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Where Did All The Online Bargains Go?
cornflux writes: "There's something I've wondered recently -- 'Where did all the good deals go?' It seems I'm not the only one -- Business 2.0 has an article about the noticable lack of bargains available online, today. The author covers obvious reasons (dried up VC, need for real profit) and some others (pseudo-price fixing). The one thing that was missed is the ever-increasing number of morons who will pay full-retail price + 20% for things on eBay." Note that the piece is largely theoretical -- I've found consistently better prices on the web, even recently, than I have in-store for electronic goods, as well as obscure DVDs which I couldn't find locally anyhow.
That explains everything. There are too many idiots on Ebay, and people too lazy to comparison shop.
Repeal the DMCA!
Too many folks havre found out (as I did) that selling on the net is a good way to waste time and lose money. You run into nut cases, bozos and all the rest who think that because you sold them something (at around cost) that you now owe them the sun the world and the stars in support. The net was and is a good place to sell or buy a commodity item with no support included.. It is also a good place to find the obscure (as you have noted), but for bargains on things that need support, this guy isn't going to be the seller.
I finally got fed up with my cd burner (it sounds like a weedeater when it spins up fully) and decided to wait until after the x-mas season to get some decent bargains. But none were to be had with any decent savings from what they were before the season. Is it that the retailers and assorted sellers can't lower the prices and maintain a profit, or is it that they just got forgot? I'd like to know so I can loose the earplugs and burn at something close to a reasonable speed.
-FireCar
There are lots of good deals online, but then you get the stuff shipped to canada and the prices double at the border... damn duty, taxes, worthless money.
Just my 2 cents.
It might just be the economy/state of mind of the people right now. Who knows what dubjah will do tomorow. Stores don't want to sell to cheaply right now b/c of the small economic drop we had a little while ago. The US economy has been going up since what? 94 or something like this. Little drops prevent the big ones.
Carpe meam simiam!
I've found consistently better prices on the web, even recently, than I have in-store for electronic goods
There was a related article in the NY times this week about electronics manufacturers who inflate their list prices so that retailers can easily offer their goods at a "bargain".
Toronto-area transit rider? Rate your ride.
There are a lot of good hotel rates to be found, and some flights are offered cheaper online too. I think this article is talking more about material goods, and not as much about services.
Try and pick any electronics in your local CompUSA or Fry then go to PriceGrabber or my favorite Pricewatch and you will see there is plenty of good deals on the net.
Often you have to go thru a special Netpage or input a comment for getting the PriceWatch price. I find it a bit annoying but understand the reasoning.
Help fight continental drift.
Perhaps you have never been to Fatwallet.com or Anandtech's hot deals forum?
I think if you walked away with an Empeg car unit for $199 rather than the original $1k++ pricetag, you might feel otherwise.
Computer hardware is still priced much better online than it is in local stores. That might be because I live in a smaller city, with no large cities nearby, I don't know. Not only is it cheaper, but I can find any parts I need, unlike the local stores, which carry only pre-assembled crap from Compaq and the like. I don't know what I'd do without NewEgg.
Yeah, I just recently sold a Western Digital HD 80 GB (7200 rpm) for $179. The cost to me through a "HOT DEAL" was only $80 (after rebates).
As the saying goes, if you take a dump in a box and charge $5 on ebay for it, is it really worth $5?
That's the heart of the matter. Though a typical Slashdot user's online shopping probably consists of hunting down deals on RAM through Priceline, the average shopper is simply looking for convenience and selection. They're willing to pay a little more for it, too. This mirrors the rest of the catalog shopping world- which the online shopping world is just another part of. And surprise, the online winners, with very few exceptions, are the same companies who have been doing mail order successfully for the last 20 years- Lands End, LLBean, etc.
The death of these businesses has been a good thing for my online bookstore, which is an addition to a business that has been around for twenty years. Now we can reasonably compete with fair prices, whereas before it was hard because of all the damn giveaways and businesses selling merchandise at a loss.
Its not a good thing for the economy in general if you have a bunch of businesses blowing through venture capital by selling their merchandise at a loss or giving it away. But that was the business plan for a great many merchants trying to establish themselves online. Good riddance, I say.
No, Thursday's out. How about never - is never good for you?
To JCPenny this Saturday and Sunday!
Everything in the store is marked down 0.05%!
(no, that is not a typo)
[PowerPoint] is a tool for capitalist presentation
statehood?
:)
Just a suggestion.
Everything in the Universe sucks: It's the law!
You can still get some decent deals on line (Computergeeks.com, anyone?) but overall you're not going to save a great deal on the MSRP online -- unless you're bargain hunting or the site is running a promotion.
Companies finally realized that they can't survive on razor-thin and non-existant margins. The stores that thrive on the 'Net will be ones that offer things that can't be easily found locally -- like the stuff at PCMods, ThinkGeek and all kinds of collector goods. It's also easier to set up a distribution system online for products that don't have a wide appeal, so only producing and shipping a small number makes sense. (Computer badges come to mind...)
Playing the pricing game doesn't really help in the long run -- the stores don't make enough to survive, and it hurts the companies who make the products. If people get used to the idea, for example, that they can buy Red Hat at cost they'll be reluctant to pay full price -- ever. If online stores run enough promotions, people simply learn to wait for the next deep discount instead of buying when they want the product.
I still prefer to do my shopping for many things online (books, computer parts) but I'd rather browse when looking for CDs or clothing.
I can remember a lady at a coffee shop who started selling more cakes of a specific kind when she raised the price. Same product. The perception of the product was that it must not be any good if it was being sold cheaply, but it was alright if it came close to the expected price point.
Of course, with databases, etc, you can quickly find the optimal price point for almost any product online, from a sellers point of view.
Of course, experts know how to do better.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
www.pricewatch.com
www.buy.com
and sometimes amazon.com
I buy books at amazon and it's cheaper than the bookstore, even with shipping. The others have the cheapest computer stuff around.
The only reason to buy something on ebay is if you can't get it anywhere else. Like collector's items, or imported goods. And in those cases it's ok to pay over retail price.
There have always been idiots who would pay twice as much to get the newest video game system the first day it came out. But now there is a place in which they can actually get it.
The internet still has bargains, you just have to know where to look.
The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
...and comparison shopping IS important. Over the holidays, Amazon was offering free shipping on purchases over $100, while Barnes and Noble was offering free shipping for purchasing two or more items. Guess which one I used...Personally, I don't see why people won't use MyPoints.com. You collect points for MyPoints, which you can use to get gift certificates and such down the road when it helps the most - like Christmas.
When millions disappear from earth, it's not aliens, it's the rapture.
I just bought my new Bauer Vapor 8 skates from Hockey Store and according to the guy at the local ice rink where I got them molded I paid less than he would have at his cost! Plus with canadian dollars being very weak compared to the dollar it's a good buy (from the US side). Apparently my skates are discontinued by Bauer so that's probably the reason I got them for $195(USD)! Look out Lemieux here I come (I mean that really I cant figure out how to stop!!!)
RC Cola
How about paying $30 for shipping a dimm? Maybe people got fed up with that shit. Lots of places have 'low prices' until you get to the checkout, and there's an ass-reaming shipping and handling charge. It's usually easy to tell: they won't quote shipping "until you finalize your order" because they know you won't bother. They hope to catch the "oops, I didn't read that" crowd.
Retailers just can't sell at a lost. Their is a lot of competition. In addition, product manufacturers can't sell items at a loss.
But when the market is in flux, all rules are off. Retailers may sell at a loss, and manufacturers might "dump" product onto the marketplace (in lieu of sending it to a landfill, as they often do).
With the Internet economy what it is, retailers aren't willing to sell at a loss for market share, and the tech economy is in a somewhat conservative state (for now).
So no agressive price cuts, but no outrageous prices.
Except for MS Office, of course.
