Do you remember two months ago when BestBuy.com mistakenly priced a $1700 52″ Samsung HDTV for $9.99?  Regardless if you did or did not, bargain hunters had first dibs at it.   The jury is still out whether anyone actually received a TV at that price, but you can imagine the sense of excitement that ensued once the info was leaked to the bargain hunting world.  Here’s the thing, situations like this present themselves all the time but usually stay within the bargain hunting community.  Does that mean you should join rank and file amongst the bargain hunting herd to take advantage of such steals?  The answer is Yes and No.

NO because….

I take the same approach to bargain hunting as Philip Brewer.  In his article, “Who has the time (or money) for deals?”, he points out that sorting through a list of deals is usually a big waste of time and often puts you up to the temptation of buying crap that you really don’t need.  That’s exactly what bargain hunting sites are full of; listings of random deals where 85% will be garbage, 14% were steals you were too slow to react to, and 1% deals you are lucky enough to be part of.

Being a bargain hunter for years and reaching the status of senior member at multiple deal sites (ooh I’m so cool), it’s true.  I actually spent more money on “deals” than I would have ever spent if I wasn’t exposed to such “deals”.  On several occasions I used a  $30 off of $100 purchase coupon from Staples on 3 different credit cards.  That’s $210 that I wouldn’t have spent if I hadn’t seen those coupons.  I have spent many moons lurking through a myriad of useless posts that are often times just a regurgitation of content from other deal sites.

YES because….

On the flip-side, deal sites can be extremely useful when you have already made up your mind on an item you want to purchase.  All it requires is using the search form and if anything comes up and you are willing to jump through hoops to make your purchase worthwhile, you’re golden.

For the technologically inclined, you can do what Trent Hamm does from TheSimpleDollar.com and use feedfilter.com.  At feedfilter.com, you can filter through your selection of deal site RSS feeds for items you actually NEED or CARE about.  Items that match your filter criteria reach your RSS Reader (ie Google Reader).

Some tips on bargain hunting

• Search through the site’s forums.  Users will tell you if it is a steal or not.
• Contribute to the community (share deals and add to the discussion). You may be rewarded with access to private areas of the site (more on this in a later post!)
• Rebates are a hassle.  If you have the option to pay for the item a few dollars more without rebates, then you might want to consider paying the higher cost.
• Hot Deals discovered on smaller sites tend to stay there within that community.  Hot Deals discovered on large sites trickle down to the smaller sites.
• Tech deal sites ran by Uber Geeks (like myself), should not be shrugged off.  The best electronic deals can be had there.  Check out Anandtech.com.

Major bargain hunting sites

• http://slickdeals.net/
• http://www.fatwallet.com/
• http://anandtech.com/
• http://dealnews.com/
• http://www.techbargains.com
• http://bensbargains.net/
• http://bargainshare.com/
• http://www.gotapex.com
• http://www.mybargainbuddy.com/

Are you a bargain hunter?  Tell us about your best hauls.

PLEASE REMEMBER: It’s not a deal, if you don’t have any money to start with.

Photo Credit: Mark’s Postcards from Beloit

Related posts:

1. The Secret Society of Bargain Hunters
2. 2009 Black Friday Survival Guide
3. Price Adjustments; Save Money AFTER the Purchase