Slashdot Mirror
Shopping Online
A reader writes:"I've been buying stuff on the Internet for a while, and wanted to get people's thoughts about the best places to go. I primarily am looking for media or computer parts. Of course, I've used Froogle, PriceWatch or PriceGrabber, but also use places like tigerdirect or NewEgg. Where else do people go, and any recommendations for getting decent deals? " Oh, and of course, shamless plug for ThinkGeek, who is also owned by OSTG.
1. Send zillions of emails containing enticing links.
2. Watch as zillions of sheeple open said links with Internet Exploder.
3. Ensure your site is equipped with the IE exploit du jour.
4. Install keylogger, steal identity.
5. ??? [obligatory, but unnecessary - why not spend this time in Zen-like meditation contemplating the nature of suffering?]
6. Open anonymous delivery address using stolen identity.
7. Visit any shopping site via r00ted Windows box and stolen credit card number.
8. Profit!
More seriously, why not go and tell the Internet Exploder people to get their house in order. If enough people complain then maybe they'll actually release a patch. Remember, they haven't released a patch for these vulnerabilities for NINETY-SEVEN DAYS.
Fatwallet.com
I always kind of liked ableshopper
dealtime.com and shopper.cnet.com aren't bad either.
Geizhals.at is the way to go for buyers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Germans beware: Geizhals.de is not what you're looking for.
Belive it or not, I'm finding things cheaper, yet with good quality, on eBay. I'm also looking for hard-to-find parts (like 128Meg EDO SDRAM for a Dell CPi D266XT -- They won't take generic!) and finding them on eBay itself. Alot of vendors have fairly good stock of them.
--
# Canmephians for a better Linux Kernel
$Stalag99{"URL"}="http://stalag99.net";
Check Out the Fatwallet.com, AnAndtech.com Deals forums. Also Check out dealnews.com
I go by these two sites every day or so to see if anything catches my eye, good deals, usually.
Passwird.com
Spoofee
You can't fool us. That plug for ThinkGeek had plenty of sham.
http://evertek.com/
they hav esome really awsome deals
http://Lenny.com
This will become a bunch of plugs for all the geeks favorite places to shop, so here's mine:
I like Mwave.com, they have just about all the parts you could ever want at comparable prices to other sites on the net. They also ship UPS ground that comes to Idaho as fast as 2 day UPS for 1/3 the price of 2 day.
My best advice for buying PC stuff online is order from the US, and read the reviews on Pricewatch or epinions.com to make an informed decision.
I know what you're thinking. Did I forward 65,535 packets or 65,536 packets?
Hardcore shoppers will take advantage of the various coupon/deal sites, and forums, such as:
100 Big Coupons
SlickDeals
Headlinedeals
Tech Bargains
Hot Deals
Of Course Fat Wallet Hot-Deals Forum can't be forgotten
Just keep in mind that these sites do have affiliate agreements with companies, and so are making a buck off the purchases you click-through from their sites. Some of their recommendations may be skewed based on their affiliate agreements.
These are the sites where you'll find out about last minute clearances, specials, % off coupons, and pricing errors. Often you're being the 'evil consumer', but you're getting a heck of a deal.
May this post be indexed by spiders, and archived for all to see as my Internet epitaph.
I like to use froogle to find the prices.. BUT:
(and I hope some online vendors take note of this)
If I can't get the shipping price BEFORE I put in my Name and Credit card - I take my business elsewhere. Alot of these places put a low price out to get high on the search engines, and then have like $30 for shipping, which of course you can only see AFTER you put in all your shipping address and credit card, mothers maiden name and favorite pet, at which point I bet they figure either people won't notice, or will feel that they already did all that work they might as well just pay it.
So, bottom line for me : No shipping price ahead of time, No Business from me.
Don't Tread on Me
We all go to slashdot to find what to buy next and where. There was a time when it was an interesting discussion web site, but all that has changed...
www.ebuyer.com has always served me well. I believe they have a US operation too.
I always liked NCIX, has some pretty nice deals
http://www.us.ncix.com/
It was Where Do You Shop for Server Components?. Many of the responses will be the same.
http://dealmein.net/
A lot of online coupons/rebates from consumer electronics to kitchenware. Pretty nifty site.
Let the commencement BEGINULATE!
Wherever you go to find the deal, go to Reseller Ratings to check the rep of the shop offering the deal. They've been around a long time, and for as long as I've been buying/building from parts they've been advising me on whether I'm likely to get what I paid for. (Come to think of it, they have a best-price-finder system now, too.)
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
http://www.theboyz.biz/
If you're not living on the edge, you're just taking up space!
try: dealsea.com deals2buy.com spoofee.com they list the best deals and prices real fast.
For OSes purchases I always recommend microsoft.com
- Great products!
- Everyday low-prices!
- The best EULA in the market!
Type anything* into google and invariably all the results are price comparison sites anyway.
I often put "-compare" as an additional search term to remove most of these, if I'm looking for just the specifications for something, for instance.
*Computer kit, obviously.
I'm in the UK and I mainly use Ebuyer, Savastore.com and Clickonit. Ebuyer generally has the cheapest prices of the three, but Savastore sometimes beats Ebuyer. Clickonit usually delivers quickest of the three and usually seems to have cheapest delivery charges too, however their hardware is usually (although not always) the most expensive of the three.
Linux Wireless Hardware in the UK
www.techbargains.com Mostly tech merchandise but often things techies need to live also.
www.gotapex.com - lists the best Dell deals available
www.naughtycodes.com - lists all available coupon codes and click throughs for an amazing amount of retailers
www.slickdeals.net only the most crazy deals. No bloat.
www.bensbargains.net somehow has lots of things the other guys miss
eCoupons.com probably has the largest amount of Electronic Coupons available on the Internet. They usually post a crazy amount of electronic deals too.
u know buying online SHOULD be nice and convenient but i find buying stuff online WAY to pricey due to the american exchange rate.. for example ThinkGeek.. or as i would like to call it.. "Overpriced American Geek Store" (no offence to the OSTG) but OVER all i would say:
online shopping == Good
Online Shopping From Canada == Rip off
i could be mistaken.. but so far the only site i'v found with decent canadian prices is Amazon.ca
any suggestions eh?
http://www.geeks.com/
This is the same company but for consumers instead of Business's
http://Lenny.com
Newegg is all you need. I've quit shopping around, I go straight to Newegg. You know they'll have what you want within a few dollars of the lowest price around. Together with their fast shipping and great customer service, they can't be beat.
Who knows what their deal with ChiefValue is? I hear it's the same warehouses.
I was once looking for a video tape for my friends in Ukraine (different video standard from US). I found it through Yahoo! Shopping Australia...
That said, I also visit CNet and EPinions for product reviews and -- right before buying from a particular vendor -- search Google for
.In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
Other World Computing
Small Dog Electronics
Data Memory Systems
While all these places are geared towards Macs, they also carry lots of parts that fit both PC and Mac. Never had any problems with them, after using them for 6-8 years now.