Reminds me of that parody Ninjas Rule website. Fucking real life is usually funnier than comedy. All you have to do is read some morons post and it just brightens your day. Thanks, either way (if you're a moron and it's true, or your being funny). lol (my guess is funny)
I get about a buyer every two weeks in eBay that buys one of my items for twice retail. However, judging by the high number page views (but not bids) in those auctions, it is clear that most people comparison-shop agressively and don't blindly bid on the first search result.
I also agree about finding less bargains around, as it's been hard to find new sources of eBay resellable items on the web.
statehood?
Quite a few people have considered it. However, most Canadians have too much respect for human rights and international law to join a nation which routinely ignores both.
(And if Canada did merge with the US, it would do so as 13 new states, not as one. Without the unifying influence of being "not American" Canada would fall apart entirely.)
Tarsnap: Online backups for the truly paranoid
I see this as a sign that online shopping is starting to become less of a novelty and more of an everyday thing.
Lots of those online price breaks were to encourage people to try online shopping. As more and more people start to buy online, the need to offer incentives goes down and the need to actually profit from online business goes up. It's a classic ploy that even Homer Simpson recognized: "Get us addicted then jack up the price!"
As for the auction sites, it shows to me that sellers are starting to take them seriously. In the past people might have put up a bit of old junk to see how the auction site worked. If it sold for next to nothing, that was okay - chock it up to research. Now, sellers know there are people out there willing to pay for hard-to-find, high demand items, and they set their minimum bids accordingly.
Of course this quasi-recession we're in isn't helping matters, but I think that's only a small part of it. To me this is just the natural evolution of doing business online.
I have found many good things on ebay for cheap like
30 port 10/100 Rackmount switch = 30 bucks
complete HP Jornada still in box = 100 bucks
it takes alot of looking around but if you spend enough time waiting and watching you can find a heck of alot for nothing near the retail price.
To sum up the article, the super bargains were simply hurting all involved too much. And since the information on the pricing was too easily available to competitors, you would end up hurting your self in the long run in a tit for tat price war.
So the competition has changed, rather then price, they compete on service / quality. I dont see the great mystery.
END COMMUNICATION
The truth of the matter is, more people are willing to pay extra to get quality. Case in point: my first online purchase (2 years ago) was a CD burner, and I bought it from the retailer who had the cheapest price. Three months later, still without my CD burner, the company (TheBigStore.com) was out of business, and my $200 was gone.
Now when I buy online, I don't even bother looking for the cheapest price, because I want to know I will recieve my product. I order from reputable big-name companies such as Amazon and WalMart.
If I could mod this up to +10 Insightful I would.
From what I have seen, the trends of online retailers seems to mimic their brick and mortar counterparts.
What I mean by this is that for high turnover items (moves fast into and off of the virtual shelves in terms of sales volume), like new software, DVDs, PS2 games and CD-R blanks, will be almost identically priced. In fact the real storefront is sometimes cheaper when you take taxes/shipping into account. (note: this doesn't take into account rebates)
For items that aren't as fast to sell like older computer hardware or even new hardware that has a fast obsolescence track, online stores have the advantage for their own savings since it doesn't cost them as much to store the old inventory. In some cases the retail environment will be in such a rush to get rid of the equipment they will drop prices a lot lower than they should, just to clear space. Couple this with the fact that as a full chain of stores they have better bargaining power with the manufacturers and can get lower initial prices.
What this means is that for normal transactions an online store can sell older stuff for cheaper and sustain that price, but when new product lines come out, the physical storefront may or may not have a greater discount, depending on how well they manager their warehouses.
Basically we are in a situation where all of the discounts of online business are lost on the items that we buy the most, and they no longer have a nest egg of excess cash to pay for significant price differences.
One thing the author didn't touch on is the power of the RIAA. I wonder what kind of leway the RIAA gives distributers in pricing CD's? Rather then looking at CD's, the author should've discussed home electronics. Bizrate is a great example of bargains available online. I once bought a Sony camcorder that retails at the Sony Store for $1,800 - I bought it through Bizrate for $800 - a whole $1000 cheaper!
I've been looking for a Philips Pronto remote control recently. I've participated in several eBay.ca auctions, but everytime people have bidded the item up to US$190... why bother considering there is a "buy it now" option for $199 with a bonus leather case, or it can be purchased from the seller's web side for $189?! Some people really need to be hit around the head with a clue stick. I guess the bidder's are more interested in participating in an auction than actually get a good bargain.
Your comment "I have noticed lately pricewatch.com isn't the best place to go online for the best price", might be true but this must be the doing of the retailers not Pricewatch themselves. They would have no interest nor means to hike the price. They would have all the interest in the world to see lower prices as this is the sole reason for their existence.
Help fight continental drift.
All the article is really saying, with a lot of words, is that the market has become more efficient. In a market with inefficiencies, arbitrators can always make money by buying low and selling high. This becomes more and more difficult as more parties participate in the market and the inefficiencies are eliminated. (This pattern has repeated itself endlessly, for example, in financial markets.) In other words, to find good deals on the web, you have to look for them in places where not everyone is looking.
The one thing that was missed is the ever-increasing number of morons who will pay full-retail price + 20% for things on eBay."
Bypassing the obvious trollish nature of the word "morons," allow me to educate you. People who live in rural areas cannot walk down to the corner Wal*Mart, Kmart or Target to buy cheap crap. Contrary to popular believe, box stores have not infiltrated every city and town yet. Some people have to drive 100 miles or 6 hours, whichever is more inconvenient.
Much of this cheap crap is not sold online, so these people must use sites like Ebay to buy products that are otherwise unavailable to them. Paying more on Ebay is cheaper than the alternative.
The average Canadian would rather have his/her spleen ripped out with a rutsy bailing hook, than become an American.
OK, that is a slight exageration.
Not everyone deserves a 320i
There was a spate of people posting "XBox box"es on ebay -- the description clearly said "this is the box the XBox came in, the console is sold seperately." Now, I can see one or two people bidding or something, but these auctions, and there were quite a few, got over a *dozen* bids each! Into the several hundred dollar range! For an empty box!
This got a lot of press at fark.com, so people started posting spam auctions. One was for a normal carboard box with an X posted on it, saying "this is not an XBox". It went to $130 until ebay pulled it!
It is still possible to get good deals online. Try comparison shopping at www.mysimon.com.
"Do I dare disturb the universe?"
The one thing for which I ever shopped online was DVDs, and the market has simply DRIED UP.
I used to be particularly fond of reel.com and dvdexpress.com. The former offered some really spectacular deals-- mostly "loss leaders" on major titles (I remember getting "The Matrix" for $12.49) so they could attract the unsure, never-shopped-online buyer, particularly on pre-orders. (It was the equivalent of CompUSA offering a $500 computer on the front page of their flyer, so that the casual customer might be tempted to wander in.) The latter site had generally better prices on the everyday titles. Comparison shop and you'd find great deals, typically better than with retail stores (even with shipping factored in).
The situation these days is terrible. Reel went bust and became a front for buy.com. Buy offered less impressive prices, but it was still sometimes better than shopping in the "real" world. That fell through, or something, and now Reel is a front for 800.com. It's not even worth the time to look.
DVDexpress is even worse. Like most of the rest of express.com, they just sort of stopped shipping product for a good long while as they figured out their financial situations, then reopened their store some time later-- with the kind of prices you'd expect to pay at Suncoast.
These days, if I'm looking to buy a new DVD, I'll most likely drive to Best Buy. They're not always the cheapest sticker price, but shipping isn't a factor, and except in particularly rare cases, this means the final cost is less. I've found that the websites attached to retail stores-- bestbuy.com, circuitcity.com, and so on-- always sync their prices with their real-world counterparts, so they're only useful if you're wondering how much you're going to pay when you get to the store.
