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Black Belt Shopper
Shopping for Deals and Coupon Codes Online by Larry Wiener I just got a brand new plain paper fax
machine for $10 thanks to a rebate available from Staples.com. How did I
find out about this? Brad’s Deals told me about it. If you’re
reading this article, you know the value of the Internet in helping your
financial and shopping life. You also probably know that available deals
pop up all the time, but only for a limited period. How can you keep track
of all these deals and know when the item you want is at a good price? More...
Fortunately, there’s help. There are websites out there that scan the various online merchants and tell you about the deals. You can even sign up to get notification of these deals in your e-mail. Here are some of those sites that I have found useful: Brad’s Deals (www.bradsdeals.com) says it is "published by Brad Wilson, finds and filters online shopping deals, online coupons codes and coupons." A recent look at the site reveals a 42 inch plasma TV for $520 (refurbished) as well as North Face running shoes for a mere $35. The site also has coupons for merchants as varied as Macy’s and Home Depot. You can sign up for Brad’s Deals alerts. Deal of the day (www.dealoftheday.com) concentrates on scanning the best deals from amazon.com, buy.com, and Circuit City. Its sections include Today’s Best, Items reduced today, and Biggest reductions. The site allows you to pick your own watch list and to be notified by e-mail when a deal comes through that fits with what you are looking for. Pricegrabber (www.pricegrabber.com) is a third site that allows you to find bargains. That site has a very detailed and well-organized category system that allows you to look for items that meet your interests. For example, just the category of patio heaters found more than 2,000 offerings, though not all of them were necessarily on sale. Pricegrabber also includes sections on rebates and coupons. And while we’re looking to find bargains online, the venerable Ebay (www.ebay.com) will alert you to new offerings on its site for certain keywords in specific categories. For example, I have on file to receive notification anything involving UC Davis, my alma mater, is on sale. I have picked up t-shirts, books, and other memorabilia from e-bay that way. And once you find that product you’ve been looking for, you can check Epinions (www.epinions.com) to see what people have to say about them. Google Shopping (www.google.com/products) can help you find and rate merchants that sell different items you might be in the market for. Following the link for graphing calculators, for example, brought up a list of items with user ratings and places to buy them at reasonable prices. Yahoo offers a similar service and allows you to compare products side by side. Don’t forget also that you can get used books, CD’s, DVD’s and similar media at Amazon (www.amazon.com) and Half.com (www.half.com). You can save quite a bit over the new price and the descriptions of the conditions are generally quite accurate. As with any other shopping, be sure that you actually want and need the great bargain. I have to fax in a report for work every week and my old fax machine is tolerable, but does weird things to my telephone reception if I forget to turn it off. Ten dollars for an updated machine is worth it to me. But I know that I can easily fall into the trap of spending money I don’t need to spend on things that just add clutter to the house if I’m not careful and those e-mail alerts can be very tempting. Online shopping has been a boon to those of us who want to get good value, who can plan ahead, and who don’t want to do a lot of driving around looking for a good deal. Sites like these can only make online shopping more efficient. You can find even more tips in my e-book, The Black Belt Shopper’s Guide, available on this site.
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Copyright © 2008 by Larry Wiener, author of The Black Belt Shopper's Guide. All rights reserved. Want more money-saving tips? Get a FREE Subscription to our monthly newsletter!
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