12.18.2008

Finding bargains on electronics by surfing the web

Finding bargains in this internet era is never easier. Just a little internet surfing can reveal the best deal. Jennifer Openshaw wrote on MarketWatch how to using the web to track down the best deals on electronics. She suggested checking out the following web sites:

NexTag.com

NexTag is a large shopping search engine designed to search other shopping sites. It works a bit like Kayak.com, an engine that searches other travel sites for all the deals.

I especially like two NexTag features. One is a graph showing price trends for the product over the past eight months. The other is an alert function. You can set the price you're willing to pay and get an alert when a retailer offers it. It's like those alerts you get when your favorite stock hits the right price.

NexTag pointed to Amazon, which had a better deal than advertised, and TigerDirect and a few other "e-tailers." But it didn't find traditional retailers such as Target, Sears, or Circuit City. That's a shortcoming, because I think local buying choices should be considered. Still, NexTag is a good starting point to find the good deals.

Pricewatch.com

Pricewatch.com follows the Google approach to simplified search. But the retailer choices are heavily dominated by Wal-Mart; other prime locations like Amazon and TigerDirect aren't there. But the simple search will tell a lot, quickly, about the best prices.

StreetPrices.com

StreetPrices.com cuts a much wider swath through online and traditional retailers. It also dates the most recent update, handy in a market where prices are changing almost hourly. Here, too, you can set price alerts; you can also filter retailers based on their rating.

TigerDirect.com

TigerDirect is a direct retailer with pretty good variety and prices. What I like best, especially for you non-techie types out there, are the graphic-oriented explanations of how things work and what to look for in a product.

Shopper.com

CNET's Shopper.com site gives a good overall selection of retailers and prices, and techies will like the product reviews and comparisons. It's worth a look.

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