantage to this kind of bidding is that the sporadic bidder might still have bids left at the end of the auction and win after everyone else has run out.
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.