I drank what? -- Socrates
This is a dupe ask slashdot. Here is the original.
I use Price Scan (http://www.pricescan.com/)
...but if you feel like selling your soul to the devil visit Microsoft.com
I dunno if you geeks like bicycles as much as me, but I bought mine at Jakz.
Two e-mails to NewEgg (one of them through their web-site) remain unanswered three months later...
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
I prefer Amazon as it usually has prices comparable to most other sites. But a stronger reason is the reviews. Amazon has a huge custmoer base and there are usuually a lot more reviews for a product than found on other sites.
fatfingers searches ebay for misspelt versions of what you are looking for. You can find all the listings no one else does, bid low, and win a bargin. Brilliant, but technically exploiting the afflicted.
shamless plug for ThinkGeek, who is also owned by OSTG.
Even worse: watch it get moderated to +5 informative.
My other OS is the MCP!
I use a combo of pricewatch.com and resellerratings.com when sniffing out a new shop. I've tossed these companies a lot of coin with positive results, with the first two being my first stop.
l ue.comr chcomputer.com
. anandtech.com/categories.aspx?catid=40&ente rcat=y (mind the gap)
www.zipzoomfly.com
www.newegg.com
www.chiefva
www.directron.com
www.ewiz.com
www.mona
I watch the following bargain boards...
www.hardforum.com/forumdisplay.php?f=28
forums
www.bensbargains.net
+++ UGUCAUCGUAUUUCU
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
dealsonic successfully a few times.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
www.ewiz.com
about 10% cheaper than new egg and they accept returns on motherboards (unlike NewEgg). I WAS a big newegg fan until I found this site.
Lately I've been buying music software and hardware, and http://www.bizrate.com/ has been good for me.
Twice recently I took quotes I got off of Bizrate into Guitar Center and they were willing to beat the price - but if not I had a decent deal available over the net - most recently I got a Presonus Firebox firewire audio interface for my laptop.
Doug
CompUSA, CircuitCity, and BestBuy. They always have great prices, along with incredibly knowledgable staff if you decide to visit their physical stores. Oh, and always make sure to get the extended warranty. You're a fool if you don't.
I'll turn into a supernova and burn up everything. Well I'll turn into a black little hole and you'll turn into string.
www.zipzoomfly.com is where I do all my computer shopping. Their prices are great and they give FREE second-day-air shipping. Can't beat that.
UK based cashback site: my-cashback.com
There are others (greasypalm, ipoints, etc) but they pay a smaller percentage. With my-cashback.com everytime you buy something via an affiliate link from their site, they give you back 70%ish of the commission that they earn. Hassle free (unlike signing up to commission junction, tradedoubler, etc and waiting until you've earned $100)
http://newegg.com/ http://newegg.com/ http://newegg.com/
I've placed 6 orders ranging from 2-12 items with them in the last year. *EVERYTHING* arrived right on time or early.
http://newegg.com/ http://newegg.com/ http://newegg.com/
Once, I just plain ordered the wrong things because I was unaware of the power requirements/compatibility for nVidia SLi boards. I admitted this and requested an RMA. Newegg had no problem and even waived the restocking fee for me.
http://newegg.com/ http://newegg.com/ http://newegg.com/
I can't say enough positive things about Newegg.
http://newegg.com/ http://newegg.com/ http://newegg.com/
Good deals on ThinkGeek... I haven't seen one since Istarted buying from them about 6 years ago.
I only buy my funny t-shirts and (/.) stickers at TG. Almost anything else is slightly to horribly overpriced.
I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie... (P.G. Wodehouse)
From the original post: thoughts about the best places to go.
What criteria does the poster consider most important for best?
Okay, my main criterion is unequivocably (sp?) customer service. For me this includes only a few but important criteria:
I have long since abandoned picking the cheapest offering and almost ignore that ranking when looking for a place to buy online. I've almost (saved by an attentive and pro-active Credit Union (Watermark Credit Union -- great service!)) been burned big time and the brush with sleeze was enough to nudge me to find a provider with good service and be loyal. That said, I will plug as an example, amazon.com. They come nowhere near to the leaders in lowest prices but they have been amazing in their response to some difficult transactions -- I consider their approach exemplary as a model to emulate.
Amazon isn't the only great provider out their, but they're a good starting point.
Also, for ebay-type shopping, though I'm loathe to penalize newbies, I shop from only highly rated, large sample-space sellers with extremely high ratings.
I haven't seen mwave.com mentioned yet. Admittedly, I haven't ordered from them in a few years, but the few times I did use them they had a good selection, good prices and pretty fast shipping.
I'll turn into a supernova and burn up everything. Well I'll turn into a black little hole and you'll turn into string.
If you haven't already, you must experience the W00t! Basically it's one deal a day, good until sold out. I bought my robomower there, and almost bought a 3ghz HP PC (yuk! HP) this past weekend. Keep any eye on the product photos, they often inject some humorous twist...
From the site:
What is woot and who's behind it?
woot.com is an online store and community run by the employees of a 10 year old consumer electronics distributor that focuses on close-outs and generally buying stuff cheap. Since the distributor doesn't sell to end users, Woot, Inc provides us with an employee-store slash market-testing type of place. Hopefully the boss won't take notice. We anticipate profitability by 2043 -- by then we should be retired; someone smarter might take over and jack up the prices.
I see only 1 item, do you sell anything else?
No. We sell 1 item per day until it is sold out or until 11:59pm central time when it is replaced (see next entry for details). However, each item we sell is in stock and typically ships within 2-3 business days.
What is the schedule for new items?
OK - this is simpler than it sounds: A new product is released at 12am central time Monday through Friday mornings (if you are not a morning person, this can be described as Sunday - Thursday at midnight. better?) Friday's product will last through the weekend unless we sell out. If a product sells out during it's run, a new item will not appear until the next release time. You will know if a product is sold out, because the main page says "SOLD OUT" instead of "I want one". (clever, eh?)
"Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech."--Benjamin Franklin
I once bought flat-profile speakers from them. They were horrid, and they refused to take back them back without a large restocking fee. They didn't care that they were selling crap, and I was a good customer... until then. Caveat emptor.
that nobody has mentioned Fry's electronics. You might have to stop by their retail locations for most of the good deals, but they still have some great prices on most everything and you can check various forums for sales flyer scans. You can check out their online store here.
Shoplocal is another decent site for various electronic goods, you can check sales via zip code search, very handy site indeed.
Of course, I think every geek knows the standard site for street prices has to be the good ol' pricewatch.
If I don't see an estimated shipping cost as soon as anonymously plop an item into my cart I'm gone.
It was nice to find a rare DVD for $9.99, and have it show up for only $9.99+tax
Which is why I liked shopping at bestbuy.ca, None of those horrible clerks and FREE SHIPPING!
Otherwise I just go to a local shop.
