Shopping Tips

Tips for Surviving the Holiday Season

Shopping for technology is like preparing for battle. To make sure you’ve got your armor on, here are some useful things to keep in mind. And please share your favorite shopping tips with me so that I can give you a shout out and add you to the list.

The Holiday Season Starts Even Earlier:
Between the forecast for a weak holiday sales season, and the current economic crunch, holiday sales are going to start earlier than ever. Traditionally the shopping season started in earnest on the Friday after Thanksgiving (Black Friday). This year we’re looking at sales on technology throughout the fall season.

Compatibility Check:
You can’t buy someone a cell phone unless you know what carrier they use. You can’t buy someone a video game unless you know which game machine they use. So, make sure you get the basics information before shopping. Make sure that gifts are returnable and that there’s no restocking charge.

Let Your Fingers Do The Walking:
Spend thirty minutes to an hour poking around the web before buying tech products. Most sites tell you what other people like; many sites allow people to share their opinions online. Check out CNet (www.cnet.com). It offers tons of simple-to-understand product reviews and shopping information. You can even watch the videos and learn. Retrevo (www.retrevo.com) is a spiffy site that shows you the gadget you’re interested in on a grid with others you may have not considered.

Use Comparison Shopping Sites:
Wish you could shop at every store with a wave of your hand in order to get the best price? That’s the beauty of online comparison shopping. Sites like Pricegrabber.com (www.pricegrabber.com), BizRate, and MySimon are the most popular of the bunch. Just enter the name of the product you’re looking for and the site will search multiple shopping sites for you.

Sign Up For E-mail Alerts:
Set up e-mail messages so that you are notified when the price of an item drops. On Yahoo! (www.shopping.yahoo.com) for example you can simply go to the page of the product you want to buy and ask to be alerted when the price falls.

Understand Auctions if You’re Going to Use Them:
eBay, Amazon and Craig’s list offer all sorts of great technology deals. Gear-hounds are constantly upgrading and getting rid of slightly used gear. Holiday presents are often wrong and returned. You can capitalize on the tumult but exercise caution. Best advice is to work with a friend who’s had some eBay or other auction experience.

Big Box Stores:
Walmart, Target and other large retailers have the buying clout to get great deals. Typically they carry fewer products to choose from, but at lower price points. Make sure you read carefully. Last holiday Walmart sold an inexpensive PC that confused many purchasers because it ran Linux and was meant to be used as an Internet-connected PC.

Whenever I’m a bit nervous about spending big dollars on technology I call Chris Null, a shopping maven and blogger at Yahoo!Tech (www.tech.yahoo.com) for his advice.

Thinking of Buying a Flat Panel TV:
“You’ve got to visit the store,” says Null. The trick, he says, is to look at each model with your own eyes and write down what you liked best. Then go home and search for the best deal online.

Null says that you’ll often save money by dropping down one model number on a TV. For example, you may give up bells and whistles like a second HDMI port but you can save a couple hundred bucks. Be careful not to buy a big ticket item from a shady e-tailer, though.

Even if you can’t afford a digital TV this year you are eligible to get a coupon from the US government for a converter box that enables your current TV to accept the digital signal. Get answers to questions https://www.dtv2009.gov/ Remember that by early 2009 digital television broadcasts will fully replace the current analog generation

Thinking of Buying a New PC:
Some of the best buys are the new Internet PCs like the ASUS eee ($499) and Dell Inspiron Mini-9 ($799). Just remember they are what they claim to be – good for surfing the Internet, not for playing graphics intensive games, working offline or dealing with multimedia. Buy a netbook if you already have a PC and need a second machine.

Desktops are less expensive than notebook PCs and they are more easily upgrade. Refurbished laptops are a great deal from reputable vendors like HP, Dell or Gateway. Refurbished means the manufacturer had the machine returned, but checked out and recertified everything.

Chris Null adds, “Don’t worry much about the CPU speed. Dropping down two or three ticks from the top speed will save you hundreds of dollars.” He suggests spending the money on more RAM, and a graphics card — any graphics card, even a $50 one — instead of relying on system’s own integrated graphics.

If you’re really looking to save money buy a PC that’s one generation older than the current generation on the market. It’s not so old that it’s useless and it’s considerably less expensive.

Thinking of Buying a Video Game Console:
And now for the bad news. It’s tough to get a bargain on game consoles. The big guys: Nintendo, Microsoft and SONY keep a pretty tight lid on the pricing and the prices remain standard wherever you shop. Xbox 360 is the least expensive of the bunch and has a big game library; but Nintendo Wii is the best overall system for families.

The opinions stated within the article are solely the opinions of Robin Raskin and are not endorsed by the site sponsor.