With comparison-shopping sites to guide the way, you can find enormous savings on your favorite tech (and nontech) products--everything from cameras to PCs, and from diapers to bottled water
But the Web has so many comparison sites to choose from--how do you know which are worth a visit? To save you time, I did the legwork for you. First I sorted through 20 new and old pricing engines and then settled on 9 worth using.
While some of them--NexTag, PriceGrabber, and Yahoo Shopping--are old-timers, others, including Become.com, PriceRunner.com, and Smarter.com, are new to the scene. Still others have undergone recent changes: MSN revamped its shopping channel, Shopping.com is now an eBay company, and Shopzilla is the new name for BizRate.com. (Full disclosure: PriceGrabber and Yahoo link toPC World's reviews; PriceGrabber powersPCWorld.com's price-comparison engine, Product Finder , as well.)
To test each site's price-comparison prowess, I searched for Canon's PowerShot SD550 digital camera, Maxtor's OneTouch II 300GB external hard drive, and Pioneer's DVR-633H-S DVD player/recorder. I also looked at each site's organization, interface, and extras. Overall, I preferred PriceRunner over the competition. Cheapskates will also find bargains at Yahoo Shopping. And research fanatics will find that PriceGrabber provides good tools, such as product reviews and merchant information, before you buy.
BEST ALL AROUND
PriceRunner features a great selection, low prices, and an easy-to-navigate interface. My pick for the best comparison-shopping site, PriceRunner.com (www.pricerunner.com), gives me what I want. It's efficient; it has a no-frills design; and, best of all, it finds great deals. The pages are a bit text-heavy, but there's enough white space that the look feels uncluttered.
PriceRunner found the lowest bottom-line price--meaning estimated tax and shipping are included--on all three of my products. And it had the cheapest base-price listings on two of the three items, the hard drive and the DVR. Many of its cheap listings lack a direct link to the vendor's site, though, which creates a bit more work for the shopper.
One nice feature: PriceRunner warns buyers about potentially dodgy merchants. The site's Observation List includes stores that have possible issues with delivery, service, and payment security. If your results include a questionable vendor, a warning icon will appear. However, it would be better if the site allowed you to omit the stores altogether. At this point, you can sort by merchant rating, pushing suspect vendors to the bottom.
Both Shopping.com ( www.shopping.com ) and Shopzilla ( www.shopzilla.com ) are good at identifying recommended sellers. At Shopping.com, a listing gets a SmartBuy seal if the product is from one of the site's Trusted Stores. The product also has to be in stock and neither used nor refurbished, and the listing must include tax and shipping. Shopzilla awards its Smart Choice seal to products with the lowest price from a BizRate Certified store, provided that the availability and product information are accurate, and the tax and shipping are included. (To be certified by BizRate, a store must solicit customer feedback via BizRate surveys, have received 20 or more surveys in the last 90 days, and maintain at least a Satisfactory rating.)
Besides finding a reputable vendor, you also want to make sure you buy the best product. PriceRunner offers user reviews, but they can be scarce. I saw one each for the camera and the hard drive, but none for the DVR.
Still, there's plenty to like about the site, including options galore for filtering results in category searches. During my camera hunt, for instance, I was able to narrow my search by features such as the number of pixels, optical zoom, and the memory type.
If you can't wait for a hot item or would rather visit a physical store, PriceRunner also lists local retailers that carry your desired product. But the site could stand to add more stores. When I searched for Apple's 4GB iPod Nano in white, the only "local" store that came up was in Woodland Hills, California--some 400 miles from my house! The company says it's constantly expanding the database.
A few sites, such as Cairo ( www.cairo.com ) and SalesCircular ( www.salescircular.com ), are geared toward finding sale items in your area. Cairo didn't have listings for the iPod Nano, but it did offer sale information on older iPod models. SalesCircular's search function failed the two times I visited the site. But you can select your city and a product category to browse items on sale in that category.
BEST FOR CHEAPSKATES
Not only does Yahoo Shopping offer good prices, it also calls your attention to bargains in different categories of electronics and computer equipment. For the ultimate bargain hunter, I recommend PriceRunner and Yahoo Shopping ( shopping.yahoo.com ). Technically, PriceRunner did the better job overall, finding the lowest base price on the hard drive and tying Yahoo for the best deal on the DVR. But because PriceRunner lists sellers of questionable status, I found Yahoo a good alternative.
