DealDash Tips

May 4, 2014

DealDash Bidding Tip: Stay Focused

I must admit, the biggest problem I have is patience. Waiting it out is not my forte. One of the best DealDash tips I can give you is to stay focused.

I have lost more auctions by putting a few bids on my Bid Buddy and either walking away to do something or getting involved in my Mahjongg game only to come back a find out I lost the auction. And to add insult to injury, I was the second to last bidder. If only I had stayed focused, I could have at least had a chance. It just happened to me very recently. I was bidding on a Monarch Specialties White Juvenile Chair and Ottoman for my grandson and I plugged in a few bids, walked away, came back to find several other bidders had dropped out and then my bids ran out, making me the next to the last bidder, or the loser!!
Previously I was lucky enough to win a Manual Series 92-inch Projector Screen by Elite Screens for $1.78. I then needed to try for the projector to go with it. Once again I was just 2 away from winning and the projector which sold for $0.91.

Thus I have to try very hard to change how I bid in the future. I need to remain focused and not lose site of what I want in the end – the win! I hope maybe DealDash will add a feature for us “drifters” in the future and add a verbal or noise alert when our bids are about to run out. I know it would help me! Until then I will be more diligent when bidding in the future.

I have been shopping as a DealDash bidder since 9-2012. I have won over 150 auctions. I live in Ohio with my family. Written by Kim Finnegan

ALSO SEE: Patience, Patience, Patience

May 3, 2014

Summer Fun for Less with DealDash Guide: Bid on Fly Fishing Trip Gear

This stunning fly fishing photo was taken by famous fly fishing photographer Angus Drummond. Talk about a beautiful, relaxing summer trip!

Are you planning on going on a fishing trip this summer? If you love fishing I bet you dream all about the perfect fishing trip – the perfect catch, the perfect spot, the perfect rod & reel and just enjoying being outside near the water on a warm sunny day, or out on the ice in an ice house.

If you aren’t sure where to go on your next fishing trip here’s a great site offering a fishing trip guide. If you want to save money on equipment, but not sure where to go, our guide here will help!

Allow me to introduce you to fly fishing, if you’re not familiar, and a few ways to get great deals on Fly Fishing Gear!

Have you tried Fly Fishing? Fly Fishing is an angling method that involves the use of an artificial “fly” to be used to lure the fish after it’s cast using a fly rod. Fly fisherman use hand tied flies that resemble flies or worms or other food organisms. For some, tying flies is an art. Fly fishing is usually done to catch freshwater fish such as trout, salmon or steelhead and technique differs by habitat.

Want to give it a try? Fly fishing takes place in beautiful areas from Montana, to Wyoming, Washington, Utah and Alaska. By the way, the Sundance Resort in Provo, Utah looks like a great place to go fly fishing, one guest said: “

“The fishing is awesome–two rainbows, two brown trout and one cutthroat trout. All in one beautiful afternoon.” – Jo Cooper, Washington, DC”

Looking for a fly fishing kit to get started?

DealDash has deals on a Crystal River Fly Fishing Combo Kit it’s not yet scheduled, so be sure to click this link to sign up to be notified of when the auction will start if you are interested!

From the kit’s description:

“Over 70 years of experience has produced tackle that’s better than tactics.
Pre-packaged combos make selecting the right equipment for getting started a snap eliminating the guesswork that can be so intimidating to a newcomer.
For anyone after a simple, well balanced fly combo, the Crystal River Series is just plain hard to beat.
These are serious combos that will more than hold their own against the most stubborn of fish.
Anglers with discerning tastes will be proud to walk down to the stream’s bank with this excellent Fly Fishing Combo Kit.”
Features include:

8 foot 3 piece fly rod
#6/7 weight rod and reel
Emerald green E-glass blank
Eva foam grip
Graphite reel seat w/Stainless hoods
Aluminum oxide stripper guide
Graphite body
Right hand retrieve reel
Built-in hook keeper
Fly line
Tapered leader
Two flies
Instructions for tying five basic fishing knots and general fly fishing

If you’re fly fishing you will also need a fly fishing vest. This vest is the Steans Gram 3F Fly Fishing Vest is an inflatable lifejacket with pockets to hold your fly fishing gear. It’s valued at $215.03. If you’re interested in trying to get a deal on it be sure to click the “Alert Me” button on the item’s page.