The only beacon of hope? I'm in love with deepdiscountdvd.com. They have some screwy prices at first glance, sometimes even a buck, buck and a half more than the other sites, but this is because they also offer "free shipping:" you're going to pay exactly what you see. The site is particularly nice when it comes to, surprise surprise, pre-orders. My hope is that they don't sell out to one of the larger online retailers, because then shopping online would become exactly what we're all afraid of for the net: it'd be nothing more than a counterpart to a small assortment of large real-world corporations.
I really miss the old days, when those of us willing to brave online shopping were treated to unreal deals just because the sites needed to get attention. This is what ate the sites alive, I'm sure, but damn if I don't love the idea of getting cheaper movies because of some sucker venture capitalist.
And don't even get me started on shopping for books online.
As is obvious now, more often than not, unsuspecting consumers will end up paying more than retail for a used product. Who knows, maybe they are paying a premium for the excitement of bidding...but thats a stretch. More likely they simply aren't aware that the product is available for less, brand new.
Also, many sellers are no longer individuals or hobbyists, but professional middle men. I personally know of people who buy in bulk at Fry's and then move the merchandies on EBay, once again, for a profit. This trend has taken the fun out of web auctions and has turned it into a volume operation.
Here are links I always use when Pay Day comes around. Some of them aren't rock-bottom deals, but they are quite reasonable (i.e. better than Best Buy):
Computer Stuff
www.techbargains.com
www.newegg.com
Video Games
www.ebgames.com
www.easybuy2000.com
DVD's
www.dvdpricesearch.com
Books
www.bestbookbuys.com
www.bookpool.com (they have more used i think) Price Comparison
www.pricewatch.com
www.pricescan.com
I'd love to hear from others on this, I wouldn't mind saving more! :)
-jc
Caveat Emptor
I like Tech Bargains and FatWallet. They track the deals so you don't have to.
When buyers have limited information on pricing, sellers can charge a wide range of prices in different locales. As better communications and hence better pricing information becomes available, prices become more uniform. This is initially due to arbitrage (buying a commodity where it is priced low, and reselling somewhere else at a higher price). Later sellers are forced to make their prices more uniform to compete effectively.
A similar effect happened over a hundred and fifty years ago with the invention of the telegraph (see The Victorian Internet by Tom Standage). The Internet initially allowed consumers to a) gain pricing information instantly across the world and b) order goods priced far lower than those available locally. Anecdotally, I've noticed local prices of computer parts at local retailers used to be consistently higher than on-line prices. This is no longer true, frequently I can get better buys from local retailers.
[Insert pithy quote here]
Step outside your perspective and you'll see a nation of $35k earners who are religious WalMart shoppers. Why? Because its almost always the cheapest place to buy things. The stores are dumpy and the clientele dishevelled, but if were about something other than saving money, Amazon and Walmart would have changed places a long time ago.
I just recieved this great online bargain - I get registered in the ^#(^$(#^$(@*#& directory free of cost and then the sender promises to help me GET RICH QUICK!!
-Shaunak.
as a born and raised citizen of the USA, i would mod it (the retort by cperciva, that is) up to +20 at least...
1.)You're a troll
2.)You're a Canadian, which is even worse. Canada has never produced anything of worth in this world, unless you count ice and shrill, mannish singers.
The fact that the prices are not much about market rate is wonderful if you are a seller since you wouldn't otherwise have a chance to sell at the market rate, and
notebook computers (i.e. no OS). With other
retailers including online, it's a hassle to get them *NOT* to install an OS on the system. With
ebay, most notebooks come without an OS and are
$200 or so less expensive. This is good if
you are planning on installing linux or are
replacing another broken/stolen notebook.
I keep seeing all this snippy comments about ebay buyers being idiots and paying more than you-all smarties... but I've never seen it on the stuff I've been selling, but only on the stuff I want to bid on!
Are there any web sites still selling DVD Players with the special Macrovision disable menu? Customizable region coding would be nice too.
I have not found any since last year.
I see no reason why you would pay more than retail for somthing on e-bay when you could access tons of retail and wholsale sites to verify the price is a good deal in the first place.
I was looking for a set of metric gear wrenches there was one person/company who had 8 auctions all for a 5 pc set starting at 35.00 that is full retail for the set!
you would have to be a fool to bid on that.
bidding on e-bay is not brain surgery, you just have to not be lazy.
FWIW, I've had significantly better experiences with (www.)pricescan(.com) than pricewatch (ie. getting lower prices for the same items). Checkitout.
Living in New Zealand and having bought online a lot of times, the killer for us is finding something that's say a bargain at $90 in US dollars and then having to paying another $50 for UPS, which effectively takes the price right up there. Why don't more e-Merchants offer an option of slow boat international shipping rather than, for us outside the US, the expensive options of just Fedex or UPS?
The problem with all these billions of dollars that were used up and wasted on building these online businesses is this: that money was not available to build more productive things.... like, say, power plants in California. And nearly all the money spent was to build unprofitable businesses that encouraged consumption. Despite what McTeer claims (if everyone would just join hands and buy an SUV), economies and wealth do not improve purely from consumption.
:\
Basically: you cannot waste money in that magnitude without having a bad effect on the economy underneath. The subsequent crash and hard times for many techies can be directly related to this foolish overspending -- too many techs were hired in a hurry, so salaries went into the stratosphere, attracting many people into technology that would not otherwise have gone there. Now, there are too many techs, the unemployment rate is high, and salaries are dropping fast.
So, if you're a techie, you should be at least a little bit pissed about the 'stupid venture capitalists'. That money you saved on DVDs, etc. will be deducted from future paychecks.
The reason is that despite what Amazon.com and the others want to tell you, the web is a less efficient way to shop than in a major store.
Why is this? Shipping. It makes a lot more sense to ship 1000 items to the store and have individuals pick them up than it does to have 1000 items shipped to 800 different locations in 900 different packages.
Once real-world stores start having online shopping and real-world pick-up, the prices will fall again.
DealCatcher
great place to find bargains of all types all over the net.
http://www.creepyshirts.com Offensive T-Shirts priced to move baby!
eBay, on the other hand, is an entirely different can of worms. Buyers (and, alas, sellers) range from the very knowledgeable to the completely ignorant. For science fiction first editions, most of the people I know on there will open another window and search for a particularly interesting item on ABE before bidding on eBay. But there are many people who will bid several times what an item is listed for on ABE just because they don't know about the latter.
This is not to say that ABE has completely replaced the local speciality bookseller. For example, I still buy quite a few things at Adventures in Crime and Space, Austin's local SF shop, because I know the owners, its convienant, and many times you see things browsing that you wouldn't know to look for. But many speciality shops are themselves on ABE, especially given the tough post 9/11 business climate.
A free bookbuying tip: Many times, the exact same copy of a used book listed on ABE will show up on Barnes & Noble or Amazon.com, but at 2-5 times the price listed on ABE. That's because ABE has "affiliate" programs that allow such books to be listed on those services, but B&N and Amazon always jack the price up to give themselves a hefty profit margin.
As for conclusions beyond the world of books: Whenever possible, use search engines that give you listings from many different dealers. (It also helps if you have a service like ABE that kicks dealers off if they receive too many complaints.)
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
well, sorta. It describes the (former) apparent dotcom attitude that losing money on the sales was acceptable if it kept the traffic up -- as if traffic were the end and not the means.
But the point is... he meant what he said.
It depends on what you're selling. I've been trying to sell a managed Intel 16-port switch on eBay for the last 3 weeks (I've relisted the auction twice now). It is priced at less than 1/3 retail value (based on cheapest price on pricewatch - I even provided a link to the retailers site), and still may end again tonight without a bid.
This is a serious post (not meant to be a solicitation), but in case you're interested, take a look here.
Cheers everyone.
I can't imagine what the US would be like today without the efforts of Alexander Graham Bell.
I guess the lack of "good deals" is the final proof that web-shopping has finally reached the mainstream, there's no need or place for limited bargain prices anymore since the webshops can't miss the chance of getting some real profit of any customer.
