EBay was my favorite for years. It's seller feedback system is excellent, allowing you to buy with confidence. When a seller has feedback from thousands of users with a 99 or 100% rating, and you can read the customer feedback ratings individually, there's little reason to fear getting ripped off. But you have to add in the cost of shipping on EBay, which varies from seller to seller, to make sure the discount isn't offset by the shipping price. "NIB" (new in box")and "not refurbished" are essential for me and not offered by all sellers.
Now I think Amazon is the site with the greatest selection and lowest pricing on the newest electronics. Their Black Friday page is here.
The latest model is often the difference between sellers. Places like Costco do have very low prices, but the items often are not the latest model. For the latest models, I check the manufacturer's website and then search Google for the model numbers of the one I'm interested in. Amazon almost always has it. Amazon Prime offers the added benefit of free two day shipping on many items, including televisions and computers, and many of their third party sellers offer it as well. Another advantage of Amazon and Ebay is there usually is no sales tax. Saving shipping and sales tax can be a big deal.
A third party seller I like to buy from through Amazon is OneCall. Their prices are really low and they usually offer free shipping. The stuff comes fast via FedEx Ground and professionally packaged. The manufacturer's computer sites often have great deals. Sony, Dell, Lenovo and HP are examples. Friday, Apple is promising special deals on their Macbooks and iPods. I'll have the link up in the shopping section when it goes live.
Sometimes you don't need the newest model. Or, you want to pay by Paypal rather than by credit card. I like PayPal because the seller doesn't get access to your credit card number. Buy.Com has low prices and takes Paypal.
In the clothing department, nobody beats Zappos for shoes (free shipping and low prices and almost every brand you can think of) and Bare Necessities is trustworthy, efficient and has a huge selection, if not great discounts.
My usual philosophy is "you get what you pay for" but with a lot of these online sellers, you often get more.
I "window shop" online for days before making my final choice. Prices fluctuate daily. To remember the models of the ones I like, and the good deals I've found, I store them in my Amazon wish list. That avoids repetitive searches and saves a lot of time. I'm down to three items left to replace from the robbery, my iPod, my Macbook and my Flip Video, and since I'm not able to buy those right now, I have the links stored and plenty of time to keep checking prices.
Most of my favorite sellers are in the shopping links section on the lower right side on TalkLeft's home page. These are sites I've purchased from often and found to have excellent deals. There are hundreds of sellers offering affiliate deals, where if you buy through the link on our sites, we get a few bucks, but I only include those I'd buy from myself. If you are going to buy from one of these sellers, I hope you'll use our link.
Any other shopping mavens out there? Who are your favorite and most trusted online sellers? And if you could get one material gift this year, what would it be?
