Knowing Your Competition and Why it’s Important

Let’s talk about an important fact of knowing your competition when playing DealDash auctions.

You see an auction coming up that you like, you do your research to see if the Buy it Now price is something you’re willing to pay if you don’t WIN, you check the reviews of the product online, and you decide that you really want this item. Guess what? So do a lot of other people!

According to Wikipedia our beloved DealDash has over four million registered users! Of course, a good portion of those users probably have dormant accounts, or just don’t bid all that often, but let’s face it – there is some stiff competition out there, especially for the most sought-after items like laptops and iPhones.

That’s where this article is going to assist you. I am here to tell you that before you bid on anything even halfway popular you need to get to know your competition. I personally usually bid on lower-end household items, toys, and gift cards on an as-needed basis. I see the same people bidding on the auctions that I’m interested in again and again. Here is how I “got to know” my competition: I made a spreadsheet.

I work over-nights, and as long as there are no emergencies I have a lot of downtime where I am free to go online as I wish, so I spend hours and hours watching auctions even if I’m not planning on bidding on them. I tend to look at auctions that come up pretty frequently, say video games, and I watch and record the user names of people bidding on them. I also record the approximate amount of bids that I think they put in, by dividing the current auction price by the amount of people using Bid Buddies. It’s not an exact science, but you can tell when someone has put in a fairly low number of bids like 10 versus a higher amount like 50 or 75. Then after every auction is done I alphabetize the names on my list, so I can look them up easily the next time I see them bidding on something that I’m interested in.

Another way to know your competition is to pay 1 bid to see “Who’s on their limit”, which means you can see who has already filled their 6 under $200 and 3 over $200 slots for the week. This can be helpful if you primarily bid in one category and see the same names coming up over and over. If they are on their limit it means that they won’t be able to bid against you in that day’s auctions.

I hope that these tips have helped you, and good luck to everyone!