Dealmac.com http://www.dealmac.com/
dealram.com http://www.dealram.com/
and the rest of the "deal family." I have never gotten a "bad" retailer from one of their links. Over the year I have saved thousands of dollars from "Deal" sites.
this is a good artical and idea for those of us that are new to the /. era. i dont understand all the flamebait that happens to those of us that are fairly new to the nerd "sceen" and need updates to things that are important that we havn't seen. I thought that was what things like this were for, to enlighten those of us that dont have your obvious superiority. //however comments to those that are inferior are always welcome at +5 funny
I think this takes the cake in the worst /. story ever........
but Dell. When you get a bunch of their coupons together, you can get stuff even cheaper then you can most places. I got Creative Gigaworks S750 (7.1) cheaper then their S700 (5.1) was being sold from newegg.
In undeveloped countries, the consumer controls the market. In capitalist America, the market controls you.
It's absolutely useless to get a cheap deal if the vendor won't ship the product. And problems with the transaction happen all the time. Read some of the horror stories from the review sections there about the merchants with a low approval rating. Or a bad return policy. When buying over the web, you really want to avoid having to return the product, as you will usually have to pay the shipping costs yourself. And that can blow any savings by web-shopping that you might have once had.
What I do is search for the product on resellerratings.com first, and I won't buy from a vendor with a score below 9.0 unless I'm desparate. It's really just not worth the risk.
Doing otherwise is somewhat similar to buying a laptop for a low price from some guy in Romainia. ;)
I've bought tens-of-thousands of dollars of things over the past 9-10 years over the Internet/Web, and this is really the way to go. I have never been burned by one of the top rated merchants yet.
The best way to predict the future is to create it. - Peter Drucker.
http://www.bestbuy.com/
Being funny is my sig nature.
eBay's better for system components like RAM - especially for older machines - than it is for top-of-the-line stuff. Networking kit like broadband routers or wifi NICs often sell on eBay for 10-15% higher than from a major online retaileer like ebuyer.
That said, I upgraded several friends' Dell GX1s to 600mhz using processors bought on eBay for less than £10 each total.
I have been a user for about 10 years. This ends Feb 2014. The site's been ruined. I'm off. Dice, FU
Every once in a while, someone asks this question...
I'm a big fan of mwave.com. You can almost always find good deals on something at least similar to the model you want, it's easy to build a complete system because they a) market their own cheap (yet reliable) brand of cases and b) will stick the CPU and RAM on the board you buy and test the whole thing before shipping it out.
And even if you don't do that, and you get a defective motherboard (like I did), they'll replace it very, very quickly, no questions asked (I believe they had the replacement ready and sent it right after my defective one arrived).
for canadians http://www.mdcharlton.ca/ a has some cool stuff not really technical stuff but things that are hard to find elsewhere.
Also http://www.fronet.com/ is good for computer stuff.
How am I supposed to interperet a rating of a Troll. Don't you think it would be more productive to respond with something constructive like an opinion or assessment of your own?
http://www.fatwallet.com/
Every once and a while I find some really good deals through in the Hot Deals forum. Although you need to look out for the occasional outlandish price matching scheme to get the deal.
-my other sig is your mom
I never thought I'd see so many visited hyperlinks on a new slashdot headline.... Is this a bad sign?
In undeveloped countries, the consumer controls the market. In capitalist America, the market controls you.
I use Expansys (US site)- while their prices aren't quite as keen as ebuyer (UK only I think) they have a great range, an easy-to-navigate site, loads of product compatability information, and a discussion forum for every product. I've been buying from them since they opened under the name of 21Store in 1997.
ComputerGeeks.com has some good deals especially if your looking for older memeory!
www.redflagdeals.com is a great resource for deal hunters. Those guys go to great lengths!
http://www.shoptoit.ca/, a new online shopping aggregator, just went live recently.
Techbargains.com has their finger on the pulse of tech deals everywhere, including your local B&M compu-store.
Is that where one gets the latest copy of Apple's OSX operating system, ersion 10.4, named Tiger?
NCIX has a nice site, lots of inventory but their prices are not that great. Given the choice I would much rather order from one of these guys...
Don't forget Tiger direct has a canadian site and you won't get dinged for duty/border fees if you order from there.
One of my favs has always been PC Canada. They are almost always cheaper than NCIX and they have always been fast with my orders. I had to return some RAM once upon a time and had no hassles at all. The only real strike against them is they don't carry as broad of an inventory as a place like NCIX does (take a look at their vid card selection, you will see what I mean).
If you want the absolute cheapest, it's hard to beat Canada Computers. I can not vouch for online ordering since anything I've bought from them has been in person but they usually have the cheapest price around. I've heard some people say they are pretty unforgiving when it comes to returns so be aware of this.
- Toby
I needed to upgrade the ram in a Dell SC420. DDR2 ECC. I bought some from an online store, and it wouldnt work. They replaced it. Wouldn't work again. Went through this 3 times. I finally called Dell to see what the problem was, and they sold me the ram I needed cheaper than the online store. But at least the online store refunded my money + shipping. I later found that the "online store's" phone was a cell phone. Now that is a gypsy.
If you're not trying to find something fast, eBay is a great place to get almost anything at a good price. I create "favorites" and ask to be emailed notifications of new additions. I got some Pomona test leads at a great price by waiting. Took a couple of months for the right ones to come along and for me to not get outbid by somebody who wanted them more than I did, but I eventually got them at my price.
Any canucks got any good sugestings for online canadina based stores? Only decent one i know so far is tigerdirect.ca.
First http://ostg.pricegrabber.com/ (ostg sub-domain), then http://www.tigerdirect.com/indexus.asp?SRCCODE=SLA SHX, then a blatant plug for thinkgeek (a major source of revenue for LNUX). Should slashdot not disclose if they are affiliated in any way with all links? What is the purpose of the pricegrabber.com sub-domain, and the SRCCODE in the tigerdirect link?
J!NX Hackwear
"I'm not ashamed I can't function in society like I'm supposed to." - Paul Westerberg
http://www.techbargains.com/ is where I go first before I buy anything. They have deals sectioned by coupons and other things. If I remember correctly they even have a special section just for hidden Dell promotions.
"shamless plug for ThinkGeek, who is also owned by OSTG."
Where can I buy a shamless plug? The DIY store only sells the standard variety, or have just sold the last one. Can anyone recommend a web site that sells glass nails?
Check the site with netcraft. If it is running Windows with IIS, do not shop there. If you look at netcraft, you will see that they run about 40% of the https space. Yet, they suffer nearly 100% of ALL credit card thefts. Statistically, that is a disaster.
If you do not believe it, simply netcraft all the known thefts for the last 5 years. Last none-MS theft was Playboy in ~2000 (solaris box that was not updated).
They are spammy shitstains.