Another angle of this is that normal shops has had to take web competitors seriously and have actually started to become interesting since you have somewhere to complain if what you bough didn't work.
Today, I have for the first time actually considered to buy a brand computer in a major chain. Though, if I was seriously interested I'd probably try to find some stray shop not indexed in any price-database for some sell-outs. There's still that one item for sale somewhere, though the chances might be better in exam periods when poor students hasn't got that much time on their hands.
I've been reading the sunday paper this morning in front of my computer with my digital convergence CueCat:, and I keep swiping the ads- no deals! What's up with that?
Oh well, at least I can still check the price of transistors at radio shack with my free barcode rea^H^H^H CueCat:!
I tried running my cuecat: across a printout of slashdot's website, and it took me to some weird goat site, not sure what's up with that...
microsoftword.mp3 - it doesn't care that they're not words...
But as your parent post noted, there's convenience and selection. Super Walmart's 2 miles down the road, and it has as big a grocery stock as anyplace else, with the chance to pick up other things while we're there. So, they get our money. But there's an Albertson's about to open down the block from us, so maybe that changes things if they're more convenient.
"You're never ready, just less unprepared."
*cough* SPAM *cough* That aside, I've never really had any problems selling anything on ebay for that bad of prices. Heck, there's a guy on ebay that literally just sells stuff he uses throughout the day... bottles, socks.. whatever.
Diabetics would probably disagree.
/. , and
Having said that. Both the anti-American and
anti-Canadian posts:
a) don't really belong in
b) are really fucking ignorant as both countries have
oodles of (usually different kinds of) faults.
Of course, the bargain hunters will never learn because in general people always think short-term rather than long term, and almost nobody will sacrifice small personal gain for greater societal gain.
No, Thursday's out. How about never - is never good for you?
Especially for the digital cameras, I mean, I know Ebay is a cool experience, bidding, winning and all that, but paying MORE than what it's worth, I wonder if these people are the same that are suffering from the gambling problems (like those who get ruined in casinos or with videopoker machines).
:)
Anything that is video/digital but light (shipping) is really crazy on ebay. I was looking for a DLP projector instead of buying a huge ass tv, the amount of video projectors that I saw completed or some of the reserve prices were so crazy, the thing is USED and I could get a refurb unit from the manufacturer CHEAPER with a warranty and a new light bulb! This is just too "x-file" for my understanding, I can understand for a 50$ joycam digital camera, no hassles and you get it, but when it's in the 4 digits, usually, unless you're rich or not spending your own money, you'd tend to shop a bit to see the prices and compare... if you're rich enough to buy something in the 4 digits without even shopping for it first usually you can afford a new unit... this is why I'm wondering if these people are actually morons or it goes deeper than this (like gambling problems), ah anyways, the only thing I can say is: good for the sellers
--- Metamoderating abusive downgraders since my 300th post.
I used pricewatch to find my digital camera online for $190 less than BestBuy's retail price. This was a few months ago, BestBuy still has the jacked up price. I also found a good deal on my printer. For big items like these, it's insane to buy retail before checking pricewatch. They're good for smaller-ticket items too, to get an idea of what prices things are going for. You can then decide whether it's worth the hassle of waiting for it to be shipped or just driving down to Radio Shack or Best Buy. This is especially true here in Montana, where geek supplies aren't terribly readily available.
"Would it kill you to put down the toilet seat?" -- Maya Angelou
The difference on eBay is you have a huge bidding population, so there are more stupid bidders out there that will pay more than an item is worth.
Items like Xbox have a lot more stupid bidders than say, Cisco Routers, IMHO. I don't think the empty Cisco Router box auction would work. Then again, someone could be desparate for an original box to ship it in...
W9x:Thanks for the make-work project Bill.
I don't appreciate that. I've actually been pretty frustrated with the fact that the switch won't sell. I made a remark on ebay and my troubles selling an IT related item. Yes, tacky that I included a link to the auction, but wouldn't you have done the same thing? After all, there *is* a really good chance someone that reads /. would be interested in it.
Apparently you're so eager to bash me/be funny, you decided to ignore the fact that you were being redundant, as I had already conceded that the post could come across as a solicitation.
Ebay is mostly for individuals buying stuff for themselves.
If I was thinking of buying a $700 16 port switch. Ebay is probably the last place I'd check. That looks to be a switch used by businesses and professionals. Not a switch used by individuals.
I'm guessing that the business world probably feels a little unconfortable about buying business products on someplace like ebay, and thats probably the people you want to buy it.
Its sorta like trying to sell managed business-class hosting, or a mainframe; I doubt either would sell on ebay unless they were an insane steal.
Ebay is great for obscure things, but regular retail stuff, no, very rarely to I see good deals.
However, I do see lots of people bidding more than retail prices.
They need an option to email the bidders saying "Hey Jackass, you can buy this for less at this url:" And, maybe if you turn someone on to good deal, you get a commission. That would be cool.
"Would it kill you to put down the toilet seat?" -- Maya Angelou
More too the point... YOU the ANONYMOUS COWARD that wrote this bit of flaimbait have never done anything of significant contribution to humanity. Do you think you earned the right to live in America? You were born here. Nice job.
Had you been born in Canada, you would currently be a Canadian that has never done anything of significant contribution to humanity.
Uganda. Yep same thing.
You speak as if you are somehow responsible for the positive contributions US scientists have given to the world. As it turns out, you are simply an idiot.
There are plenty of sites with deals, I am surpised no one mentioned any of the great coupon sites like dealcatcher.com
There are a ton of "Hot Deals" and "Bargain" sites on the net that can help you get some sweet, sweet deals. Of course they also turn you into compulsive shoppers ...
c at id=18
d =4 0
The following sites offer deals usually involving coupons/rebates/price mistakes on websites. Some of the cooler deals I've gotten:
Free HP Deskjet 930C via Estamps rebates.
5 Belkin PCI 100mbit NICs for 81 cents each
$30 16X CD-RW
And more... go forth... and spend!
Sites:
http://www.bensbargains.net
http://www.techbargains.com
http://www.slickdeals.net
http://www.hot-deals.org
or if you like to go right to the source, most of the above sites patrol these forums and post the good ones:
http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/categories.cfm?
http://forums.anandtech.com/categories.cfm?cati
login slashdot2005
pass slashdot2000
Always check out the vendor's Reseller Ratings and take a look at the comments. If you find a good price, make sure you know other people's issues (or praises). Anytime I hit a new vendor, I always check them out first...
+++ UGUCAUCGUAUUUCU
Besides the occasional computer part.... Online is the way to go for books.
bestbookbuys.com searches most online retailers and half.com and gives you the best possible price on a book.
The local booksellers don't often more than a few tech books on sale and sell them at FULL RETAIL.
All my books come from online and usually at a mininum of 30% off list
I admit I don't buy as much as I used to online BUT there are still deals to be had if you undestand how/where to look.
Jason
Ever feel like you are driving the getaway car?
Just because you could find a better deal online for your Anime Porn-o doesn't mean that this article is largely theoretical. Its just another instance of /.'ers thinking they are mainstream and the modern-day internet should revolve around them.
A lot of people have the misconception that things online are "a little bit cheaper" but that the shipping cost out-weighs that discount. While this is often true for things like books and CD's, it is not the case for bigger ticket items, espcially if things can be bought online out-of-state so that you don't have to pay sales tax. You forfeit the immediate gratification of buying your product and bringing it home, but sometimes the money you save in not paying sales tax can save you enough that you can get next day delivery and still save money. Plus you don't have to drive your car to the store, find parking, fight through the crowds, wait in line, etc.
(I'm not associated in any way with the site, blah blah...)
"The advanced societies of the future will be driven by competing systems of psychopathology." -JG Ballard
If you're wanting to buy or sell real geek rarities (say D&D rarities) which is better the online auctions like ebay or traditional auction houses ?
