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.

Comments

Great Deals?

[jdc180]

Fatwallet.com

Re:Great Deals?

[DrEldarion]

Yeah, but I hear the guy who runs DMI is a real jerk ;)

Germany compares prices at Geizhals.at

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Fatwallet and AnAndtech Forums

[Anonymous Coward]

Check Out the Fatwallet.com, AnAndtech.com Deals forums. Also Check out dealnews.com

If you have a Biz License goto

[LennyDotCom]

http://evertek.com/

they hav esome really awsome deals

Re:If you have a Biz License goto

[Monkelectric]

*NEVER* and I mean never shop at geeks.com/compgeeks.com/evertek.com... A few years ago they were a truely awesome place. But their customer service has gone to SHIT, and so has their products.

I dont have time to type out all my horror stories, but here's a few:

Bought a wireless card and antentta from them. Paid a fortune for the wireless card trying to get a "good" brand so I wouldn't have trobule. As it turns out the card was defective (It woudln't work in about 50% of computers). Compgeeks refused to take a return or even talk to me on the phone. I won thuogh, I got my CC Company to reverse the charges.

Before that I bought a laptop, and went there to pick it up. I got down the street with it, and thought, id better look to see what this is... I openend it, it was *nothing* like the laptop I ordered, half the ram, no dvd burner, etc etc. SO I went back, got them to exchange it (had to wait like 45 minutes)... all turned out well, except the laptop broke just out of warranty anyways. Expensive repair :)

And my all time favorite story -- a friend of mine bought a laptop from them. They ship him laptop #1 with no power brick. So he spens forever on the phone with them, and gets them to send the brick. They send it to the wrong address, so he calls and they ship him a brick a second time. He finally gets it (weeks have elapsed since his laptop got here). The laptop is DOA. He calls back, they give him endless shit about how could the laptop be DOA when he's had it for two weeks ... finally he gets another laptop, it works but ONLY IF YOU REMOVE THE WIRELESS CARD. All of this took about 3 weeks, and at least 10 hours talking to reps.

My point about compgeeks is -- they sell shit and their customer service is shit. I am working on a sucks site for them if anyone would like to contribute stories.

Deal / Coupon Sites

[LogicX]

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.

Re:Deal / Coupon Sites

[bbrack]

don't forget http://dealnews.com/

Re:Deal / Coupon Sites

[LogicX]

BTW, typo on the URL of that first one:
100 Big Coupons

Re:Deal / Coupon Sites

[Anonymous Coward]

One more to add:

Devsdeals

I go there every day

Well..

[Heem]

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.

Re:Well..

[abirdman]

Excellent. I do the same. I get that sinking, "I'm being hoodwinked" feeling when I get to the page where I'm supposed to type in my CC number, and I still don't have the final price. Sheesh!

I also will not buy from a vendor who shows only "after rebate" prices. I used to use Tiger Direct for computer parts, because even if I could beat the price elsewhere, they are great at shipping complete orders quickly, have a good selection, website that's reliable, etc., etc. Sometime along about 2 1/2 years ago, they got totally hooked on this "after rebate" pricing, which made it impossible to figure out what the heck the final price would be. It was easier to find out the shipping price than the retail price. Add to that the "last minute" nature of some of the rebates (sometimes less than a week from the time of placing the order), and it was obvious they were using them strictly to lie about the prices of their products. I fought it for awhile, and finally just switched to NewEgg. They have rebates, too, but they show the actual price when you're shopping (and also have a great selection, good website, fast shipping, competitive pricing).

I buy well over a thousand bucks a year in computer parts and components on the WWW, and I'll never shop at TigerDirect again. They've already shown their level of business ethics.

One other comment-- it's almost always possible to beat a price I get on the internet, but the risk of hassling with returning a product that's wrong, took weeks to ship, or is just plain faulty or broken, makes the slightly higher price from a legit and reliable vendor more than worth the extra cost. Saving $5.00 on a new processor will never pay for even one return-- in hassle, shipping costs, lost time. Most vendors get your money as soon as they ship, and it can take a lot of time to get it back.

Re:Well..

[Anonymous Coward]

> If I can't get the shipping price BEFORE I put
> in my Name and Credit card - I take my business
> elsewhere.

Surely what you're describing is illegal. What country do you live in?

Here's an extract from the relevant British regulations (http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2000/20002334.htm). This is an implementation of an EU directive so it should apply in essentially the same way Europe-wide. My understanding (and I run an online business) is that "in good time" means "linked from the front page of your web site".