I had to threaten them with legal action to get off their mailing list. Then found myself back on it and had to jump through the same hoops to get removed again. I never even recieved any product from them. Ordered a DVD player from them for a christmas gift (well in advance), it got back ordered twice after being shown in stock for the original order. then the bastards mail bombed me with crap for months and played spammy games to get removed. I fart in TigerDirect's general direction.
Rick B.
http://www.redflagdeals.com/
The forums are what make RedFlagDeals such a great site. There is an active userbase who post deals and others comment on them based on their knowledge/experience.
From their site FAQ.
What is the purpose of RedFlagDeals.com?
RedFlagDeals.com was and will always be designed as a source of information to help Canadians save money on both online and offline purchases. With the advent of the Internet, Canadians from across the country can now gather together and share information. RedFlagDeals.com is the community where this can take place. With daily deals, coupons, rebates, forums and much more we hope that everyone will be able to save just a little bit on their purchases.
Is this an online shopping site?
No. RedFlagDeals.com is not an online shopping site. It is a web site designed to inform Canadians about the hottest shopping deals across the country. Via the Internet, visitors to the site can access information about online and offline shopping deals, as well as coupons and rebates.
What is the difference between RedFlagDeals.com and online shopping web sites?
Consumers should visit RedFlagDeals.com BEFORE they shop to learn about shopping deals, coupon codes and rebate information available to consumers for both on and offline purchases. They can then visit their favourite shopping web sites or retail outlets to take advantage of the deals they've found at RedFlagDeals.com!
I'd like to suggest finding somewhere that guarantees the Linux compatibility of the parts that they sell. Such places to exist, though they can take some tracking down, and you'll probably pay more.
But, my last experience with such a sale was not especially satisfying. Having got my product it didn't exactly work first time. The response from the retailer was "you'll probably need to spend a day or two fiddling with it to get it to work". Aaarrgghh! I'd just paid 75% more for this thing than it cost in my local high street store. What is "a day or two" of my time worth? - I'm a contractor, and I can put an exact figure on that.
Luckily, it only took me half a day to get it working in the end. Maybe only 30 times longer than a Windows user would take. But the experience left a bit of a bad taste. So next time I'm more likely to go for wherever's cheapest. For that, Froogle is good, but the trouble is that some retailers include delivery and/or tax in their Froogle prices while others don't. And Ebay is another good option of course.
UK based cashback site: http://my-cashback.com/
There are others (greasypalm, ipoints, etc) but they pay a smaller percentage. With http://my-cashback.com/ everytime you buy something via an affiliate link from their site, they give you back 70%ish of the commission that they earn. Hassle free (unlike signing up to commission junction, tradedoubler, etc and waiting until you've earned $100)
I like buy.com because they have almost everything and at pretty good prices. However, whenever I need something in a hurry and pay extra they always screw something up and it gets delayed, when I go with the free option I usually have it within 2 days.
Yahoo! Shopping is usually my first destination.
I used to be a big Pricewatch fan, but lately I'm getting my best prices from Yahoo Shopping. Not to sound politically incorrect, but Yahoo seems to have the best of the little Mom-n-Pop Chinese & Korean shops, in places like City of Industry, who work like crazy to get you the best prices.
Plus I get the best hits on a wide variety of junque at Yahoo - I got hits on an obscure video card with LabVIEW drivers, and a huge old ALR 6x6 server at a government auction, etc.
When searching Yahoo Shopping, be sure to hit the sort-by-price link. Also, if it's a pre-configured product item [e.g. a known book, or DVD, or CD-ROM], then Yahoo will compute the S&H [and order the results by price] if you enter your zip code.
(this is taking too long plain text from here)
http://www.fwdepot.com/thestore/default.php
http://www.siliconacoustics.com/index.html
http://www.xoxide.com/index.html
http://www.pc-pitstop.com/
http://www.xpcgear.com/
You have to check around. Not any one place has the best prices on everything or the best selection. For a particular part, there may be only one vendor carrying it.
If you're shopping for DVDS and live in the US, I would recomend www.deepdiscountdvd.com and Amazon.com as the two best places for dvds. DDD has free shipping and Amazon has free shipping on most orders over $25. When I'm looking for a dvd, I check both of these places and check the prices at the local Walmart and Target stores on the release date. Target has been very competitive on their pricing on opening day. If they have the dvd on sale, it's usually just as cheap or cheaper than online. Sometimes as much as $5 difference. Also, if the DVD has been out for a litle while, check Amazon Canada. I recently ordered the first six seasons of Stargate SG-1 and it ended up being cheaper even with the extra shipping costs than ordering from a us retailer. Also, don't forget to do a quick google search for coupon codes. You could end up saving a bundle for an extra minute or two of searching.
First, go here and stock up:
;-)
http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/ctd/default.asp
then here for some accessories:
http://www.russiancombatgear.com/
Only then go to an electronics site and if they give you bad service, then you know what to do...
Oh well, what the hell...
http://www.redflagdeals.com/ is unmatched. They also have a very big message board, the "hot deals" section always has the latest deals from various Canadian vendors. It's not uncommon for a product to go out of stock quickly after being posted to RFD.
go to http://pricescan.com/, its an awsome place too
i normally use the Hot Deals forum of http://forums.redflagdeals.com/ or Mbay at http://mbcanada.com/
Gotta Love Al's Ski Barn.
Since I'm no where near a ski shop, I love that place!
Komplett are European and have great customer service. I'm in the UK, so I use http://www.komplett.co.uk/
.so, .ie and .nl
They also have komplett.no,
I also use Ebuyer, who've been mentioned before.
Rik
I've gotten a lot of good deals from buy.com
They ship really fast, have great prices, and are unbelievable about customer support for defective products. Their account management interface is really good, too.
~Ben
mwave.com is a good store. i've been there for pickup too - they have a small 50'x50' will call room, very well kept and clean with terminals for buying at the store, and then about 9 billion square feet of warehouse. prices are quite good, decent selection.
# Erik
I've been shopping online for several years now and never had any problem until recently when I bought a headset from CyberGiftCenter. The headset arrived broken. They never replied to my e-mails (they don't even provide an e-mail address, I had to fill in a webform). I finally had to find out their phone number from my credit card company (it's nowhere to be found on their website). I tried calling them several times during a period of two weeks. On three occasions (out of maybe 20 attempts) I managed to reach a (always the same) person (messages left on their answering machine were not returned) who always assured me they would send a replacement immediately (never happened). I finally had to dispute the payment with my credit card company.
Back in 2000 my credit card number was stolen and at the time I had no idea who gotten it. But 3 years later a person in a gaming guild I play in mentioned that they had a card that was ran up after shopping at tiger direct. About 4 months ago a co-worker said that their card used at tiger direct was also abused.
In each of the cases the punk ordered stuff from various places and sent it to us. But it was still a pain in the arse.
Wouldnt shop there. And the FBI and police said there's not much they can do???
http://bensbargains.net/. The comments can be pretty juvenile, but the deals are good and easy to browse.
HardDrive.com Nice interface. I love the price/GB list.