;)
I know for standard computer kit, sites like ebay are best for sellers, but are usually overbid by buyers, but if you look hard enough and have the right bidding software you can get bargains.
Has anyone out there had experience in trading the more obscure geek gear...whether it's old Winchester drives , dust gathering PDP's, or old D&D stuff in your attic I want your opinion
"ever-increasing number of morons who will pay full-retail price + 20% for things on eBay"
About a year ago I was bidding on a video camera. I thought the pattern of bidding and the sellers high number of defaults on past auctions for the same item was suspicious.
I looked more deeply into some of the bidders on the camera and finally found that they were all origionally from the same domain. That domain being one that the seller personally owned.
To be an ass I then emailed him with the list of his fake bidders and asked him if he knew them. Perhaps I should have reported it to ebay but I didn't want to create bad blood even though the person was on the other side of the us.
yup yup yup
I've purchased 3 peices of DJ equipment (new) off ebay, totaling over $4000CND, on each i saved a few hundred dollars due to the fact that local audio stores charge higher then retail prices! the items on ebay were several hundred below retail.. explain to me how this makes me a moron? btw, to avoid canadian border charges.. all you have to do is put a "damaged goods" tag on it.. though the guys at the border did hold on of my turntables for 2 weeks.. you think they're be able to figure out that "the pitch doesn't hold at a steady 33.3rpm" isn't true.. hah.
MABASPLOOM!
you are planning on installing linux or are
replacing another broken/stolen notebook.
I imagine eBay is useful for acquring a broken/stolen notebook, as well.
~~~
Any American Dvd-aholics living close to the canadian border should look into buying dvds at the future shop. http://www.futureshop.ca They have great prices, and while there is a fifteen percent sales tax, the fact that 1 american dollar is worth about 1.6 canadian dollars make this a decent deal.
No more telemarketing calls?
Where isn't?
-
Inventor of the term 'pardon my French'.
"There are examples where loyalty can be depended on, (Harley Davidson and Chevy Corvette have a very loyal following.) but there are very few businesses that can operate that way."
Apple is another good example.
I buy computer hardware for both PC's and Sparcs. What I have seen on eBay is items that have anywhere from a ridiculously low to decent selling price and a truly ridicuously price for shipping and handling (same on Pricewatch with some vendors). An example is an auction for a Sparc where the shipping is $35.00 and $5.00 for "careful packing"! And this is for UPS Ground! This is the reason why I virtually ignore Pricewatch and use IBuyer.net. If a person or vendor cannot afford to sell an item at the price they specify in the auction (or retail)without "jacking up" the shipping costs to make up for what they might lose, then maybe they should set a reserve to what they thing the item is worth. In the case of retail, they could possibly lose the sale, oh well. The other issue with eBay I have are people who use bots to increase the bid at set intervals. I won an auction for an item where I was bidding against one other person obviously using a bot to increase the bid by $5.00 increments every few minutes until "he" reached what the upper limit of what he was going to pay for this item. I needed the item so I paid for it (I won't do it again though). I am still not convinced that some sellers don't use this technique to drive up the price for their items (despite eBay's policy), or that I got "nailed" by some idiot bidding just to bid. Now I just simply wait, eventually the price comes down to where I am willing to pay for it, or I get lucky and get a deal (like 2 new Sun hme cards for $100.00). Maybe if we all just waited the sellers would have an inventory glut and have to sell it cheap just to get rid of it!
" The perception of the product was that it must not be any good if it was being sold cheaply, but it was alright if it came close to the expected price point."
Note that this is the same effect that hurts Linux in it's adoption.
I'm amazed a drooling Canadian like you didn't refer to America as "USia." You can have a cookie now.
Ebay has great deals - if you're patient, careful, hold your bid until the last 8 seconds of the auction, never bid more than say $250, and don't insist on winning every auction you want. Older computer equipment often sells for ultra-cheap. Solid dual-ppro computers for $50 make great *nix workstations. Hubs for $10. Hard drives for $6. Video cards for $5. That includes shipping right to your door. Even if every 4th person fucks you over you a smart buyer will still get a net deal.
bkr
To my mailbox, several a day!
Mvh:
- Knut S.
It used to be around 1995 you had to use a 2400 BAUD modem to find bargains--YES! on an ISA bus! with a 486 AND YOU LIKED IT!!!!! Yahhh, don't piss and moan about about venture capitalists...
"Where isn't?"
In front of my office window.
Actually a local Village put sponsorship for their golf tournament (BC Open) on ebay. Starting bid was like a million dollars. They were recommended to this approach by a marketing firm.
:)
No one bid tho
Pete
I don't know about anyone else, but I've never trusted online bargains. Once I was trying to order some parts off of pricewatch and came across a series of companies that were lowering their prices at night when the store was closed and raising them when the stores opened. The only way to get the pricewatch price was to call and mention the current price. However there was no way to place an order over the phone when the store was closed. When I asked about getting last midnight's price, they refused and would not comment on their pricing scheme.
Another time, I tried ordering a computer kit online (pricewatch), I was about to give him my credit card number when he suggested I upgrade to their special CPU cooler which was "better" than the one that came with their product. I asked him if there was something wrong with the cpu cooler that came with it and he said that while the cpu cooler that came with it was perfectly good, it only consisted of a fan. I spoke with him a few minutes to try and figure out exactly what he meant and determined the actual cpu cooler included in his 1.33GHz Athlon kit was somehow without a heatsink. Click.
Yet another time, in a fit of insanity, I decided to order a new video card online saving about $60. Everything went smoothly, I ordered from a company in California for about $270 (US). A week and a half later, it arrived with a return address somewhere in Brazil. I have no idea what I would of had to do had the product been defective (thank god it wasn't), but I'm sure it would have been hell.
Perhaps, bad experiences online have driven consumers away from these vendors and forced the online retailers to raise prices. Maybe most of the bargains out there never really existed anyway. As a kid scrounging for money to buy stuff, it sometimes makes sense. As a professional with a decent salary, buying online often isn't worth the risk.
No, "dirty yanks" is a more common term to use than "USians"
1) It should be "to" the point.
2) It should be "flamebait."
3) Since he was born in Canada, he has the responsibillity to emigrate and renounce his citizenship in that hellhole of a contry. Since I was born in the US, I am lucky enough not too have to do that.
If you started your auction at $1 you'd sell it right away. If you watch eBay for a while you'll realize that the high bid items that people bid emotionally on are often started at a low price in order to draw the maximum number of bidders possible so you have a large number of people invested in winning. So if you want to sell it and get it over with start at $1. The market will decide the price. You might get $50, you might get $400, but if you start it at $200 you'll never find out.
While the number of online bargains has slipped, it might not be a bad thing. One economic trend that was first being noticed late last year (post Sept 11) was the fact that everything was on sale. The though being this: low prices would get people to spend more money. It can revive a sinking economy, but it can also lead to a phenomenon known as deflation, which is actually much worse than inflation. Prices fall, manufacturers take losses, fire employees, and most damaging, salaries generally get cut. The US last saw deflation on the heels of the great depression, and Japan has been seeing it, minimally since its real estate bubble burst.
Where did all the good /. threads go?
Eye, says I.
I was just wondering if anyone agrees that a big reason web technologies haven't really taken off yet in the b2b and auction markets are the pricing pressures those technologies put on the retailers. By now, businesses weren't supposed to be sending paper invoices anymore -- they were supposed to be autodiscovering each other in some global PKI directory and using XML and SOAP for billing and payments.
Technology companies have been pushing the cost savings in the new way to do business, and the new ease in finding the lowest prices available. But it seems the retailers are slow to adopt because it would mean making life much easier for consumers to find the best prices.
Imagine a Pricewatch that had fully automated pricing and one-click buying. We were supposed to be there a couple years ago.
Intelligent Life on Earth
perhaps meatspace prices just dropped a bit to equal online prices?
I can't see a clear reason why online sales should be cheaper than in-store sales. Where does the cost saving come into play?
