The Secret Society of Bargain Hunters
This may be a complete shock to most of you bargain hunting fanatics, but the best cyber deals out there you will NEVER see. Just because you frequent the likes of fatwallet.com, slickdeals.net, or any of the hundreds of bargain hunting sites out there, what you see within the forums are really leftovers or deals that many bargain hunting “secret society” members do not deem as “HOT”.
I probably will receive some anonymous emails from various bargain hunting site owners if this article reaches a greater mass of the deal world, but I’m willing to take the heat. I believe that if more people know about the existence of these secret forums, the post quality would improve with this new found information. Everyone wins. Traffic will pick up, lurkers have more deals to leech off of, and site contributors will be able to provide to the community with constant deal-worthy posts with the incentive that they may be rewarded one day with an invite to the private forum. Don’t get me wrong, you’ll still find your normal deals like $20 off a $149 Name Brand Blu-Ray player or FREE (Name your widget here) product after you jump through three burning hoops posts. You will just see more bargains that are actually WORTH your time.
What are you talking about?
If I wasn’t blunt enough, I am saying that there are several bargain hunting sites out there that have private forum access.
How do I get access?
I only know of 2 major ways to get access
- Contribute and present deals normally and over a long period of time. Try to position yourself such that you bring value to the community. So if you leave the deal site for another, your previous home would have a significant impact.
- Monetary contributions. I know that defeats the purpose of saving money, which is one explicit reason as to why people actually venture into bargain forums, but it shows that you support the site. (FYI, this is not recommended without the benefit of the doubt that the site actually has a private forum)
How do you know this?
I was a bargain hunter for many years (like I said in my intro, my life is all over the board). I had special site access to 2 different deal sites during the “hey day” of my bargain hunting career.
I was kicked out of both of them due to inactivity.
What makes these private forums so special?
1) The deals last. They don’t expire as fast as deals that get submitted to the open forum. Remember the rule, for every logged in member, there are 3 lurkers. While you are busy responding to a “Hot Deal” thread, there are 3 lurkers that are hitting “submit” on their respective checkout page.
2) The deals are unique. You won’t see multiple DELL deals with various coupon stacking loopholes or B1G1 (buy 1, get one) free CD-R spindles. However, you will find things like scarves that go for $30 retail and will resell for $120 on eBay.
3) You’ll be in good company. Access to these special forums are given to proven deal finders. The members that contribute the most and scour the internet the best are usually amongst the privileged.
4) Saves you time. You’ll have a high concentration of great deals in one place. You don’t have to trudge through a myriad of useless deal posts.
Why is it such a secret? Who loses out?
The members that are part of these private forums ultimately lose out. The larger the private forum becomes, the lower the value of the deal. Many of these members are eBay sellers. Therefore, the more people that are in on the deal, the more saturated their market becomes.
What sites were you part of?
I will not say. Sorry. But they both are on the list I pointed out in this post. I will not respond on it if it is brought up in the comments below. Maybe eventually, I will disclose the information, but that’s for another post.
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You thought you knew, but you had know idea. Or did you? Have you heard of these secret deal forums before? Comment below and share with me your experiences.
Arrivederci (Itallian)
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Photo Credit: said&done / Faraz
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