I have two favourites canadacomputers.com and factorydirect.ca. I have been shopping at both for years (they are local Computers stores to my area), and I find they generally beat the more established online vendors.
Whats interesting is they both have started selling online (US and Can).
For the conspiracy theorists out there I don't have a connection to either outside that of a customer.
There is some overlap between the two, but AddAll.com comparison-shops a bunch of bookstores and will calculate shipping rates for you (for pretty much any country on the planet) and is primarily useful for looking for new books. It also includes the 3rd party sellers going through Amazon and the like.
If looking for used books, head to used.addall.com, but here you'll have to deal with shipping costs yourself.
I use digi4all.com -
Great prices and good customer service. They even have super cheap generic RAM (if you're into that short of thing)
-Valiss
The point of making that troll is to get it off the default view. See, all those shameless links fake out Google.
Wardriver
Sig? We don't need no stinking sig....
For books, http://www.bookfinder.com/ searches all the major listing sites )TomFolio, ABEBooks, Alibris), as well as Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Almost any English-language book in existence can be found there, and there are many foreign bookstores there as well.
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
Great site, very popular in the nordic countries. Hardware,books,traveling,cell phones,etc etc. cheers b0bben
I use Dubli. They are kind of like eBay + that they have regular shops there at well (and I like the way they make sure you don't get f***** by the seller and vice-verca):
http://www.dubli.com/
Dealnews
DealInk
DealCoupon
DealCam
and the stuff is not Mac-centric, tons of periperals that are Windows only or cross-platform useable. Many times, combinations of Rebates and hidden Coupons are pointed out showing that the end result is an item that costs $0.00!
I like microcars
a good place to start - bensbargains.net Never, never ever go here - outpost.com
Get your tagline off my lawn.
AC, please don't comment on stories in which you have no interest.
If you hear two women in a mall discussing makeup, do you insist on joining the conversation?
Back to the topic. Newegg advertises low prices, but often arranges a huge profit on shipping. I notice that many companies do that. TigerDirect is so abusive it scares me. Numerous companies try to take advantage of teenagers by calling their products "Extreme", and using other manipulations. Dell often advertises more than one price for the same product. Why do companies think that being sneaky is a good idea?
If it is online stores for your PC parts and Media i can recommend 2 very reliable and secure stores from personal experience: www.ebuyer.co.uk or www.aria.co.uk there are plenty more but these are the ones i have best experiences with.
Good forums about really good deals. I usually hit it 3-4 times a day.. probably closer to a sickness.
Think Geek: (Link already on Slashdot)
Amazon
eBay
Froogle
Graigs list
Koamart: For ramen.
Bevrages direct for caffine.
Ramen Depot also for raman but I prefer Koamart
Cheap Bytes for Linux related stuff (books, Linux distros, The Linux from Scratch book. Everyone must buy the LFS book. Forget Debian LFS is god
Easy Linux CDs Primarly linux trainning matereal.
I don't actually exist.
checkout www.bookfinder.com and www.abebooks.com Great for new and used alike
NJ Local Music Scene
I've had good experiences with Morgan Computers who have a good range of refurbished and new stuff, and with Dabs.
--- These are not words: wierd, genious, rediculous
I like Shopzilla.com and bizrate.com. They were just bought by the EW Scripps company. www.scripps.com
slickdeals.net some cross posting from fatwallet and you have to read the forums to find anything also has a find me a deal forum
I like meta-site BizRate.com, since the customer ratings and predicted shipping cost will assure I get a good price and customer service. It lets you quantify the experience along with price. Froogle is great, but is a disorganized mess, no ranking system and no idea what shipping will be.
Rule of the open mind
People who are resistant to change cannot resist change for the worst.
I'm surprised no one has mentioned dealsea and bensbargains.net.
These are cooperative shopping sites where people post up deals they find. Just the dell coupons alone make it worth checking out.
lots of ridiculous coupon/rebate deals on a daily basis.
B
c|Net By end users, at least.
_________
The world doesn't just disappear when you close your eyes, does it?
For listings of daily deals and coupon codes to use for major sites (Dell, Overstock, Buy.com, etc.) I use gotapex.com
http://www.gotapex.com/
For a daily item that is dirt cheap and is usually tech related on a 1st come 1st served buyout basis goto woot.com
http://www.woot.com/
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I just go to a local shop and look there first. Might cost a little more, but much better service when I walk into a store.
Also it keeps the local econoly running.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
I would happily shop from U.S. retailers, but continue to be amazed by the number of U.S. companies that cannot understand the value in selling to the 30+ million people north of the border.
If a U.S. retailer wants my business they will:
What has impressed me even more are the handful of companies that will even estimate customs charges on orders shipped to Canada. That helps me to avoid the god awful UPS thievery where you pay $25 in handling and brokerage to buy a $10 item.
Three Squirrels
Maybe you should get your mom to figure it all out for you when she's done doing your laundry.
Oh, and maybe she can stay home during the day to answer the door; after all, UPS and FedEx aren't going to be able to hire anyone to make deliveries during the evening and night hours. (Delivery drivers don't like getting shot, robbed or attacked by dogs, pigfucker.)
This is real life. It's not for pussies.
BTW, go to http://youaredumb.net/ and read the Be A Better Nerd Manifesto.
O~ Him that studies revenge keeps his own wounds green. -- Francis Bacon
Like most techs know tigerdirect is worce then frys. and thats saying a lot. becuse frys realy sucks.
CyberCPU.net
slickdeals.net
overstock.com
PCI Micro has served me well when it comes to smaller computer stuff, like cables, fans, thermal grease, and cheap, durable mice and keyboards. You can usually find a free shipping code floating around if you dig for it.
Newegg is still my favorite for bigger parts, like motherboards, memory, and DVD burners.
Amazon is usually pretty good about having cheap, quality storage media, like blank DVDs or SD cards.
Pricewatch can find good deals, but only if you're willing to dig through lots of shady stores posting the "buy 10 units" price and jacking it up when you just want one.
And Reseller Ratings is a must when buying from no-name retailers you find on pricewatch. I also like how Reseller Ratings has clear specs on everything, and incorporates Epinions reviews along with their price comparisons.
ZipZoomFly is what used to be known as googlegear.com until Google got uncomfortable with that...I like their site and prices. I've also shopped with good success at ComputerGeeks. TigerDirect is in my experience Highly Evil and should be avoided at all costs.
You probably don't need all that crap in the first place.
I'm surprised noone has mentioned Yahoo's product search.
sigs are a waste of space
I didn't find Newegg's shipping charges to be excessive. Yes on big or heavy items it can get expensive but that seems tied to the bulk/weight or whatever you are having shipped.
I just bought 2 dvds (different titles) on ebay, from two different sellers and was screwed by one, and disappointed by the other.
This was the first time I bought DVDs on ebay, every other purchase I've ever done went smoothly.
