Minnesota, USA -June 20, 2011 - Although we have used the web for years to find good deals, it has changed the mindset of the shopper completely; we are even more pressed to find deep discounts and are less likely to buy something if there is not a discount. In as much as this makes sense, some may not be as skilled in finding the ultimate deals. We would love to think of ourselves as the 'price cutting gurus'; however there is no harm in freshening up our skills or adding more places to search to get the biggest bang out of our buck.
The most well-known auction website in the US -plus around the world - is EBay, which started to take off in the mid 1990's. Due to its great success, over time it added websites that are more specific like Half.com, Shopping.com, and Rent.com -as well as many others. Yet, the most thrilling of them all is still the original auction website of EBay; we like bidding for our favorite items and winning. Yet, sometimes it proves to be more challenging if the particular products are in great demand.
If you have troubles in winning items on auction, there are a few changes that you can easily make. For instance, use a couple browser windows on the same item so that you can easily track the bidding process; remember to calculate the absolute highest price you are willing to pay and put this into one of the browsers and click 'Place Bid' -do not continue with the big until the last seconds of the auction though.
If you do not have the time to sit around and do it yourself, you can also get help from an auction service that will actually do the bidding for you based on the absolute maximum price that you specify. You are definitely in luck if you get the highest bid. You actually do not need to pay your highest bid if the next highest bidder is significantly lower because the service will only submit bids that are slightly higher than the last bidder. If you are interested in this option, you can use Auction Sniper or numerous other services across the web.
Shopping Comparison
Last week we introduced the shopping comparison site of Shopobot, which is helpful if you are searching for products from well-known companies. It gives you advice on the best and worst times to shop for particular items; although the categories of products are limited, it could prove to be helpful when buying electronics or other similar items. It cuts back on the time you would take to search sites and compare items.
Service Deals
Undoubtedly you know of services like Groupon that help you find deals on restaurants and other numerous services. Recently Pricegrabber added a Beta that basically mimics Groupon. There is no harm in signing up for both to see what fun you can have in the nearest metro area. This can be unfortunate for those who do not live anywhere near the metro or do not travel often to the metro. However if price is the issue, this could be worth your time!
