Simply the Best... Prices!
Where to find great deals on the Web
Another question that I get frequently is a variation of "Where can I find the best price on product X?" The Internet is a fantastic tool for bargain shopping in two respects. First, online retailers almost always offer prices that are significantly lower than brick-and-mortar retail stores such as Wal-Mart or Best Buy (even more so because most online retailers offer free shipping and don't assess sales taxes). Second, the vast amount of information available online makes researching products (which is why you're here, right?) and comparison shopping far easier than it's ever been before. Let's look at comparison shopping first.
When it comes to comparison shopping on the web, there are two web addresses you should remember: Pricegrabber.com (the destination of the "Find the best deal on.." links at the end of each of my reviews) and Shopping.com. A search for product name or model number on either site will return a list of online vendors offering the product and the prices, shipping fees, and taxes (if applicable) that each assesses. Most of the time, you'll find that it's the same selection of retailers that offer the best value (personally, I'm a frequent satisfied customer of Buy.com, Newegg.com, and Amazon.com). When comparison shopping, don't forget to consider the cost of shipping. Free shipping offers can considerably reduce the total amount of a purchase, and it usually doesn't result in a longer wait for your order. Case in point: Buy.com's free shipping saved me almost $50 on the Canon printer we recently purchased, and the printer arrived the next day (ordered at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday and delivered at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday). You can't beat that!
As far as research is concerned, I find that Cnet and PC Magazine provide consistently thorough and accurate expert reviews, but it's always a good idea to check user reviews (found on any of the retail sites mentioned above) before purchasing. Sometimes, a product tests well in a lab, but quality and useage issues creep up over the months (and sometimes years) that consumers use it on a daily basis.
To sum up, if you research expert and consumer reviews of a product and use a shopping tool like Pricegrabber to find the best price, you really can't go wrong.
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4 comments:
Nice review of the essentials, but missing a must have. Google's Product Search will not only find the products, but gives you tech specs, reviews, and price comparisons from all the leading vendors. It will also link you directly to the vendor to purchase or you may be able to buy with Google Checkout. Try it under the "Shopping" link from Google's home page.
You're right. I hadn't checked out Google Product Search in a while, but it combines all of these functions in a very Google-ish (read: functional) way. It's too bad they changed the name of this service, though--Froogle was a much better name than "Google Product Search."
Hi Casey! Nice blog!
Was wondering if you had used pricewatch.com and have an opinion about it. It's best for buying computer parts but has a lot of other electronic stuff as well. I've built a couple of computers with parts from there, though people I know who regularly build computers stick to a single vendor for consistent support. Alan
Thanks for the tip, Alan. I have not used pricewatch.com, but a cursory glance does tell me that it would be a useful tool for system builders and upgraders but probably not so much for the average electronics-purchasing consumer.
I love the responses that I've gotten to this post... I've probably learned more about online deal-finders than my visitors have.
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