If the net has done anything, it's helped globalizes prices. You don't get as much region to region fluctuation in retail items anymore. (I didn't say NO fluctuation, just less. There is still plenty)
As for people paying retail +20%, absolutely.
I saw a guy selling silver maple leafs (1 troy oz silver bullion, Canadian Mint) for market price + 50%. And people were buying.. because it was a 'collectors item'(It's not, it's silver bullion that you can pick up at a bazillion outlets at spot price)
Yeah, but you'll end up paying 20% more than "hot" price
I can think of a couple good examples right now, related directly to photography equipment, where you're not quite correct.
1. I've been researching a good DV capable camcorder to purchase. (Got a kid on the way, and I think it makes sense to get something to film the baby.) I limited myself to camcorders in the "under $1000" range, because I simply can't afford more than that. Basically, I concluded that Sony makes some of the best DV camcorders, but current models are $1200+ each. The PRC-730 happens to be a last year's model that's in my price range (when you can find one), and meets all of my qualifications. I keep seeing them on eBay with starting bids in the $400 range, but bid to around $700-800 by the close of the auction. I thought maybe eBayers were just over-paying for this thing, until I checked pricewatch.com and called around. The camera stores advertising clearance pricing on this camcorder want around $690-790 which sounds better *until* you find out they're typically selling the Japanese version. It's "grey market" in the U.S. so has no warranty, and the manuals are in Japanese! All of them I've seen on eBay have been the real U.S. version with 1 year factory warranty, so score one for eBay being superior!
2. I have a Sony Mavica FD-81 digital camera I'm ready to sell. It's in like-new condition with real light use. Paid about $700 for it when it was new, only a year or so ago. I can see letting it go for about half what I paid, new. On eBay, nobody's bidding over $130 or so for these things right now! What the h*ll?? I'd be really pissed if someone bought my FD-81 for less than the cheapest of the clearance megapixel cameras sells for at the store! For under $200, I'd rather just hang onto it. I sure don't see these "dumb eBay bidders" bidding 20% over retail on the FD-81!
Only a drooling "suthana" would use the term Yank. I suggest you go wank off while you have your wet dream of the South rising again.
I think one of the big trends, in this economy, is to discount only through mail-in rebates. That way, the store gets the full price for the product they sell, and the manufacturer can defer taking the hit of selling at discount. (Think of all the extra interest they earn on their money if they stall sending out all those rebate checks, instead of selling at a loss to the stores, up-front.)
Furthermore, it seems to be popular to "hide" the rebate notices and forms, so only the truly savvy shopper can take advantage of them. I just bought an Epson Stylus Photo printer, only to discover there was a $50 mail-in rebate on it when I looked around on Epson's web site. The Officemax store I bought the printer at had no knowledge of the rebate. Then, I got a new cellphone last week, and found out from a message forum on the Inet that Kyocera was doing a $50 rebate on it, too. Unfortunately, the only known place to get this rebate form was in the back of a particular issue of a mobile computing magazine! I had to run to CompUSA and buy the magazine to get the form.
I guess my point is this: Bargains are still out there, expecially on computers and electronics. It's just that now, you have to use the net as more of a research tool to find out where and how to get the discounts. It's not so much that a web-based store will sell you something dirt cheap, outright.
In fact, they're in my tagline. Updated 3-5+ times a day. Check it out and consider a bookmark.
------
Today's Top Deals
half.com. Go to your college bookstore, look at book prices, and then go to half.com. Then go and tell me that there's no deals out there. What a way for a college student to save cash!
Berto
As with any "real-world" store, you just have to know where to look and how to shop around. Say, for example, that I want to buy a new DVD. My first stop would be BizRate.com. There I get not only price comparisons, but store ratings as well. (I'm willing to pay a buck or two more to get the DVD from a reputable place.) I then shop online at a few other places (Half.com, BestBuy.com) and even drive to a few real stores (BJ's Wholesale club for example). I factor in tax and/or shipping and figure out who has the best price. When I've found the best place to buy it, be it website or normal store, I buy it there. By doing this, I can save some pretty good cash. For example, I bought 3 used music CDs -- which were as good as new except for one which had a cracked case -- for less than $40 on Half.com. Retail these would have cost me over $55. (And I'm sure the RIAA would have fits if they knew I was buying used CDs instead of giving them more money by buying new ones. ;-) )
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
Two and three years ago, online sales were a mammoth below-cost bazaar. But as the entrants found they had to achieve profitability, and this quarter, they started to disappear. In some markets, brick-and-mortars took over their competitors that were threatening to bury them only a few months before. For instance, take PetSmart's buyout of pets.com, or KB Kids' buyout of eToys.com (a spectacular flamout). This is natural, and in the long term, for the better. What are left are in fact the low-overhead guys, the ones who didn't start with enormous, get-rich-quick dreams. There's still a lot of vendors making money over at the Yahoo stores, believe it or not.
Pricewatch, PriceGrabber, et al are in the online comparison shopping business. All of them charge their merchants for listings; the real question is how. With Pricewatch, the vendors are charged based on the number of products listed, which means you essentially get a list of whatever the retailer thinks are his strongest sale products at the moment. There's two disadvantages for the site visitor (consumer) in this: first, it reduces the breadth of merchants, and second, it hides a fair amount of products. Pricegrabber does a better job of this simply because their underlying pricing structure doesn't automatically discourage merchants from showing more products. (Of course, there's nothing preventing merchants from being selective for their own reasons, but at least it's not an issue financially.)
From personal experience, the difference between online and brick-and-mortar prices is narrowing generally, but that doesn't mean there aren't bargains out there. Where I use our own site most is on unusual items that most b&m's won't stock (for instance, SCSI drives). Even when looking at more commodity items (ATA drives, CD-R media), it pays to at least check prices online to see whether the price delta and convenience factor combined are worth it to you. (For many people who don't live near big cities, online is the only realistic option and a great salvation.) Also, don't forget that there's a much broader selection available online than off. It's not unusual to find a product available online that even big-box retailers are out of. I recently bought a Samsung N501 DVD player through a merchant on our site that was not only substantially more expensive at our local Best Buy, but out of stock as well.
Dog is my co-pilot.
The fallacy of the low starting price.
Real life example: I have an item that I really don't want to sell for less than $100 so I list it with a starting price of $100. I get no bids.
I re-list the item, starting at $10. I get 10 bids but the final selling price is $45. So what did I accomplish? All I did was attract a bunch of cheapskates looking for a rock bottom deal.
www.overstock.com - Overstock.com... lots of good stuff for cheap with a flat rate on shipping of $3.95 no matter how much you put in the box
flamingoworld.com - Great place to find coupons and such
If you're into CDs and DVDs like I am, UK stores charge 13-15 pounds for a new CD and 18-20 pounds for a new DVD. Heck, I buy a lot of CDs, but the 30 pounds vouchers for Virgin Megastores this Christmas remain unspent so far because of their over-inflated pricing.
If nothing else, the year 2001 introduced me to significantly cheaper CDs and DVDs on the Internet - it's now possible to get new CDs for 9 pounds and DVDs for 15 pounds on Web sites (with free delivery, which I think *all* online stores should offer so that the price up front is exactly what you pay - you should only have to pay postage if they have to dispatch it overseas. It's why I refuse to use Amazon).
People who pay over retail are usually people with bad credit or teenagers who do not have a credit card. I sell PS2 games after I get tired of them, and I always get near or more than full retail for them. They will get a money order at a convenience store because they have no other way to pay.
Pricewatch, of course.
Also, Nextag. Similar to Pricewatch, but has more than just computer related items.
That's why eBay has a reserve. It's illogical that buyers treat a reserve price and a starting price differently, but on eBay, it generally works.
(And if the reserve isn't met, you can always email the bidders and ask them if they want it for $90 or whatever.)