Tired of your fishing rods getting all tangled up in the closet? You should check out this auction for a Rush Creek Fishing Rack on DealDash.com and be sure to get notify of when an auction for one will be live. The rack holds up to 6-rods and keeps them organized for when you’re ready to go out fishing again!

New to penny auctions and have yet to try DealDash – click here to go to DealDash.com and start bidding. Follow this blog for daily updates and DealDash tips too!

May 2, 2014

DealDash Ice Cream Social: Best Ice Cream Recipes & Ice Cream Makers

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream! Ice cream is perfect for any day, be it a hot sunny summer day or a cold and rainy one, ice cream always hits the spot.

“Without ice cream, there would be darkness and chaos.”
― Don Kardong

There are oodles of ice cream choices in the supermarket, drug store and even gas stations, but nothing beats homemade, slow churned ice cream made right in the kitchen. The best thing about homemade ice cream is that you know what’s going in the ice cream and can savor your finished creation.
How to Make Homemade Ice Cream
1. First, You will need an ice cream maker. DealDash.com has TONS of auctions for ice cream makers, over 15 types – no joke!

Hamilton Beach Half Pint Soft Serve Ice Cream Maker in a variety of colors.

What’s so great about this little machine is that it’s perfect if you just want a bowl of ice cream or a serving for two. You can make it and serve it in the same bowl! No rock salt or special ice cream mixes needed. All you have to do is put the bowl in the freezer over night (or for like 8-10 hours) and make your ice cream the next day. Ice cream can be made in this little powerhouse in as little as 6-12 minutes! It’s cordless and runs on batteries (included). Buy it now price on DealDash is just $24.99 or you can bid and try to win for less!

You can’t buy happiness, but you can buy ice cream. And that’s kind of the same thing.

Nostalgia Electrics 4 Qt. Ice Cream Maker, Blue

Now we’re talking… 4 qts. vs. 1/2 a pint, I’d be in an frozen sweet treat heaven :-p.

This ice cream maker features an electric motor that does the churning for you. Just add the ingredients, press the rocket switch and enjoy! Buy it now price is $29, bid and maybe you will win it for less!

KitchenAid Ice Cream Maker for Most KitchenAid Stand Mixers

Now this is a great idea if you already have a Kitchen-Aid Mixer. If not, you can also bid on one on DealDash Buy it now price is $80 – the last one sold for just $1 (100 bids by all bidders!). You’ll be able to make batches of frozen desserts up to 2 quarts.

Nostalgia Electrics Mix `N Twist Ice Cream & Toppings Mixer
Move over ColdStone! With this soft serve ice cream mixer all you have to do is add ice cream and toppings and push a button and you will have a creamy, delicious soft serve concoction.

Cuisinart Compressor Ice Cream and Gelato Maker
What could be even better than ice cream? Creamy gelato! Make luscious ice cream and gelato with this commercial grade Cuisinart ice cream and gelato maker. The buy it now price is $299.99, but try to win it for less and start making fancy desserts! There are paddles included for both ice cream and gelato. You can also add in mix-ins from the see-through lid and there’s even a keep cool function to keep the gelato cool.

Ice cream is an excellent beginning to any apology.

Healthy Foods Yonanas Ice Cream Maker, Black/Silver
This one has to be the healthiest and easiest ice cream maker on the planet! It’s the YoNanas banana ice cream maker! I’ve made banana ice cream before with a masticating juicer, but this is made specifically for banana ice cream and let me tell you if you’re lactose intolerant, trying to lose weight and eat clean or just love frozen treats and bananas, this is the machine that you need to have! All you do is freeze bananas, maybe some strawberries, mangos, raspberries or any fruit that you love and put it in the top of the machine and plush the plunger attachment down– out comes creamy frozen goodness! What better way to get your servings of vegetables than this! The bananacream comes out like a soft serve ice cream. You could even go real crazy and add ingredients like chocolate, honey, cayenne pepper, nuts, caramel sauce or anything else that you love. Buy it now is $50.
2. Now that you know about a few, there really are over 15 different types of ice cream makers on DealDash, it’s time to learn how to make ice cream!

