Bargain Online Christmas (actually anytime) Shopping

As you all may know, I'm very up to date with computer & technology gadget prices. Online bargain hunting has become somewhat of a hobby to me, in which I spend hours a day, keeping up with current market trends in prices and technology. Today, I will go over some of the tools and techniques I use to get these awesome deals so you can find them yourselves!

1. Slickdeals.net - This is one of my favorite tools to keep track of all sorts of online bargains day by day, from pampers to laptops.

Here are the major sections I use on this page:

• Front page deals - these are the deals that are shown on the front page. Usually these are the best prices you can find for an item online or in-store(aka B&M - Brick & Mortar)
• Search - Located on the upper right hand side of the front page. Slickdeals front page is based on user reported deals. The best deals get posted on the front page. But you can also search for specific products not shown on the front page with this tool. These deals are categorized in popularity, by a "thumbs up" rating on a scale from 0 - 5. I usually look for deals with a "thumbs up" rating of more than 2 when using the search function.
• Hot Topics section - Don't know what you're looking for, or just want to browse the popular deals not posted on the front page. Just browse the hot topics section on the right handside of the page. If you click on hot topics, there are a plethora of deals you can now waste hours browsing.

2. Techbargains.com - Another bargain site I go to. More technology-based deal listings.

• Front page deals - these are the deals that are shown on the front page similar to slickdeals' frontpage.
• Search - Located on the left hand side of the front page. Use this to search for a specific product. If no results are found, it means that the item you specified has not had a deal recently.

3. Froogle.com - aka Google Products. Search for any specific product, and it will return a comprehensive list of all the online stores carrying them, along with price, and shipping.

Tips for using froogle

• Be wary of shady sellers. When searching, scroll down to the very bottom and look for "Refine product results". Then look for "seller rating" and choose "3 stars and up". This will narrow down the results to sellers with reputable rating. When choosing to buy online, also keep in mind the number of ratings a seller has. The higher the rating, and the higher the raters, the better the seller. (note: I choose 3 stars and up because even stores like BestBuy or Walmart are sometimes rated with 3).
• Refine your results. At the very bottom of a result page you can set the price, choose the brand, etc. This will help find the specific product you are looking for.

4. Pricegrabber.com - Search for any specific product, and it will return a list of major online stores carrying them, along with price, and shipping. This takes most of the guessing out of whether a seller is reputable or not. Usually lists the popular sellers online. Although, they do have "Storefronts" which I always avoid! These are 3rd party sellers.

Bargain Techniques
In this section I will be discussing various techniques to obtain ridiculous deals.

1. Pricing Errors - Every now and then, the tired data entry specialist will enter the incorrect price into the system that is available to buy online. A $500 camera will sometimes be listed at $5.00. These deals usually get posted on slickdeals hot deals, but they usually go quick. If you happen to stumble upon a live pricing error:

• DO NOT CALL to order. The customer service representative will almost always catch the price error and adjust the price online.
• ADD TO CART, & CHECKOUT w/ expedited shipping. Adding a pricing error item to your cart and using expedited(or the fastest) shipping will usually allow you to get the price mistake item. Sure shipping will be $50+, but when an error is between $500 and $5, the $50 is well worth it.

2. Coupons - You're all aware of the coupon. Sunday clippings, email offers, they are all over. But sometimes online, you can combine these coupons to get extraordinary deals. So keep those coupons you get from Best Buy, Staples, etc. in the mail. Most likely, someone on slickdeals will find a way to compound that with existing coupons online!

3. Price Matching - A famous concept made famous by Circuit City. Most of you remember that commercial with the kid who bought a walkman in the 80's. "I bought this last week, and then I saw this, this week" handing the store clerk a Circuit City ad, who in turns gives him the difference. "That's it?" "That's it."
This concept is now honored by several stores who advertise and include it into their store policy, as well as other stores whose managers may negotiate with you.

Tips for price matching

• Print out an online ad from another store with the lower price. The store usually needs to be a B&M (definition at top) when bringing it in to another store for a price match. You can also chance it, by printing out the lowest price from an online retailer.
• Remember coupons. Once you have a successful pricematch, keep your coupon handy. Most likely the manager will have to initiate the price match, and when he leaves, show the store clerk the coupon for i.e. 20% off! Last year, I got a $400 printer & camera package, for only $115 by doing this! And if the manager doesn't leave, try it anyway.
• Pricematch online. Staples is one of the best places to pricematch online, by either phone or live chat. Try it! Make sure you have the link handy for the item you found online, or at least the store you found it at.

So these are basically the tools & techniques I use to find my crazy deals. Sure there are dozens of sites out there that have bargains like: edealinfo or bensbargains. But most of these are just repeats from the two I've posted. FatWallet, is worth a try once you get the hang of bargain shopping. Good luck to you all!

Next topic - Back to the basics: Effective Googling