How-To Geek
Ask the Readers: What Tools Do You Use to Score Great Deals Online?
The internet has made scoring awesome deals a cinch—but only if you have the right tools and know where to look. This week we want to hear about your favorite tools for scoring the deepest discounts during your online shopping adventures.
What we’re most interested in is the tools you use: browser plugins, bookmarklets, and other tools that help you stay on top of price drops and other deal-related information.
So let’s hear about it in the comments! What tools do you use to score great deals online? We’ll read all your comments, gather quotes, and share the collective wisdom of the How-To Geek crowd in a follow-up What You Said post on Friday.
Got Feedback? Join the discussion at discuss.howtogeek.com
Comments (51)
Jason Fitzpatrick is warranty-voiding DIYer and all around geek. When he's not documenting mods and hacks he's doing his best to make sure a generation of college students graduate knowing they should put their pants on one leg at a time and go on to greatness, just like Bruce Dickinson. You can follow him on Google+ if you'd like.
- Published 03/9/11
I use three RSS feeds in my Google Reader account (Slickdeals, dealnews, and gamerdeals.net), as well as a retailmenot! bookmarklet. Most of the time though, I just shop at Amazon. Cheap as hell, plus I like using their gift certificates for (basically) free stuff.
buy.com :) I just have them send me a weekly email with deals or just go to the site when I’m looking for something in particular. 99% of the time when I find something I want and see the price on other sites and at other stores it is the cheapest!
I find the mouse essential and oh yeah http://www.pricespy.co.nz
http://www.getinvisiblehand.com/
I use RSS ticker and Firefox to score stuff on Craigslist the moment it’s posted. I did up a tutorial about a year back on how I do this. http://torching.me/2o
I use the iGoogle Coupon Gaget to fine coupons I can use locally.
http://www.google.com/ig/adde?synd=open&source=ggyp&moduleurl=www.gstatic.com/ig/modules/coupons/coupons.xml
I primarily use my computer, sometimes my iPod or Smartphone. If I purchase a tablet in the future I might use that too!
@Jax +1
I use RSS with Outlook for http://dealspl.us/. This site post best deals as they are posted around the web.
Invisible Hand – definitely! Great Firefox add-on that automatically looks for better deals on just about any item you’re looking at online, gives you a choice of where to get it, and isn’t obtrusive. It has saved me literally hundreds of dollars.
I shop my website. It comparison shops over 6000 stores for me (internet and brick-n-mortar), finds coupon codes, and I GET PAID to buy the stuff I am going to buy anyway. If you want to take advantage of it, and earn CashBack for yourself, email me for more info : gyanos422(at)gmail(dot)com (sorry to spell it out, don’t want spam)
I use use http://www.dodtracker.com
InvisibleHand (chrome extension)
Slickdeals.net
I don’t use anything.
I’d rather do all the research on my own, even if it means wasting a whole day looking around on the internet. Of course, I look for feedback from other people on forums and other places as well.
I use Invisible Hand and also keep and eye on DealHack.
Don’t use any of them really. Check Groupon and Living Social plus I get Appsumo notices once in a while but have never seen anything worthwhile. Have never seen a “Deals” blog or feed offer me a bargain on anything that I would like to purchase.Online, I shop at Newegg.com, Amazon.com and a couple of specialty stores. Offline, I shop at Target, Trader Joe’s and Best Buy and a couple of specialty stores. They send me newsletters for information.
I use the firefox addon InvisibleHand. It has saved me a bundle for sure
usenet ~ it’s saved me thousands.
http://www.fatwallet.com/
http://slickdeals.net/
http://bensbargains.net/
I don’t
Http://onedayfly.com
I use priceblink firefox extension. Its similar to invisiblehand.
PriceBlink for firefox/chrome/safari. It is a browser add-on that does price comparison while you shop. I’ve compared it to Invisible Hand. In my experience, it works on more stores and provides more accurate price comparison results. Plus, it also displays coupons for the merchant you are viewing.
Invisible hand for safari and firefox
hotsalesanddeals.com for irish deals and http://www.hotukdeals.com/ for UK deals
I love PriceBlink. It has definitely saved me money and it has coupons!
Used to use Woot! until Amazon took over.
Bradsdeals.com
invisiblehand a firefox addon brilliant its saved me hundreds
PriceBlink is the best. I love not having to google for coupons when I’m shopping.
Use the allyourprices, shopping assistant, and deals extensions (in Chrome) to auto compare prices online at many online vendors as well as receive discount codes. Unbelievably helpful. Will never overpay again.
I use comparisons from Newegg.com, Amazon.com, Circuitcity.com, and Geek.com
Computer Active Download Store do software sometimes up to 50% discount as do Bits du Jour on the web. Just got Kaspersky Internet Security Suite half price.
PriceBlink extension. Does price comparison and gives you retailer coupons automatically.
Good Canadian site:
http://smartcanucks.ca/
I have been a long time user of Pricegrabber and Nextag. Nextag has a cool feature that shows the price trending of products.
BigDailySale.com,has alot of great stuff-Cheap
Techbargains.com and dealighted.com
You’d be amazed at the deals you can get. Usually, you have only hours to take advantage of them b/c they sellout so quickly.
I search many websites. If I find it on Amazon, I usually buy it there. They have free shipping on many items.
Invisible hand is great for general shopping. It’s a (Chrome or Firefox) extension that senses when you are looking at a priced item in an online store and lets you know where you can find it cheaper.
http://www.getinvisiblehand.com/
For deals, slickdeals.net
Good Germany site,
http://www.online-coupons.de/
Dealnews.com
Gottadeal.com
+1 for PriceBlink (www.priceblink.com). I’ve been using it since the holidays and it has helped me save a couple hundred bucks. I love the fact that it has coupons and user reviews in addition to finding cheap prices.
I get great deals from halfoffdeals.com
I check the Cheapskate RSS feed at at cnet.com every day (http://news.cnet.com/cheapskate/) – I’ve purchased a few items at his suggestion, and have been very pleased! Also suggests many freebies.
I use the reviews at Amazon, because getting a great price doesn’t mean anything if you buy a piece of junk.
ebay?
I use an desktop widget that contains an html tag in witch i can se the price of the object i’m interested in.
I get a daily email from http://www.zazz.com.au
They have cheap quirky items that change on a daily basis. Some of them are great stocking fillers at Christmas that are not available in the shops.
http://www.currentcodes.com
Firefox add on: Invisible Hand is good, but still has a bug or two. I receive selected email notices from Buy.com, NewEgg.com, TigerDirect.com, and a couple of price alert notices. Invisible Hand pretty much makes most of these other inbox fillers useless.
I’ve started using Boo.ly) for Firefox (http://boo.ly), you can get coupon codes and price comparison for the item you are looking at.
It even gives you coupons for all the other merchants that are selling the item.
I used it the other day on Amazon.com while searching for a dvd player and it added little red tags to the actual search page.
I also use CNet – http://news.cnet.com/cheapskate/