{"id":54,"date":"2009-02-27T16:36:29","date_gmt":"2009-02-28T00:36:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.budgex.net\/blog\/?p=54"},"modified":"2011-05-14T10:24:33","modified_gmt":"2011-05-14T18:24:33","slug":"the-secrets-of-bargain-hunting-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.budgex.net\/blog\/2009\/02\/the-secrets-of-bargain-hunting-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"The Secrets of Bargain Hunting, Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

Finding deals on things has been an addiction of mine since I was a teenager.\u00a0 In middle school I used to have so much free stuff mailed to my house that my parents forced me to stop.\u00a0 Several years later I still hold the same ideals I did back then, only now I am more experienced.\u00a0 I have found deals on computers, leather chairs, televisions, and even cars among other things.\u00a0 When I say “deals”, I’m talking 80%, 90%, and\u00a0 sometimes even over 100% off the retail price for new<\/strong> items, purchased at normal stores.\u00a0 The most recent deal I scored: Brand New<\/strong> Logitech Z-5500 5.1 Surround Sound speakers<\/a> for $2.86.<\/strong> That’s two dollars and 86 cents.\u00a0 People regularly ask me to find them a good deal on a certain product for them, and I’m always happy to do it.\u00a0 How, you might ask?\u00a0 It’s a combination of several sources, strategies, and skills which took me several years to master, and I’m going to teach you how.<\/p>\n

Rule #1: Don\u2019t Ever be Satisfied with the First Price you See<\/h3>\n

Bargain hunting is like accepting a challenge.\u00a0 Whether you’re shopping online or in a store, browsing for hats or hard drives, always check the price of the item you are interested in at competing stores.\u00a0 That’s what they’re there for.\u00a0 There are a few other skills that you can practice to better judge what constitutes a good price which I’ll talk about later, but the general concept is to always challenge yourself to find a better deal than what’s in front of you.\u00a0 Tell yourself that you can do better.\u00a0 All in all it’s not that difficult– in many cases it is a lot of fun– and the best part about comparison shopping is that you never even have to leave your seat.<\/p>\n

Rule #2: Always Check Online Before you Buy<\/h3>\n

I could write a book about how to utilize the Internet’s capabilities to find the holy grails of ridiculously good deals.\u00a0 Instead, we’ll begin with the basics, then ease into advanced techniques.\u00a0 Check search engine sites like Google<\/a> and\u00a0 Google Products (formerly Froogle)<\/a> to see if other stores are selling the product you’re interested in for cheaper.\u00a0 I tend to stay away from some comparison shopping sites like NexTag<\/a> and BizRate<\/a>, mainly because they sucked in the past and I never looked back.<\/p>\n

The online research step takes the most amount of time, and realistically you can never truly “complete” this step.\u00a0 You either get really tired of searching or decide that you can’t wait any longer to buy the product, and that’s how you continue.\u00a0 It all depends on how much time you are willing and able to spend on your research, and as we saw in my previous post on the value of your time<\/a>,\u00a0 that’s worth exactly $0.\u00a0 But not to worry, because I will soon teach you better techniques to streamline your online research to find the best price on the products you want, fast.<\/p>\n

Today’s money-saving offer:<\/strong> HP USB Laser Mouse for FREE (After rebate)<\/a>.\u00a0 We’ll start with small fish, then move up to bigger game.<\/p>\n