DealDash.com is truly a success story. It started out small, only one of 300 online auction sites, but after being in business 14 years, today DealDash is the second biggest and longest-running penny-auction shopping site.
Therefore, I decided to write a blog about some of the amazing DealDash history:
- When and how DealDash got started,
- How I first learned about DealDash, and
- The first DealDash TV commercial (that I was in)
How DealDash got started
William Wolfram, as a 16-year-old Finnish entrepreneur, founded DealDash Feb. 22, 2009. After bidding and losing some money on another shopping site, William was devastated to learn he had no way to recover his bids or any of the money he lost.
That’s when Wolfram got the bright idea to start his own similar, but fair and honest, shopping site. To make DealDash different and better than other shopping sites, he decided to:
- Make his shopping site 100 percent risk-free to try (by giving all new customers up to 90 days to get all their money back from their first bid pack purchase if they did not win);
- Give his customers the ability to reclaim their bids if they did not win (by using his Buy-It-Now option, any customer can get their bids back free to use in another auction);
- Make shipping and handling free of charge, and
- Make DealDash a fun and entertaining shopping site.
How I first heard about DealDash
I retired from my job as an Army newspaper journalist and editor in April 2009, but I did not start shopping on the DealDash until three years later on Feb. 8, 2012.
I was looking for information for a speech project. As an active member of Toastmasters International (a nonprofit public speaking and leadership organization), I needed to give a speech comparing the pros and cons of more than one service or product. That’s when I got the idea to compare penny-auction sites.
Another penny-auction site kept popping up on my computer, so I thought there must be more than one. I found 300 of them. Of course, that was far too many, so I selected four that appeared near the top of the list. Because of search engines and key words, DealDash was one of them. As I tried them out and took notes, DealDash soon stood out from the other three. BidBuddy was definitely the best automated bidder.
After giving my speech, I decided to do a more in-depth study and sell my report to the CEOs of the companies in exchange for money or a free bid pack. Before rating each company for its customer service, I gave each one a phone call and pretended to be a disgruntled customer. DealDash customer service passed my little test with flying colors for two reasons: First, DealDash made its contact information very easy to find. Second, David O’Weger was the first one I talked with at DealDash and he was so nice and helpful, I could not stay disgruntled for long.
I sent out the same letter to all four of the CEOs of those penny-auction sites, offering to give them a copy of my report in exchange for money or a free bid pack. DealDash was the only one that responded. I was so impressed when I learned Wolfram was the youngest CEO in America when he started the company. I was even more impressed when he actually listened and had the courage to implement some of my most risky ideas. One of my ideas was that he should do a TV commercial.
DealDash’s first commercial
Not long after that, I received a phone call from O’Weger asking me if I wanted to be in their first DealDash TV commercial. At first, a few other customers and I went to NYC, but we did not have the items we won with us. So later on, the first DealDash TV commercial was done in LA at an actual Hollywood studio. That studio had some of the items we won there, and they also had some real actors who were in movies there, including a real Hollywood stunt driver. After we were done making the TV commercial, the stunt driver took me back to the airport. The way he weaved in and out of traffic and stopped the last moment before we were about to crash scared the living daylights out of me. After the crazy ride to the airport, it was the first time I felt safe flying home. What an adventure!
The bottom line
I have been shopping on DealDash.com for more than 10 years. As other long-time, loyal DealDash customers know, many changes have been made since those early days. I believe the years 2012 -2013 were years of tremendous growth for DealDash. I believe its first commercial started airing in early 2013, and it was about that time the company exceeded its first million customers, too.
Now DealDash has more than 20 million customers and they have thousands of auctions every day, 24-hours a day, 7 days a week. The DealDash store never closes, and it will be interesting to see what great successes are yet to come.
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.