Yahoo tied Shopzilla in second place for the best base price (behind MSN) on the camera. Its hard-drive results matched the average of the nine sites. What's nice, though, is that Yahoo features a dedicated category for sales and promotions (MSN does, too) and provides links to used and refurbished products, which could mean more savings.
To browse for more bargains, it's worth sorting through the clutter ofMSN Shopping( shopping.msn.com ). MSN recently partnered with Shopping.com, so it should pull from both databases and produce lots of results. It worked for my camera search, finding 45 stores--the most in my test--and it located the lowest base price, too. It even listed eBay auctions.
But it was impossible to see all of the search results at once. The site initially returned 19 listings, one of which was a generic link to 27 additional stores (I couldn't tell whether those were from Shopping.com's database or from MSN's). If you browse quickly, it's easy to overlook those merchants; and you can't compare their results to the original listings. Another annoyance: MSN does not provide a bottom-line cost.
If you're just looking for a great deal on a camera or other gadget and aren't particular about the model, specialty sites StealDeals.net ( www.stealdeals.net ) and Techbargains ( www.techbargains.com ) feature deals of the day. For instance, StealDeals lists online bargains in categories such as computers and home theater, while Techbargains helps you ferret out coupons, as well as online and local deals--it even searches eBay. (Disclosure: Techbargains powers PCWorld.com's Bargain Finder .) Both sites also let you sign up for e-mail alerts if your desired product drops in price.
BEST FOR RESEARCH FANATICS
Pricegrabber provides the best tools for people who want to do a little product research first. Say you want a new camera but aren't sure which one to get. Use the buying help at certain comparison sites.
PriceGrabber's( www.pricegrabber.com ) features impressed me the most. The site presents information neatly, letting you tab between product details and user and professional reviews. You can even find out about a store's return policy, business hours, and special services by clicking on the Merchant Info link.
Become( www.become.com ) looks as if it should be helpful--it gives you an option to research a product (not just shop and buy). But its database currently is sparse. My searches for the three products yielded few results, finding only the Maxtor drive. Research results weren't helpful either: I received a few links to reviews and info, but more of the links pointed to merchants selling the product.
Although average in most respects, NexTag ( www.nextag.com ) offers an interesting tool: a price history chart showing a product's cost over time so you can get an idea of whether you should wait to buy. And it includes a downloadable Internet Explorer toolbar to give you instant access to its search engine.
Smarter( www.smarter.com ) can help you comparison shop while you're out at stores via its free SMS service. You send a text message to 610/762-7837 (610-SMARTER) with a model name or part number, and the system replies with the lowest online price it finds. But Smarter's product selection is unimpressive. In my initial search, the site found the hard drive but turned up zero results for the camera and the DVR. A few weeks later, I found the camera but not the DVR.
These sites may not help you find pirate's booty, but they can save you a buck--or more--over the long haul.
SHOPPING TIPS: Advice to Keep Your Wallet Safe and Full
1. Do a background check:At the Better Business Bureau's Web site ( search.bbb.org ), you can search records by Web address. If a retailer isn't listed, that isn't necessarily a bad sign. It means that the BBB does not have any information on the business, good or bad. If you have a choice between buying from a company with a satisfactory BBB record and one that's not listed, go with the one that's on file.
2. Save with refurbs:Companies often sell factory-refurbished items at a substantial discount, and often with a limited warranty. These may be defective yet unused products that have been restored by the manufacturer, or even special-order items a customer cancelled at the last minute. Dell and Sony sell refurbs in outlet sections on their Web sites. You can also find deals at Refurbdepot.com .
3. Clip coupons:Several sites gather coupon codes that can score you free shipping or a percentage off the original price. Two good ones are Dealcoupon.com (linked to the highly useful bargain site Dealnews.com ) and Specialoffers.com.
4. Go straight to the source:Online retail shops (like Amazon.com ) sometimes feature other sites' products and then relay orders to those sites. If you find an item you want, don't click the Buy button immediately. First check the manufacturer's or original shipper's site to see if you can get the product for less. Cutting out the middleman can save you money.
5. Use the right tools:The SquareTrade SideBar for Internet Explorer (just released at Squaretrade.com ) automatically searches for lower prices when you shop for certain consumer electronics (for example, digital cameras) at online stores like Amazon.com and Tiger Direct. The tool pulls in pricing info from Shopping.com and displays the details in a pop-up sidebar. It also looks for listings on eBay and your local Craigslist. In addition, it promises shopping protection by displaying a warning when you enter a known fraudulent Web site.
