Hello juuce,
Thank you for your question.
The reality is that no one vendor is going to have the lowest prices
on all things at all times. With rebates, coupons and the like, you
might be surprised to find that things such as hard drives might be
found at the lowest possible prices at your local Staples, or Best Buy
or Office Depot. Other components will be less at other places. And to
further confuse things, this changes almost daily.
I consider myself a pretty shrewed shopper. So let me share my
"secrets" with you:
Once I decide what it is I need, I check with three price search
engines:
CNET Shopper:
http://shopper.cnet.com/
PriceWatch
http://www.pricewatch.com/
and PriceScan
http://www.pricescan.com/
Now I have a good feeling for what the market price is for what I am
seeking on this shopping trip. Next, I will visit 3 boards that
discuss coupons, rebates and deals to see if I can do better:
FatWallet:
http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/categories.cfm?catid=18
Do search here for what you are seeking whether it is memory, hard
drives, cases, power supplies or whatever. You might just find an
amazing deal. I often do.
Then Anandtech:
http://forums.anandtech.com/categories.cfm?catid=40
and DealNews:
http://dealnews.com/
There are dozens of sites like this, but these are my favorites. Be
sure to check for coupons for your local stores if they carry what you
are seeking. For example, Staples, Circuit City, Best Buy, CompUSA,
Office Max and Office Depot all carry hard drives, mice, keyboards and
the like. It is rare that there isn't a $20 off $100 for Staples, or
$15 off $75 at the other shops. And this might make the price less
than any other deal you find. These sites discuss the current deals
and even have mailing lists to keep you up to date.
Just for example, I bought Microsoft Money and 256MB ram at Best Buy
recently with a 12% off customer appreciation price match to Office
Depot and $20 rebate on Money and $30 rebate on PNY RAM. These deals
happen all the time. I also found 15% PLUS another 15% off at Dell one
weekend a few months ago and bought an Epson printer that had not yet
seen a 10% discount anywhere else. I found this deal at FatWallet.
Finally, for motherboards and CPU combinations and the like, I will
also check with two other favorite online shops:
Googlegear (no relation that I know of):
http://www.googlegear.com/jsp/Home.jsp
and Eagle Computer:
http://saveateaglestore.site.yahoo.net/
Ok, one more - BZBoys:
http://www.bzboyz.com/
And finally, if you find a deal and don't know the retailer, like
*some* of the Brooklyn shops that might be selling gear without US
warranties, check out the dealer here at Reseller Ratings:
http://www.resellerratings.com/
or PC Magazines retailer ratings:
http://pcmag.pricegrabber.com/rating_summary.php/ut=cfd4850439f2089b
With just a little bit of legwork, you can find amazing deals!
Search Strategy:
All from my bookmark list of shopping sites and deals!
I trust my research has provided you with sites that will lead you to
the lowest prices and retailer ratings. If a link above should fail to
work or anything require further explanation or research, please do
post a Request for Clarification prior to rating the answer and
closing the question and I will be pleased to assist further.
Good shopping!
-=clouseau=- |
Request for Answer Clarification by
juuce-ga
on
14 Aug 2003 16:09 PDT
Hi there -=clouseau=-,
Thanks for the comprehensive answer. I went to many of the places you
suggested, and as you say, the prices are very good. Only problem is
that many of them (on pricewatch) only ship within the US. I live in
Sydney, Australia!
thanks,
Juuce
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