YMMV
C8H10N4O2 | Developer > Code
Check out these forums:
_______________________________
"I'm not Conceited...I'm just a realist..."
Bzzzt. You got the fair market price for the item(*). If you could sell it for more somewhere else why didn't you? Sure, sometimes people get a steal on eBay but that is how auctions work. Just because you got denied when trying to fleece someone else doesn't mean that starting with a low price is a fallacy.
* Personally I would avoid starting an item with a really low price that is in low demand/relatively unknown because there are few bidders for such items. Again, think auctions or just plain think...
And if you couldn't find them locally how do you know it was better prices, stupid ?
www.dvdpricesearch.com has got to be a fraud. There's no way this is legit. It's probably some 12-year-old kid running a webserver on dad's machine.
Upon visiting it, the first thing it tells me is that I need to upgrade my browser because I have javascript turned off. What, do the browsers he suggest lack the option to turn off javascript or something?
Then it has another page you can use without javascript. I go there, and in big letters, there's a paragraph letting me that I shouldn't use that page, and should use the javascript-needing page instead.
The big letters had me concerned. I wondered: have I screwed up my browsers style sheet handling so badly, that a parenthetical remark is getting rendered in giant letters? So I view source, and see the truth: The giant-lettered paragraph in question, is actually an "H1" type header! This kid thinks that H1 is the right tag for marking up an paragraph?!
There's no way www.dvdpricesearch.com is for real. No. Fucking. Way.
That's not exactly ethical. I doubt if Ebay would be pleased about it either; I never use them, but my understanding is that they ask users to report this sort of behavior, and they take steps (probably de-activating your acct) when this occurs.
I survived the Dick Cheney Presidency 7 to 9 AM 7-21-07
Last month I was in the market for a new stereo receiver. I looked on Ebay - found what I wanted (an Onkyo TX-DS696) at a decent price ($600 - it retails for around $800). Put in my max bid... and watched it close $200 above retail, with 75% of the bidding in the last two minutes of the auction.
Rather than paying $800 or $1000 for what I wanted, I emailed the guy selling the receiver I had just lost. He offered to sell me the receiever for his shop's actual retail price of $650 + actual shipping. Sweet. I got it two days later, double boxed and in perfect shape.
I've since bought an SACD player the same way.
WAY better than dealing with the morons on Ebay.
-- I wanna decide who lives and who dies - Crow T. Robot, MST3K
Online retailers have dodged yet another bullet by having mandatory state sales tax postponed yet again, but when this shoe falls, e-commerce fans might find themselves thinking really hard about buying stuff they can get elsewhere.
For a lot of items, especially computer items, it's a lot more convenient to get what you want without having to find it in the store. When's the last time you actually bought software off the shelf or from a catalog? These are niche items that aren't commonly shelved.
For most department store items...they aren't worth the shipping and sales tax and state sales tax which could one day face all online retail, when you can easily find these things at retailers.
-Barkeep, a draft of your most hazardous brew, for the world is slowly stepping into focus, and I don't like what I see.
I have a hard time calling this a scam.
If I walk up to you, hold up a book you want and say "how much do you want for this", and sell it at that price, it is really hard to call it a scam.
A scam is if they take the money and run off with it. Or if they ship you something else. Lie about the condition. Invent extra bidders to run up the price. Or somehow charge you more after the bidding closes. Those are scams.
Selling you the exact product offered at the exact price someone says they will pay isn't a scam.
Even if some moron picks a price that is way high.
Think about it this way, Circuit City has lower prices on some items the Best Buy does, does that mean Circuit City is running a scam on you? Random pricewatch dealer number 6 has better prices then both Circuit City and Best Buy...are Circuit City and Best Buy both running scams? (for the moment, ignore the extended warentees).
It ain't a scam unless you misrepresent the item for sale, don't transfer it, or take more then the agreed on amount.
Some of us can't walk. Makes shopping a real pain in the ass, no?
The typical Walmart shopper is not a heavy online shopper. Sure, there's an overlap, but for the most part they're from a totally different demographic, with different shopping habits.
I'm going back to school in a few days. I found great textbook deals at Barnes and Noble and Big Words, including used books I could only get new at my school's bookstore (major city, 13,000 students).
for the terms: OEM
I suspect that OEM is Original Equipment Manufacturer? But does that mean that the part is reconditioned?White box
Retail
Bulk
There's a virtual cornucopia of information on finding cheap DVD's on the 'net.
First, check out The DVD Talk Forums for listings of cheap DVD's everywhere. My favorite is the thread on Columbia House, and how to purchase 7 DVD's from them for less than $10 each.
Then there's another personal favorite, deepdiscountdvd.com which routinely has the best prices on the 'net - and they challenge you to find cheaper prices, and they'll beat them.
For other bargains, I check TechBargains.Com several times a day. Often they'll have insane bargains you could easily miss. Like the two Handspring Visors I picked up - for free after rebate, I might add - because they were posted on this site.
From my experience (buying only) it seems that ebay is a great place to sell consumer or hobby level computer equipment but anything that smacks of big iron (rackmountable, SUN, IBM, SAN, etc) has to be a super good deal, since has a retail price that is so much higher than ebayers would ever pay. So that even a killer deal like yours, is much too much for their budget. If you were selling a Netgear 8 port switch you could probably get most of retail value out of it. If you really want to get rid of it, a low price with reserve price near your starting price would probably do the trick.
Degaussing scares the bad magnetism out of the monitor and fills it with good karma.
By the time I add shipping to some of the supposed cheaper price on some websites, I find it's almost as much as going down the street to Walmart or other local store. Ebay is a rip off, unless you are the seller. Pricewatch, while a nice tool, is not a good place to find someone I'd trust with my credit card number if you know what I mean. I could probably find a way to get listed on pricewatch. Also, if something goes wrong with what I buy, I can jump in the car and take it down and have a new one with in an hour. Try that on a web site (EXCEPT brick and mortar's that allow you to exchange web purchases in the store). Online being truely cheaper is a crock.
Gorkman
I know it's flamebait, but I'm replying anyway for those people who don't know... "Yank" is a common Canadian term for Americans in general.
and that's if you can find it in a store at all.
Recently I went looking for a new 400w case with USB up front, as well as shims and a 7800rpm cpu cooler. I live in the NY area, and I never did find all of this in a single store, and all were twice the going rate on the net.
Same goes for movies on DVD. Everything is so mainstream, with 10000 copies of American Pie and little or no of anything that doesn't sell 10K copies.
About the only thing I don't buy online is clothing and cars. I even found my apartment online for crying out loud, and I just moved here from Illinois.
In my experience, I find everything (exceptions noted above) online and 1/2 again as cheap even with shipping (and if you shop right, alot of places have no shipping or reasonable cost shipping).
I don't buy it at all...
Daily E Deals
Bargain Flix
Almostnothing
http://www.kubuntu.org/
You may or may not know this but Digital 8 camcorders record in DV format but just use Hi-8 cassettes rather than miniDV ones. IIRC the DCR-TRV130 from Sony is way under 1000$ (in the 600$ range) and has plenty of features. You can pick one up at WalMart for that price and some places online a bit cheaper than that. The TRV140 which I haven't found at retail shops lately has both i.Link and USB connections so can be used as a webcame and regular DV cam. It also uses The difference between the Digital 8 and normal MiniDV cams is about 30 lines of horizontal resolution which if you're going to edit the video anyhow doesn't make alot of difference because you can hide the lack of those extra 30 lines pretty easily.
I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel.
Both of these websites had great startup deals (free $$ to get 'em hooked), but they just couldn't get the repeat business to cover their early losses. I got a TiVo out of the first, and all new peripherals (webcam, printer, keyb/mouse) out of the second for pennies on the dollar.
Online shoppers are just too fickle. There's no "get 'em hooked" for online ecommerce, there's only "keep 'em hooked".
The reason this happens is Ebay knows no distributor/retailer boundries.
