Tech on the Cheap

Posted by Andy Atkinson on 3/20/2006

A technology enthusiast always has more products and services to buy than he or she can possibly afford.

This article is designed to give you some tips and start a discussion around ways to buy "Tech on the Cheap." A variety of methods will help you save money: discount, deal, and coupon websites, price comparisons, eBay, and rebates, but certainly visitors to this site have many more suggestions. Please leave a comment describing your most frequently used methods for saving money on technology.

Tech on the<br /> Cheap

Before You Buy

A little research can go a long way. Some of the websites that will save you money include techbargains.com, dealnews.com, and gotapex.com. Warning: you may begin compulsively checking sites like TechBargains because they are frequently updated and offer a number of freebie listings (like free ice cream at Cold Stone). If you only buy products that you were planning to purchase anyway, and happen to find a deal listed on one of these sites, you will save money. Try using the search box on each of these sites before your next significant technology purchase.

TechBargains has great deals and is frequently updated

PriceGrabber is a great place to do price comparison shopping

Nearly all the sites mentioned in this article have general site feeds, as well as specific feeds for certain product categories. Dealnews.com for example has a special RSS feed page where they categorize feeds for Mac, coupons, cameras, and RAM.

Special RSS feeds for different product categories

After a while of trolling these sites, you'll start to notice repeat coupons. Not all the coupons at these sites are technology related, but the coupons can still be quite useful. Need new rollerblades this summer? I know that Sports Authority has offered a "25% off any (1) item in-store only purchase" the last two summers, which could save you some greenbacks.

Coupons

Many vendors will offer coupons that you can apply to your final order to take a percentage off the price, get free shipping, or get some other incentive. Dell is well-known for offering large discounts on computers and peripherals. In the past Dell has offered 50% off any laptop purchase over US $1499.99, 20% or more off peripherals (like LCD monitors), and generally offers free shipping on any order at least one day per week.

Price matching

Most major resellers will match prices. Sometimes you can get brick and mortar stores to match online prices. This way you get your product quickly, but still save some cash. The catch of course is that you have to barter with pubescent "associates," but hey, you want to save money right? In order to make sure you are getting the best price, you'll want to check price comparison websites. One website is pricegrabber.com. Pricegrabber gives you a number of ways to view price comparisons, such as by lowest to highest price, or by "Seller Rating." This way you can find the cross-section that will garner you the lowest price from a retailer that is reputable enough to not rip you off. The "reputable enough" is the tough part, but research, experience, and luck will pay off.

eBay

While many people will not take the time, eBay can be a great way to "try before you buy." In one 9 month period, I bought and sold 5 laptops, taking a loss of around $200-300 per sale, which seemed reasonable to me at the time. However, as one commenter pointed out, this means that I essentially bought a $1500 dollar laptop for $2500, which is certainly not a way to save money. My point was that for certain items, if you are unsure that you will be satisfied with a $1500 purchase, or you grow dissatisfied after several months, the resale value for laptops is very high. If you sell your laptop soon enough after purchase, you will likely take a minimal loss on the sale. Just don't repeat those steps 5 times.

EBay is not a fail proof system of course, which is why the risk of buying and selling can translate into the reward of saving you money. Some people will buy and return products from large electronics brick and mortar stores, as a way of "trying before buying" as well. While this can be effective, watch out for "restocking fees" and certain items that cannot be returned for refund under any circumstances, such as DVD movies or software. While on the subject of restocking fees, online resellers are not exempt from charging you this either, so make sure you know upfront what the terms of the sale are.

Rebates

Everyone I know hates rebates, but they can be a good way to save money. For example, CompUSA offered a one-day only multi-rebate deal on a hard drive that was unmatched by any online deal or other promotion (US $30 after 3 rebates for a WD 160GB HD in June 2005). The catch was that I had to send three rebates, and waited 4-6 months before receiving all of the refunds. In general I have mixed feelings about rebates and try to avoid them. If you are going to use rebates, try a quick search for "rebate tracker" to find something that will help reduce the risk of you forgetting about your rebates, allowing the company to never return your money to you. A quick search turned up myrebates.com. There is an interesting MSNBC article titled 13 Ways to Track Down Wayward Rebates that discusses some of the less glamorous details of rebates, like mailing lists, and outright fraud against customers.

Need even more ways to save money? Dealnews has a tools page where they mention "Price Trackers," classifieds, and have links to many more discount and deal related websites. Finally, the University of Minnesota allows students to rent projectors, video cameras, still cameras, and more for a nominal fee. The intended purpose is for a class project, but the rental is mostly an honor system. You might want to try renting something expensive (like a projector or LCD TV) before purchasing one to try it out in your home and evaluate the extent to which you feel you will use it.

How do you save money on tech?

This article presents some interesting ways to save money on technology products, but is just a starting point to facilitate community discussion. Please leave a comment and share your favorite ways to save cash on tech!

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