The 1st DVD was a bootleg. When I confronted the seller he just said that it wasn't a bootleg, but an import with a different cover. This was bull for many reasons. The first is that I ordered the DTS version, and the dvd was labeled as that, but the movie itself was Dolb Digital. Next, the dvd was only single layer (it says on the label DVD-9)! I had to return the movie to the seller at my expense, then he gave me negative feedback since I gave him negative feedback.
CAUTION: Be wary of sellers that say their DVDs are imported and may have different covers, this means they are very convincing bootlegs!
With my other purchase, the guy shipped me the DVD that I asked for, but without its' DVD case! He never mentioned this, after I told him about this, he said that throws out the cases that his DVDs come in. What an asshat! Plus, he didn't take paypal, so I had to send a money order (yuck), I should have noticed that before I bid though.
My algorithm is to search on pricegrabber for the product, and then pick the lowest priced vendor that has a 5 star rating. If the price difference is small, I'll prefer a vendor I've dealt with before.
Zipzoomfly has been a good vendor, though I've had about a 50% DOA rate on Hitachi 7K250 drives from them. They've been quite prompt and good about replacing them (if you call --- the web interface for returns is a black hole). Once I get working drives, they seem to stay working though.
Hand Made.
I'll custom make the chain if you want to add baubles or need it longer, etc. If you have a special metal preference (titanium, gold, etc) I can get you those quotes as well.
Time to shipping is about 2 weeks at present, unless the specific item you want is in stock.
I'm always open to email about suggestions for the site as well.
http://www.andashdesigns.com/
I only know of Red Flag Deals
If you know of others, please post!
This happened to me a little while ago...
I decided to purchase a digi camera and I looked up froogle.com and found this super deal. The camera was supposed to be brand new unopened. So I purchase it and then I get this e-mail telling me to call up and purchase my order. So I call them up and they were like you gotta buy the battery for the camera. I found this a bit strange since the camera is supposed to include a recharger and a battery in the box. So I said no that's ok. He was like how are you going to use the camera without the battery. I said I'll buy it later. Then he says, oh I'll check on the product. Then comes back and says that they don't have the product in stock. I was like ok.
So then I went to a different store and found a camera for a good price. But b4 that I went to read some reviews and this store had bad reviews and seems to do the exact same thing. And apparently there a a bunch of stores that do this.
Post super low prices, then u need to call them up to confirm ur order, and then they try to sell u accessories, and if ur not interested, the tell you that the item is out of stock...
WTH.. can't ppl be straight up and stop wasting my time.. sheesh..
This was where my original purchase was: amphotoworld.com
This was where my next order was gonna be: fotoconnection.com
I am glad that I didn't buy from those scammers...
I ended up buying it from this store Adorama, through Amazon. Now I pretty much buy all my stuff through Amazon. I get free shipping most of the time + they respond to my e-mails very fast + if a package is lost, the re-ship it out in record time.
The best and most convenient comparison shopping tool I've found so far is ActiveShopper http://www.activeshopper.com/
It helps me save quite a few bucks when shopping online. Unfortunately I couldn't find a plugin for FireFox, only IE
In UK http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/
In US http://www.dealmein.net/
Basically people sharing bargains they spotted, misprices on websites, etc.
"Don't belong. Never join. Think for yourself. Peace." V.Stone, Microsoft Corporation
CompUSA, CircuitCity, and BestBuy. They always have great prices, along with incredibly knowledgable staff if you decide to visit their physical stores. Oh, and always make sure to get the extended warranty. You're a fool if you don't.
I'll up the ante. Go to Radioshack! Reasonable prices* and great service.
*who says $50 for a 12ft USB cable is unreasonable!
Radioshack. You've got questions? We've got blank stares.
[Alternatively, You've got questions? We've got batteries.]
A preposition is a terrible thing to end a sentence with.
The Five Finger Discount.
v =23iib4rQ that guy did, you should be fine ^_-
I know a lot of places tend to lock up easily boostable/valuable parts, but as long as you don't make the same mistakes http://www.wavy.com/Global/story.asp?S=3479439&na
https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
1. Get Firefox, or another browser that lets you subscribe to RSS feeds.
2. Go around to all the deal sites listed in this thread (Dealnews, Ben's Bargains, edealinfo, techbargains, etc). Subscribe to all their RSS feeds, setting up "live bookmarks" for each one. Put all the RSS feeds into one bookmarks folder, if you want to keep them organized.
3. A few times a day, go to "manage bookmarks" then do a search for whatever you're looking for.
I used this trick when shopping for a Sandisk MP3 player. I would just type in "sandisk" and it would show me all the current deals that mention Sandisk. Alternately, you could search for MP3, or whatever -- you get the idea. A great use of RSS.
- Alaska Jack
Mycashback pays you cash rebates at over 600 of the best online shops including Argos, Tesco, John Lewis, Dixons and Dell. You can get up to 25% in cash rebates on your purchases and it's free to use - no charges, no catches and you get a free £5 sign-on bonus !
I used to do that. But the problem sometimes is that the reviewers are just ignorant bastards - specially if the product is a bit 'geeky' - e.g. wireless music reciever. So, you may get a skewed idea on the product - either positive or negative. Then I switched to cNet reviews (whenever available - mostly, you should find some user feedback on cNet for electronics stuff anyway). cNet userbase is more 'informed' (at least more than amazon), and hence, you may get a better review there than amazon. But sometimes, even cNet feedback are naive.
But in general, yes, nothing like getting an end user feedback on a prodcut.
BTW, the product descriptions (on amazon and otherwise) always suck. Instead of what the product CAN DO, you will find how amazing it is without any real information.
I have done "internet shopping" for a long time now and would reccommend it to anyone, as long as they are smart about it. I have only once run into an internet merchant that is purposely trying to defraud people, and it isn't even credit card fraud. It's rare and you would have to be damn stupid to try and pull credit card fraud these days. It is so tightly watched and so easy for consumers to fight back against blatent credit card fraud (obtaining a CC number and then charging to it without consent or transfer of goods / services)
The one place that I HAVE run into, and I'm picking on them because they are the ONLY place that has done anything this bad, is http://www.wawadigital.net./ I ordered a Minolta Dimage Z2 from them because they showed the price in their store as and I quote "$188 after $50 mail in rebate". This was a great price because most other stores were doing $219 or $229 after rebate. I decided to give it a shot and ordered the camera. Strangely enough, my final receipt after tax and $15.04 2-day shipping said $203.04. I though hey, maybe they messed up and now after the $50 mail in rebate I'll get a $399 MSRP camera for $153.04. The next day, I was contacted via phone (on a Sunday suprisingly) by a salesman from wawadigital.net to "confirm my order". He double checked my address and order information which I thought was impressive and noble of them to do.
