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

eBay

[strredwolf]

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.

SCAMS every where

[RancidLM]

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?

Newegg

[Chalex]

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.

Re:Well..

[Heem]

Heh, that after rebate crap is actually illegal in my state, and we found a website that was based out of this state offering up computers for "free" after rebate. of course you had to buy so many other things to get the rebate - but a quick letter from the attorney general had free computers delivered to the doors of 15 of my friends.. haha.

This is not a story

[new-black-hand]

Is it just me, or does this 'story' from 'a reader' reak of being an advertisement? Note that half of the links have referrer information in them, obviously to rake up some $ for OSTG:

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?

Re:This is not a story

[DrEldarion]

What probably happened is that a user submitted a question and then when the editors went to post it, they stuck in the OSTG codes.

Anyway, as long as you get the exact same information, why does it matter if the codes are in there?

Re:the obvious

[arbitraryaardvark]

If you absolutely must deal with circuit city, pay cash. I made the mistake of getting their "free" credit card when I bought a computer there. They screwed up my account, and then spent a year harrassing me by phone about it. My go.to/circuitcitysux page is no longer on line, but I one point I had this all fully documented.
I did end up learning a lot about my rights as a consumer.
---
As to buying online, consider this option: don't.
Reduce, reuse, recycle.
I've bought a couple books from amazon, to encourage the authors, and i still get christmas cards from a politician who i gave a dollar to,
but I've transitioned to a post-scarcity economy.
I have enough stuff. There is cornocopia of free stuff online. If it isn't free online, I can probably do without it. You can augment that with a library card, and by participating in a tool cooperative. Tool coops aren't always called that; yours might call itself a church or a neighborhod association or uncle fred.
If I felt a need for more random stuff, dumpster diving is more fun than golf. Here's a free copy of cory doctorow's latest book about dumpster diving: http://www.craphound.com/someone.
The american assumption that we need more stuff to keep up with the joneses is one reason asia is kicking our asses. Lower overhead.
By not buying online, you can resist impulse buys. I got this computer for $100 + tax from a local computer recycling nonprofit, virtualscavengers. Occasionally I'll get a good cup of coffee downtown, or have a drink at a local club, but that's more about renting space. I'm mostly out of the money economy, because i don't need more stuff, so i don't need a traditional job, which frees up a big block of time to waste on slashdot and suchlike.
My approach is only one strategy, and has some disadvantages too, but you can incorporate it incrementally into your lifestyle. We are moving to a post-scarcity economy, like it or not. Stuff matters, but not like it used to.