When it comes to online shopping, many of us are natural bargain-hunters. This comes as no surprise, since comparing the price of an online item can be done with the mere click of a button. While it is commonly accepted that larger sites such as Amazon and Walmart can typically offer goods at a lower price, there is certainly quite a few other ways you can maximize your bargain hunting, many which are surprisingly unknown to many people. Here are some bargain hunting tactics I recommend:
1. Never forget Ebay A typical misconception about Ebay is that you can only buy second-hand, used items in this massive online marketplace. Nothing could be further from the truth. Many established retailers use Ebay as another channel for making sales. Retailers who compete in Ebay are forced to be very price-competitive because of the aggressive price competition that exists on Ebay. For this reason, you can often find brand new items quite cheaply by doing a simple Ebay search.
2. Use shopping comparison sitesThe more well known sites are Shopping.com and Yahoo Shopping, where you can input the name of the item you are interested in buying. Instantly, you will be presented with a list of vendors who offer that product, with prices shown. Sometimes the prices can be misleading, because some vendors offer free shipping or other discounts. And not all vendors are listed on these kinds of sites, so you should not automatically assume that the lowest price that shows up on a shopping comparison site is the lowest one available on the Internet.
3. Use coupon SitesThis can be hit or miss, but it's worth a try. There are quite a few sites out there, like boldcoupons.com, that are devoted to offering online coupons. These sites usually provide special links for discounts, free shipping, or other deals you might not get by going straight to a vendor. If you are already looking for a certain product, this may not be the best way to find it. But if you are doing the equivalent of online window shopping, and just want to see what kind of deals are out there, coupon sites are definitely worth a look.
What to be careful of as a bargain-hunterAs a bargain hunter, you will most likely be dealing with a lot of different vendors. If you buy from a vendor that is not familiar to you, be a little careful the first time around. Look for "seals" such as better business bureau, hacker-safe, or any variety of other 3rd party verification that attests to the validity and credibility of a given site. Also, when you are about to type in your credit card information, take a quick look at the address bar. If the URL starts with s), that means your information is being sent over a secure server, making it almost 99.9% safe to shop at that site. Most sites use secure servers so there is no need to be too worried, but with rampant identity theft, it's always better to be safe than sorry.
I hope you enjoy using these tactics to find the best deals online. Have fun with your bargain hunting!
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