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Here are the sites you want to check out before you check out...
| Site |
Description |
| TechBargains |
Sometimes you want to just have bargains fall in your
lap, and here's the site to do it. But better be quick, once it's
up, the swarm grabs them up fast! |
| FatWallet |
The forum here is useful for finding bargains and seeing
comments on the products once obtained. It's more chaotic to find
things, not as concise as techbargains, but another tool in your arsenal. |
| PriceGrabber |
Covers many items technical. It can at times come up with things
listed under alternate (incorrect) names. I like this one a lot,
there is a feature to notify you of price drops for items. And entering
your zip code will calculate shipping into the total. Paid listings.
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| BizRate |
Covers tech and other items like appliances. Paid listings.
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| PriceWatch |
This site is the first price engine I recall seeing. Covers some
consumer electronics, but mainly geared toward computer related
components. Go here to find cheap memory, drives etc.. The vendors
are the smaller level, and you can get better deals this way, if
you trust the company. Wacky interface but good. Paid listings.
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| MySimon |
The site with the goofy computer guy. Covers all kinds
of products. Paid listings. |
| Froogle |
Google keeps this site pretty quiet, and calls it beta, but it's
very useful, especially finding odd items. It basically crawls the
entire internet (using Google's data of course) and grabs products.
It gets it right sometimes, but sometimes not. But you can always
visit the web page to see the real item. It's getting better all
the time, you can now sort by price (sorely lacking that before!)
and view categories of items.
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| Google |
Don't forget about just plain searching! Although froogle
can help, sometimes you'll catch some price or current deal information
on a web based message board. |
| Shopper.com |
Run by cnet, same engine you'll get while reading zdnet
as well. On par with pricegrabber. Paid listings. |
| Shopping.yahoo.com |
Search for items that are in paid listings, and also
the yahoo shops. The yahoo shops tend to be smaller vendors (otherwise
they would have their own web site for ecommerce!), but it's a good
balance. Yahoo can somewhat add some comfort in buying from these
vendors, because they would be booted out if they weren't reputable. |
| Ebay |
It's not all used stuff, but used can be the way to
go. It is a bit risky. But lots of small vendors use ebay as a marketing
gimmick, and even if you don't find a good bid, you may discover a
vendor with good deals. Just look in the descriptions for links. |
Other Tips
Beware the shipping costs! Lots of these guys get you with the shipping
and "handling". And you have to drill down into the checkout
before you find out!
Find out the return policy. For example, when you buy an LCD monitor,
could you return it no questions asked? Pay the shipping? Remember, with
LCD monitors, they aren't "defective" until a certain number
of pixels are dead (one is plenty in my book!) The same applies for digital
cameras, you can get a dead or stuck pixel.
I can't speak for buy.com recently, but two years ago when I got my digital
camera, it had a stuck pixel. With them, I found my item in my account
history, clicked on the return button, and out pops a ups label for shipping,
what could be better?
That's about it. If you can correct my inevitable mistakes and omissions,
just email.
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