Information required prior to the conclusion of the contract
7. - (1) Subject to paragraph (4), in good time prior to the conclusion of the contract the supplier shall -

(a) provide to the consumer the following information -

(i) the identity of the supplier and, where the contract requires payment in advance, the supplier's address;

(ii) a description of the main characteristics of the goods or services;

(iii) the price of the goods or services including all taxes;

(iv) delivery costs where appropriate;

(v) the arrangements for payment, delivery or performance;

(vi) the existence of a right of cancellation except in the cases referred to in regulation 13;

(vii) the cost of using the means of distance communication where it is calculated other than at the basic rate;

(viii) the period for which the offer or the price remains valid; and

(ix) where appropriate, the minimum duration of the contract, in the case of contracts for the supply of goods or services to be performed permanently or recurrently;

In the UK

[jgritz]

www.ebuyer.com has always served me well. I believe they have a US operation too.

Few months ago

[Anonymous Coward]

It was Where Do You Shop for Server Components?. Many of the responses will be the same.

Reseller Ratings

[Robotech_Master]

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.)

Google makes this question redudant, surely?

[hedgehog2097]

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.

In the UK

[NetNifty]

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.

My picks...

[mi]

A Yahoo! Shopping is usually my first destination. They are like virtual shopping mall, where merchants register their stores and list their inventories in some unified format for "across the site" searching. One merchant once mentioned on the phone, that he found Yahoo's terms to be the most reasonable around.

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

vendor sucks

.

Some Mac places

[Gilmoure]

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.

To search for the lowest price...

[Anonymous Coward]

I use Price Scan (http://www.pricescan.com/)

My picks

[(H)elix1]

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.

www.zipzoomfly.com
www.newegg.com
www.chiefval ue.com
www.directron.com
www.ewiz.com
www.monar chcomputer.com

I watch the following bargain boards...

www.hardforum.com/forumdisplay.php?f=28
forums. anandtech.com/categories.aspx?catid=40&ente rcat=y (mind the gap)
www.bensbargains.net

Correction (Re:My picks...)

[mi]

I found it through Yahoo! Shopping Australia...

Oops, this is the right URL: http://shopping.yahoo.com.au/

Re:SCAMS every where

[Nimloth]

For computer parts in Canada, NCIX.com and vibecomputers.com both have excellent prices and price match features. I've had great service from both sites.

Re:SCAMS every where

[Pulzar]

Check out redflagdeals.com regularly for Canadian online (and offline) specials.

Re:the obvious

[Dave21212]

+5 Snarky !

The two dollar bill incident occured at my local BestBuy, which is right across the street from my bank... I was soooooo tempted (then I remembered about the PATRIOT ACT and decided against it:)

resellerratings.com - ALWAYS research the merchant

[btarval]

I never, ever buy on-line from any site without going here first. The single best place to go first is resellerratings.com. This way you can not only see what the prices are, but (MORE IMPORTANTLY) you can see how reliable that vendor is.

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.

Do not use TigerDirect

[Grand Facade]

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.

TigerDirect = Identity Theft

[Bruha]

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???

For books...

[Dave114]

If looking for books (new & used), try AddAll.com, and Used.AddAll.com.

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.

For Books, Bookfinder.com

[Nova Express]

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.

Dealmac, DealRam, Dealcoupon, etc etc

[microcars]

off the Main DEALMAC page, there are several other sites all devoted to DEALS:

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!

Best price/best rating

[vanyel]

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.

Re:Newegg

[BobKagy]

I used to do everything through NewEgg. Got a bad CPU through them, and the return went smoothly.

Unfortunately they don't have everything in the world. Recently had to replace a power supply in a Shuttle XPC. A local shop had something that would fit, but was terribly loud. Went looking for a PC 40 SilentX power supply. Newegg.com didn't have it listed, and I had a devil of a time deciding of those who did list it who was reliable.

Got lucky with ZipZoomFly.com. They had a good price & free shipping on that item. Seemed more legit than the places that made their profit on shipping.

PriceRunner

[ayn0r]

Try PriceRunner, a new price comparison site in the USA but successful since long in Europe.

Shipping costs

[robogun]

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.

Re:mwave

[Hack Jandy]

BZBoyz? Are you kidding Me?
http://www.resellerratings.com/seller2048.html

HJ