Each ice cream maker is more than likely to come with a recipe book, but here’s my all-time favorite homemade ice cream recipe direct from Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream – a chain of gourmet ice cream shops that started out in Ohio.
Jeni’s Ice Cream Base – Recipe Source: Saveur Magazine
MAKES ABOUT 1 QUART
INGREDIENTS

2 cups milk
4 tsp. cornstarch
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
2/3 cup sugar
2 tbsp. light corn syrup
1/4 tsp. kosher salt 3 tbsp. cream cheese, softene

INSTRUCTIONS
In a bowl, stir together 1/4 cup milk and the cornstarch; set slurry aside. In a 4-qt. saucepan, whisk together remaining milk and the cream, sugar, syrup, and salt; bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook for 4 minutes; stir in slurry. Return to a boil and cook, stirring, until thickened, about 2 minutes. Place cream cheese in a bowl and pour in 1/4 cup hot milk mixture; whisk until smooth. Then whisk in remaining milk mixture. Pour mixture into a plastic bag; seal, and submerge in a bowl of ice water until chilled. Pour mixture into an ice cream maker; process according to manufacturer’s instructions. Transfer ice cream to a storage container and freeze until set.
Mix-in topping combination ideas:

-Almond + Swiss Dark Chocolate Shavings
-Frozen raspberries and caramel sauce
-Mexican Chocolate & Cayenne Pepper Powder
-Chocolate covered cherries
-Walnuts and cherries
-Island Style Mango, Passionfruit, Raspberry
-Vanilla Bean
-Lavender Honey
-Blackberry
-Peach & Pecan Praline

The possibilities are truly endless!
Craving ice cream? Visit DealDash and score a great deal on an ice cream maker.
Do you have a favorite ice cream maker + recipe? Share it with us below!

May 1, 2014

Bid Wiser: Track Your Spending and DealDash.com Wins & Losses

Do you find yourself losing more money than you are winning items? It’s time to get smart. Money smart. If you aren’t keeping track of your expenses it’s about time you start. A great app to manage your financial transactions and always know what is in your bank account is the Mint smartphone app from Mint.com for Windows 8, iPad, iPhone and Android devices.

Here are some great tips to help you keep track of your spending on DealDash.com and any other penny auction site.

1. Set limits

Don’t spend more money on bids than you can afford to lose, because if you don’t win the only way to not lose the money you spent on bids is to use buy it now on the item you lost. If you say you are only going to spend $50 to try and win that new dresser set or Nespresso espresso machine, stay true to your word. Maybe even put a post-it note on your computer screen, buy a bid pack with the determined amount of bids you can afford to lose if you lose and don’t buy more bids after that until you’ve either won or can feel ok about losing what you lost if you don’t win.

2. Set Up a Dedicated Bidding Account

You don’t have to set up an entirely new bank account for your bidding activities, but what you could do is get a pre-paid Visa credit card and fill it with the amount each month that you can use just for your penny auction bidding. Believe me, if you don’t do this and use your regular credit or debit card your spending could get out of control and you will be more shocked when you see your statements than you should be.

3. Track your wins

There’s a new app, like Mint, but ctually keep track of your “worth” in goods such as cars or merchandise, this could be something to try to keep a database of everything you have won and what the items are worth. The app is called Trov (Trov.com) and it will let you store the things you own, get current market values of your things, organize them and when and if it comes time to sell them, Trov even has a sharing option.

. Or you could just view your won auctions from the DealDash user dashboard to see what all you have won and what you paid for each item.

5. Track time, and money. Compare wins with bid pack purchases

This is a great way to pinpoint and keep track of what you really paid for your won items. Set up a Quicken Spreadsheet with specific columns one for the item – one for the value, one for the amount of time you spent to win (or lose) remember time= money. Lastly, create a column for how much you spent in bids to equal how much money you really saved on each item.

6. Take a look at the data you collected.

Are you ahead or are you at a negative as far as saving money goes? If you’re the latter you may just want to take a step back, re-evaluate and take our simple tips to heart and start limiting and tracking your activity on DealDash.com

Be an informed penny auction bidder.

If you have any questions about DealDash, wondering what type of items they have be sure to check out our previous posts here filled with tips, strategies and item guides.

Do you have tips for mana ging and keeping track of your spending on DealDash.com? Let us know about it here!