Then he said that the price I paid is after a mail in rebate so he would have to add on the $50.00 to my sale. As soon as I questioned this, charging my credit card a different amount than my receipt, the salesman's demeanor immediatly turned from patient and polite and warm to "I don't have time for this, I'm cancelling your order. " All I had done was question this practice, not say I didn't want the camera. I though about it for a minute and after comparing the price sheet to other retailers, decided that even after adding $50.00 it was still worth it. I called back the number and convinced him that I would go ahead with the order at the higher price if he sent me a proper receipt. He was not patient or nice at this point, cussing at me and giving a very rude version of what I'd call "customer service". After agreeing to not cancel my order he then asked if I wanted to add on any memory cards or - but I cut him off before he could list accessories saying No I don't want anything besides the retail box with the camera and what it comes with from the manufacturer. He had hung up before I could finish that sentance. I figured that my order was still going through.
While waiting for my order to arrive (tuesday or wednesday if he shipped it out on monday) I researched wawadigital.net because that seemed a little fishy. I couldn't find anything about wawadigital.net, they're a yahoo store and there was no feedback about them on yahoo's review system. I looked on their website to see if I could find any better info to cross-reference with. Just an email, mailto:wawadigital@yahoo.com (oops, did I just post that publicly?) and that was it. I checked their domain registration whois information and got a name and address. The name was too generic to bring up anything on google but the address brought up such links as
http://www.complaints.com/directory/2004/november/ 10/24.htm
http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/ripoff146772.h tm
http://www.shopcartusa.com/wawadigital/Details/Rev iewsOrder_Worst/Page_1/
I read through hundreds of stories explaining situations very similar to mine with all sorts of bait-and-switching going on and started to wonder if they had ever sold a camera in their life. I realized that they had a
While its not perfect, its one of the best place to get canadian prices (which include tigerdirect, amazon, ncix, etc.). Of course, I have found some rare unlisted online shop with good price. But overall, its really good.
You're right. I've looked at the shipping costs just now, and there are not as many tricks as there once were.
However, look at this: GENERIC USB 2.0 Cable, 10FT. Price for an item that costs about 58 cents in large quantities? $2.58. Shipping cost? $4.99.
There are plenty of good places out there, but I think you do have to strike a balance between price and service.
NoimsThis is not the greatest sig in the world. This is just a tribute.
--
Free Credit Report Info
What does your Credit Report look like?
When I bought a laptop from them the hard drive worked for about 1 day and then died on me. I did not feel like going through customer service to get a replacement so I just bought a new drive. Also the laptop had a big crack along the left side of the case and a screw was missing leaving me to duct tape the whole thing so it wouldn't fall apart.
http://craigslist.org/ is my personal favorite. You can even buy gift cards for less than they're worth!
Rock on friend. I have the same feeling about Tigerdirect-- they deliberately try to hide the true prices from you.
I use Newegg for the same reason. I also like that you can compare items side by side in a variety of different views... geek friendly.
I understand the supplier is a big deal in the whole ebuying thing but how do you know what to buy? Can I add links to good review sites to this thread? Most of the time I check anandtech.com and tomshardware.com on bigger items but where do you go for good laptop reviews?
try http://www.pricenetwork.ca/ and http://www.redflagdeals.com/.
Try PriceRunner, a new price comparison site in the USA but successful since long in Europe.
I recently stumbled across a new online site which is kind of like newegg. The site is called etopia3.com and has a lot of promise. Most or all of the prices seem to be lower than newegg!
A friend of mine used them recently and said their help/support was great. Of course, this IS all second-hand information. If anything else, the website is really cool lookin'.
Does anyone else know anything about etopia3?
HA! You should try TigerDirect's shipping prices...
I recently found a case from there that I liked, had a power supply and was discounted. I figured what the hell - splurge a little from my normal stomping grounds. After $56 for the case, they wanted $53 to ship the sucker to me! I've decided that no matter how nice something is, I'm joining the ranks of not buying from them anymore...
include:
4 0 t id=18
http://www.bargainshare.com/
http://forums.anandtech.com/categories.cfm?catid=
http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/categories.cfm?ca
http://www.slickdeals.net/
besides tech deals, one thing i would definitely recommend tech people check out are the finance and grocery forums at these sites (if they have it). you can save so much more money than from purchasing tech equipment.
HD Trailers
I've been shopping there since around 1998, never had any problems. I prefer newegg, but often you can find a few items at mwave for cheaper so you can save $30 or by splitting your purchase between the two (assuming you are buying a lot of parts at once). For small items I've tried a few other stores over the years, never had as professional of service as I have from mwave and newegg - either it takes an unusual amount of time to process the order, or it doesn't ship when they claim it will or the packaging is substandard, etc.
Another one is bzboyz.com, they often have really good prices - especially on video cards and CPUs, but the one time I ordered from them they were conventiently out of stock even though their website said they were. It took an extra week for my order to ship. I didn't care much at the time, but it's BS to say you have a part when you don't and to not tell the customer until AFTER they order. I'd deal with them again for anything non-urgent if the price was right.
Some of the products thinkgeeks sells are less than quality. I have purchased/received more than one item from them that broke just outside the manufacturers warranty, however short that might be. Also, 99% of the time you can get the same items they sell cheaper somewhere else. Use them as a place to look for stuff and then find it somewhere else.
I am sure glad I got to click on a tigerdirect affiliate link!
---
You can also create new lines here if you want
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Two sites I check out when looking for deals are http://spoofee.com/ and http://salescirular.com/ which has the ads from the newspapers which is particularly good if you want to go out and buy it right now.
Also http://www.thriftbooks.com/ if you are looking for cheap books.
Futurepower(R), please don't reply to comments in which you have no interest.
If you hear two women in a mall discussing makeup, and someone comments on it, do you insist replying to them?
Back to the topic. If you don't like shipping and handling, buy it locally. What? The price is higher? Suck it up.
I worked for ChimpUSA in Washington state while in College. Most of the people they hired knew NOTHING about computers, and they didn't care. Once I had a new hire for the tech department ask me what the difference between a ISA and PCI card was. As one of the two people in the entire store who understood computers, I was handed every sort of question that couldn't be answered by looking at the box, from the trivial ('Does this computer have some RAMs?') to the unanswerable ('Will this copy of Dragon Natural Speaking work with a cheap microphone and a portugese lisp?').
None of the sales force were given any education about product, and the main focus was to sell waranties, which had markup margins of about 3000%. All the sales people told customers that they weren't commissioned, and although they were paid a close to minuimum wage hourly rate, they recieved (small) bonuses when they sold warranties. The warranties where given marketing droid created osfucating names, like 'Technology Assurance Programs'.
Most of the 'sale items' were really regualr price with a rebate thrown in. Quite a bit of the hardware they carried was utter junk, packard bell, compaq, and taiwan made no-brand crap that didn't work right half the time. The classes they offered at inflated rates were worthless to anyone except Information Highway roadkill.
Their POS/inventory system was horrible, and half the time suff listed in the computer could never be found. (If you ever call to see if they have something in stock, don't believe a clerk if they say it is listed in the computer. Make them grab it and put it aside for you.)
