Top 10 Best Places to save money (continued from last edition)
(NOTE: This is the 100th Bali PC Advisor article!)
5) eBay
As much as I hate to list this site, it has to land somewhere
in the middle of the list. One reason why I do not like eBay
(ebay.com) all that much is there is absolutely no way to
guarantee you are getting what the auction is stating. Most
sellers are not big businesses and because of that, warranties
and returns are next to none. However, if you have a keen
eye, you can spot some diamonds in the rough. For example,
a user on Anandtech’s (http://forums.anandtech.com/)
forums found a 50” Sony Plasma TV that would turn on,
but turn off immediately afterwards. The seller in the auction
stated that the Y-drive board may need replacing in the unit,
which would cost around $920. The buyer found an estimate
locally for about half that price. So after winning the auction
at a little over $400, he went and purchased a service manual.
After checking out the unit and referencing the troubleshooting
section of the manual, the plasma did not need the Y-drive
replaced. It just needed the temp sensor to be reattached.
Netting a 50” plasma for a bit over $400 and the price
of a $20 manual equates to a smoking hot deal. Your mileage
will definitely vary on eBay as most deals will not be like
this. Just be careful of what you bid on and make sure to
research the seller’s feedback.
4) Craigslist
You can think of Craigslist (craiglist.org) as eBay without
the hassle of auctions. Users can post items or services up
for sale and other users can contact the seller directly for
purchases. Since Craigslist is positioned to categorize listings
in local areas, the shipping process can be eliminated. After
contacting the seller, the buyer can ask to meet someone to
exchange goods. Often times, you’ll find a lot of people
who want to off-load items quickly due to moving or simply
wanting to clean out their house. I’ve seen a few people
score some cheap Macbooks from other users who just wanted
to upgrade.
3) One day sales
Many large retailers like Amazon.com (amazon.com) and Staples.com
(staples.com) have big one day sales. For example, every Friday,
Amazon offers some nice deals on items in many of their departments.
Not only are electronics discounted, other items like apparel,
kitchen, and hardware tools are as well.
Since this is a weekly occurrence, the items are changed often
to give everyone a good chance to score some great deals.
2) One item a day sites
These sites are unique in that all they sell is one item per
day at a significant discount. One of the biggest sites that
sell in this fashion is woot.com (woot.com). They focus mainly
on tech deals, so this fits in quite well with our readers.
For example, today they have a Kensington keyboard and mouse
combo for the Mac at $34.99 shipped. This is about 50% less
than any other site out there! Be warned, the hot items on
these sites sell out quickly because of the price. If you
want to get in on it, you may need to ‘camp’ out
these sites on a daily basis.
1) For sale forums
The top way, in my opinion at least, to getting a great deal
on computer hardware is on hardware for sale forums. Note
that these sites are not for the people that don’t know
much about computers. You really must be pretty technical
to find the best deal on these sites. Site’s like For
Sale forums (http://forums.gideontech.com) allow members to
post up for sale and/or wanted threads. If someone is interested
in an offer, they can then private message or email the seller.
The parties involved can then bargain with each if they so
choose. On hardware site’s like this, many folks upgrade
their hardware frequently. Since this occurs, hardware that
isn’t that old can be had for a great price so the seller
can upgrade to a newer video card or motherboard for example.
Some other great for sale forums to visit are Anandtech’s
and [H]Forums (http://forums.anandtech.com/).
There you have it, our top 10 list of ways to save some money
on your favorite tech goodies. I’m sure there are some
others I may have missed, but the ones on this list seemed
to have worked pretty well for many folks.
