Holiday Tech Shopping Tips

The other day as my sister and I were testing back and forth about deals we missed on Black Friday, for the simple fact that we chose not to wake up and stand in line at 4a.m., she mentioned that Staples had a mini webcam on sale for $49. “Staples?”, I said. “Yeah, Staples”, she replied. And thus the late Black Friday deal shopping began for me on their site.

In general, when I am searching for the best tech deals and toys, I keep several things in mind:

1. Google is my first stop for a particular item. I check the results page to see what is at the top of the page and work my way from there. In general if I put in the gadget’s name and “sale”, I feel like i will be able to find the best price. More often than not, I shop for my tech gadgets on line if I want the lowest price. Most of the times, I luck out and get the cheapest price around by starting off with a Google search.
2. In general, I shy away from buying tech items as soon as they come out. I just feel like first generation gadgets have so many kinks to work out that I tend not to be a confident buyer of them. I’ve never fixated myself on being the first one on the block to have a gadget. If it so happened that way, it was because the item was unique rather than the popular new toy out there.
3. Speaking of unique, I find that magazines are the best places to find unusual items, and I’m not just talking about Wired or any of the other techie magazines. Parenting publications and beauty magazines have been great resources for unique gadgets since they too have a “new products” department.
4. I am a slave to customer reviews. I read reviews on just about everything that I purchase online, especially tech items. I probably read about 15-20 reviews on an individual item before I make my buying (or non-buying) decision. I like to read reviews on Amazon, the item’s homesite, as well as tech magazine sites for industry reviews.
5. There are several places that I will compare prices. I like Amazon, Ebay, Costco, the military’s shopping site (availability can be sporadic but if they have it, there is no tax on top of lower prices most of the times), and a couple of price comparison shops.

At times, the obvious choice for buying tech items isn’t always the most obvious retailers. Usually word of mouth, such as what I experienced with my sister, will clue you into non-obvious places to shop. This time around I scored.

“I wrote this blog post while participating in the TwitterMoms and Staples blogging program, making me eligible for a $50 gift card. For more information on how you can participate, click here.”