Many times, the 'super deals' they list in their flyers wouldn't be backed up with stock on hand. They would have 3 on hand when they opened the doors on Sunday morning, and by 9:15 they would be sold out. Customers who persisted in demanding the item they had drove out to buy were directed to go put the item on back order. These back orders would languish for months, and typically never get filled.
If you want to do businuess with them, it is safe to buy software from them. They really can't fuck that up, other than not having it in stock.
Personally, I wouldn't trust them with a couple of burnt out matches. The greed, stupidity, and ignorance starts with the lowest floor staff and goes as high as I encountered people. The higher ranked the managers got the more ass-kissing became an art. They only cared about their numbers, PERIOD. Customers were considered an annoyance that they placated to get rid of. I can only imagine the mentality at the corporate level. (Oh, yeah, they are based in Texas. You do the math...)
I may sound bitter about the company, but I don't have any personal axe to grind because I got fired or anything. I worked there for a year or so, saw they were fools and moved on. Shop there at your own risk.
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
wherever you shop just remeber to google this:
{wherever you shop}.com coupon
You can also try 'free', 'rebate' etc.
Often this gives you some extra $$$ off or similar.
Does of couse work great on brick and mortar places too
At this point I do all of my shopping through New Egg, Amazon, and CDW simply because I can trust them. I've use Pricewatch, Ebay, Froogle, and others to buy stuff cheap in the past, and over half the time the items I recieved were broken/damaged, and the hassle of getting the stuff replaced (when the vendors will do it) is a huge pain. It also doesn't help that, when ordering from those tiny mom-and-pop vendors that the search engines turn up, the shipping charges are often outrageous, and more than one I have tried to buy something advertised with "free shipping" and then at the checkout only been able to select a much more expensive option.
You can get great deals on cell phone stuff at this site http://www.cellup.com/ I bought a bluetooth car kit and bluetooth wireless headset form there for about 1/2 as much as I could get it at my local cingular store.
http://dealnews.com/
Yes, I know I am supposed to pay Arnold the use tax at the end of the year. **cough** Will do!
Amazon has amazing deals, but they are usually difficult to find or aren't well advertised. I created http://www.dealmapper.com/ to find the various deals that amazon has. Computer hardware is among the categories being tracked.
Only one place when you are in the need for Hot Stuff.
http://www.woot.com/
I didn't hear about buydig until recently when I bought my digital camera from them. good prices and they shipped before they were supposed to. I always like that
...because you never want anybody to joke that you don't have it, if you can't spell it;>
http://www.redflagdeals.com/
These people are idiots.
I've had no end of trouble with them, I'll never use them again, and highliy recommend that no-one else does.
for most computer parts, i got to newegg.com simply because they have about the best prices, fast shipping and good cust service.
for items they dont have or when im not buying in bulk where i save with them on shipping, ill do a search on bizrate.com, which compares many websites prices (including neweggs) and has a nice shiny site interface with the ability to search by pricing/size/interface/brand etc...
i sometimes use pricewatch.com for quick pricing, (like if i want to know rough market values) but tend not to really use it because a lot of times accessories get lumped with stuff (like ill want a 40GB hard drive and it will lump hard drive accessories in) and because they sometimes have less than reputatble sites on there and no real ratings (causing me to have to research a site -- and i tend to prefer not to have to).
also ill throw in a quick plug for xoxide.com who has stuff more for the comp modder. They have some nifty prices, and are *usually* fairly priced. They also run a rewards program and sunday night 1-item special which is cool (called X-hour -- the rewards thing is Xoxide rewards by the way).
Mike
I heart the RIAA & MPAA, im sure its mutual...
Particularly, try the Price Comparison Shopping category (Shopping > Price Comparison Shopping). Use the "PV" (Power View) feature to power through the sites.
great selection... very good above and beyond support.... and sweet deals..
i once bought a motherboard that i had sit in the box for 6 months... far past its 14 day doa return policy... they took it back and tested it and replaced it free of charge... except to ship there.. which was a small price to pay...
I avoid Ebay for electronics unless I absolutely cannot get it anywhere else. This is because I get slaughtered on shipping costs. One time I bought a 8gb cf card. The shipper charged $10. The $550.00 card arrived bare, in an envelope with a 37 cent stamp on it. The same thing happened with an LCD inverter card - $10 item charged $15 for shipping and it came in a paper envelope, no ASD bag or anything.
ALL the electronic sellers do this.
Lately some sellers are going for $20 per item fixed shipping costs. For a 1-lb item UPS Ground. For instance look at some USB hard drive enclosures. These would sell for $30 in the store. They are priced at $8.95 or so, but comes to $28.95 with shipping. The sellers use this method to avoid the Final Value Fee ebay charges them on the total sale.
Try RTPE:
http://labs.anandtech.com/
I find it more useful than fatwallet or Pricewatch.
HJ
directdial.com -- ships fast, tons of items in stock and good prices (like tigedirect, I'd say). Their customer service people are nice too.
For used hardware, I like pcoutlet.com (I'm having trouble viewing products in Firefox though).
And of course, a good idea is to search through local classifieds (lespac.com comes to mind).
Any other recommended places in Canada?
You are more than the sum of what you consume. Desire is not an occupation.
Further, Pagerank is undoubtedly smart enough to avoid allowing multiple links from a single document to signifigantly impact a score.
Spend your foolish sense of righteousness elsewhere please.
http://www.mwave.com/ has some decent prices. For hard-to-find items I turn to http://newsite.pagecomputers.com/ like a Tyan S2895 with all the parts, including recommended cases, ram, AMD 675's (yes two)...
Usually tigerdirect.com. They tend to offer good deals. I shop thinkgeek now and then, but mostly only when I'm bored. Generally when I'm shopping online I'm looking for specific items I can't find in a store location, and thinkgeek isn't terribly good for specific stuff.
For EBAY FRAUD OF ALL KINDS
* weedshare.com 50% to artists, webjay.org iuma.com CDBaby.com Epitonic.com ampcast.com
It was the last time I ever dealt with them. Any place with an attitude like that wouldn't be worth using if they had the lowest prices out there (and they're not even close).
I highly recommend New Egg, myself. Great service, great prices, fast shipping. 9 times out of 10, I've done prices searches at all the price comparison sites only to find that New Egg had it cheapest.
-Eric
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
I've been doing well on DELL purchases at a new site called savingswatch.com ... they seem to have automated the collection of online coupon offers by them as well as offering a rebate on the transaction.
Dealcatcher is one of the better rebate sites around that I've seen.
Froogle is far from perfect. I would prefer using price comparison service at http://www.akabook.com/ to shop for the cheapest textbooks. The reason is: 1. Froogle is cached results, and thus does not reflect the most updated prices. 2. For book search results, it will just list all the book results with similar titles from all stores. If I search by keywords or title, the result will be a mess. 3. Not all major book stores are included in the listings. For electronics, I think pricegrabber is much better than froogle.