More traditional methods to buy cheap

Buying direct from distributors is not for everyone. Only die-hard techies and gamers who upgrade often would even consider it. If the chore of becoming a reseller is not for you, there are other more traditional ways to buy hardware cheap.

Finding prices through a price search engine

One of the more popular ways to find cheap prices these days is to go through a price search engine such as KillerApp.com or PriceWatch.com. In fact, there are literally dozens of price search engines out there now - most of the major portals ( Yahoo, Excite, ZDNet, Cnet) also have price search engines of some sort. The way most of them work is you select a particular brand and model, and the engine will give you the list of places you can buy it from, sorted by price. Of all the sites that offer this service, our favorite is KillerApp.com. Their interface is easy to use, and results are generally accurate.

However, there are problems with most of these price search engines. The lowest prices listed are usually from small, sketchy operations. These companies often range from legitimate to outright scams. Most of them have strict return policies (such as up to 20% restocking fees even if the product is defective, and no support - if you have a problem with the product, they require that you deal directly with the manufacturer.) A lot of them also list low prices, but don't actually have the products in stock (they promise the product to be in stock 6-8 weeks later, at which point prices would have dropped anyway.) Some, like Buycomp.com even go so far as to bill you for the product first even if the product is not in stock, and will charge you a restocking fee if you decide to cancel the order before they even ship it. Lastly, some (if not most) of these companies will charge insanely high shipping fees to make up for their lower product prices.

So what is the general consumer to do? We recommend that you go to these price search engines to get a good idea of what a 'good' price is. Then, call up a reputable mail order house (such as MicroWarehouse, CDW, or PC Mall) and have them match the lowest price. Often times they will not be able to match the price exactly, but they will come pretty close. In addition, the amount you save on shipping might make up for the difference. (For instance, Buycomp charges $70 for Fed-Ex shipping of a particular laptop. Microwarehouse charges $15 for the same laptop.) Then if you consider the much more liberal return policies and support, it makes much more sense to stick with a reputable retailer instead of just going with the one with the lowest price.

A couple things to keep in mind when ordering from a mail order house: Always buy from a source out of state to save on state sales tax. If you order by phone, never let the sales person talk you into buying a product other than the one you requested. A lot of times companies will entice you to call with a good price on a product you want, and then when you actually call they will try to convince you to buy another product, usually one they have a higher mark up on or one they need to get rid of. They might even go as far as to tell you that the product you want is soon to be discontinued or has serious problems. (see sidebar) Don't listen to them. Stick with what you wanted, your initial instincts are usually right.