Ebay has everything you can buy, you can spend 3 hours surfing around stores looking for what you want and not find it, or a few days walking around stores looking for what you want, or just go to Ebay and buy it (and pay the premium).
With Ebay you don't need to find the shop before you can find the item - you just look straight for the item. It doesn't matter if it's brand new or years out of print, it doesn't matter if it's rare, it doesn't matter if its not sold in any stores in your country (a reason I occasionally use it for new stuff).
A retail equivalent of Ebay, offering the wares of *all* retail stores would achieve the same sort of thing for retail goods - you could concertrate on what you want rather than who will have the best chance of stocking something like what you want. But since I doubt the retail industry will ever get its shit together that well, shops are stuck with using ebay (which is designed for auction, not retail)
People's use of Ebay (and paying above retail) isn't always stupidity (I myself have emailed sellers after a lost auction and bought the same item at retail price, and I've probably paid above retail on other auctions), it's often just convienience/lazyness.
yeah, i've been looking to buy pc133.
pricewatch gives me $21 for MICRON 128 megs pc133 NEW.
on ebay, a GENERIC stick of 128 megs that was USED is averaging $50.
and i'm wondering what the heck is going on here....it's been about a year since i bought anything on ebay...where did all the idiots come from?
The best online bargain out there is how cheap information is. If I decide I want to spent a bit of money on something it's a bargain if I get something worth the money I'm spending. Five years ago there wasn't nearly as much information on the web as there is now to assist in purchase descisions. Ten years ago there was no information there at all. I even use the web to find prices for low ball stuff like CDs and DVDs. I hate paying retail because I know I'm getting shafted by a good margin or else the retailer wouldn't be selling me said item. The lower price I get something for the less I'm being shafted. As for buying shit off the web it is caveat emptor like anything else. You win some you lose some but hopefully you've come out saving a bit off the retail price. Even if you're only saving 5 bucks per DVD (shipping marginalized on each DVD) you're still getting a deal with the more DVDs you can fit into a box. People who scour meatspace auctions and swap meets are the same ones who find the massive deals on the internet.
I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel.
You can get $12.49 for the Matrix locally.
But you have to know your area well, and who consistently has the items and deals you want.
Anything not arriving at all, especially something big, you should be able to cancel on your credit card bill. If the companies not in business, it would be hard for them to contest it.
This is why I always order express delivery. My theory is it's there or you cancel, no BS. Though I have never actually had to cancel.
Still, the bad part is companies that claim to things and then email a day later and claim otherwise (perhaps if I'd taken slower delivery or taken some of their rip-off items, they would have coughed up).
Anyway, it's juggle out there but there are still bargain if you fight with a machette. Still, retail is hardly better.
Considering that Edison attempted to patent the telephone the same day that Bell did? Nothing would have changed.
Bookfinder.com
to suit my needs really well. (usually better than Addall.com).
Bookfinder searches a bunch of other sites, and then gives you a bit list of new and used prices... Now, I buy most all of my older books used, both for cost, as well as environmental reasons.
there is no thing
what else could you want?
I honestly don't work there, and after your input I'll be giving pricewatch more attention.
FWIW, what I've been using pricescan for is less computer-related miscellany and more consumer-electronics items (though I don't recall on what class of items I did my initial comparison). In either event, your data is obviously convincing.
Heh. Yahoo Shopping hasn't had many good deals either recently. I thought it was just me, but I guess not, eh?
-1 Redundant.
-1 Canadian. (Not really, just like saying "eh". =)
Just so this isn't entirely pointless, I thought I'd give a mini review of Yahoo Shopping: They're pretty good. =)
I'd give them 3 out of five, though three of WHAT I'm not quite sure.
... They.. uh... seem to be down at the moment, however. ^.^;
Alari
You either mean "lose" or "loosen" the earplugs.
For books, look on http://www.half.com/ (an ebay company)
Separate sellers are visible for each book title...well, ABE Books copies also show up there.
Most books can be sold on Half.Com, although old ones (before 1970?) might not be due to their not being in the Half.Com catalog.
I have complained about this before and the eBay staff told me it was perfectly legal. Most people don't realize that almost every item in the computer parts and under electronics and in the video game section (and I'm sure other areas) are being fixed by companies looking to offload merch online. How it works:
For the example we use a 'video card' (pick any kind, they all work for this example. Just bear with me on the prices here - they are merely an example.
Your a merchant. You buy video cards for $10 and sell for $15. You go online under many other accounts and bid on all other video cards of the same type. You bid $9, so even if you win, you are getting them below your cost and can turn around and still make a profit. You then put your card up for sale starting @ 1.00 - people will start bidding on it first since it is the lowest and push it up to the other matching auctions. Now, if anyone bids on the other auctions they will push the price above your cost, which also means your auction will soon be pushed above this limit as well.
Watch the people who bid on things like a chip or motherboard. Check their accounts- you will see a small group is always bidding on all the same items, and if you check their history they have already won like a dozen or so of similar items.
What this means - you will never get anything below cost on ebay, and since people in rural areas have no CostCo or Sams Club, they will pay 20% over normal retail plus shipping for the same item promising you that your auctions will always end in some outrageous amount.
Maybe it's just me but I think this is a problem.
-S
-Sternn
Did nobody take Grade 11 Economics in high school? The demand went up (which can be proven statistically), and the supply ... well, it hasn't gone up since the .com crash. In fact I would contend it has gone down (but I can't prove that). Naturally, the prices increase as a consequence.
Stuff I learned in high school was actually useful.
Granted most of us aren't looking for flooring bargains every day, but if you are in the market for a new floor for your house take a look at www.fastfloors.com -- I just bought a laminate floor from them for the entertainment/media room we're finishing, and I saved $600 over local pricing, even with shipping costs.
(Disclaimer: I don't work for them, I'm just a satisfied customer, blah blah blah...)
Absurdity: A statement or belief manifestly inconsistent with one's own opinion. -- Ambrose Bierce
The stores are dumpy and the clientele dishevelled,
Not all of them. In my old home town in rural Oklahoma, the local Wal-Mart is not only one of the cleanest and nicest stores in town, it's also THE best grocery store, with the exception of tomatoes and milk. (I went to a little local chain for the former, and Braum's for the latter.)
I had a job last year and one of the engineers there did a bit of shopping on eBay. When I asked him what he was up to, he said he was looking for bargain prices on Cisco routers and other high-end equipment, which he would then snatch up, and promptly relist.
Usually, he had to buy in quantities and then he would relist in single quantity.
Speaking of which, this leads to another useful tactic. When selling, unbundle all your items (eg, instead of just listing a notebook, list a notebook, power adapter, external floppy, etc.). You will usually get a good deal more. And when buying, look for multiple quantities in one listing or Dutch Auctions. The prices are generally (but not always) lower, and then you can go and relist the unwanted items for a profit.
Frequently when I check brick and mortar companies (we aren't even talking about Office Depot here, they're outrageously priced), the prices, (particularly including tax) aren't as good as I can get from a reputable online retailer (sometimes even with 2nd day air). A few sources I trust, one of which is also a catalog retailer:
Techstore - Reliable, not necesarily a bargain. Decent support, fast delivery (four warehouses in the US, widly separated for best delivery time). They don't trans-ship, but their RMA is reasonable.
PC COnnection - Reliable, good prices, decent delivery times, EXCELLENT RMA. I had a Linksys router go bad for no apparent reason and they trans-shipped one to me along with reimbursement for sending the old one back. They also do catalog.
Bunta - Decent prices, ok delivery time. Haven't had to send anything back yet.
Multiwave Direct - Speedy delivery, good prices, reliable service. If I can find it on Multiwave, I would buy from them first. Products ordered UPS ground from Multiwave tend to show up within 2-3 business days.
OK...caveat: if you want it right now you might as well find a brick and mortar. If you can wait a few days or a week, I find online to truly be cheaper.
What is your Slash Rating?