Shopping Deals

Who doesn't love a good deal?  A good deal is when you get a quality item for the best price possible.  Consequently over the years, I've learned that it pays to do research when purchasing anything gadget related or a household item.  Why? Because the info is readily out there.  When purchasing a big ticket item, it pays to research and comparison shop.  It's so easy to go out to Best Buy or Fry's and purchase that cool Sony Viaio laptop or that Samsung LCD TV but unless you're a technogeek or a videophile, can you tell really tell the difference between 1 laptop versus another or and LCD from a Plasma.  Thus, research pays off so you get the best value for the money.

So what resources are available to research?  Personally, my first reference point is Consumer Reports.  Why? Because even though it's their opinion for recommendation, they've tried to gather empirical evidence along with pricing and subjective panels to come up with their ratings.  I usually keep my subscription going and keep old issues for reference.  You can usually find back issues at the library or use their website www.consumerreports.org  The next thing I do is try to get actual first hand experience and the best place to do that is to hit up Amazon.com.  It's amazing how many people enjoy reviewing stuff.  In many cases, the reviewer takes it seriously and notes the pro's and con's of an item.  If the item is computer or electronic consumer goods, it's easy to check out www.newegg.com or www.bestbuy.com    

Now if you're a shopaholic and want to see what the hot deals are, why not let one of the many sites out there do the work combing the internet for deals and consolidating the info and links in 1 location.  Here are some of my faves:

www.dealnews.com
www.slickdeals.net
www.dealcatcher.com

Dealnews and dealcatcher are the very comprehensive and usually have the best listing for various categories.  Slickdeals is usually a shorter list with the very best deals for the day.
In either case, it beats having to search multiple store websites to get pricing and is a boon for impulse buying since they tend to advise what the next lowest price they found on an item they listed.

Then there are the ultimate impulse buying sites that will sell anywhere from 1 to 4 items a day.  It's like a closeout bargain basement sale of new or refurbished items.  Sometimes you see stuff that you normally wouldn't buy but its a nice to have and at an affordable price. These sites are:

www.woot.com
www.yugster.com
www.shnoop.com
www.pennywise.biz

Also in the mix usually for discounted services are the sites like groupon and living social.

So if you hate paying full retail like I do, then do the research, comparison shop and read the reviews. Let someone else's experience work for you.