SED 01: Online Shopping Tips
May. 1st, 2015 10:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kerravonsenTaking up the challenge to post Something Every Day for the month of May.
I was talking this morning to a colleague about the joys and pitfalls of online shopping (E-Bay in particular). So I thought that would make a reasonable idea for a post. Even though y'all probably already know this stuff, just thought I'd share my "rules of thumb" for shopping online, anyway.
Usually I'm looking for something in particular, though it isn't always something I've got a good search-phrase for. Sometimes I'm looking for something for a particular purpose, but that purpose could be fulfilled by many different things. For example, recently I was looking for dodecahedrons and/or pentagons (from which I could build a dodecahedron) I didn't care all that much what material it was made of, just what shape it was. So that was specific without being that specific... (and you have no idea how many Washington DC Commemorative Pentagon items turned up in my search...)
There's four categories of site that I look at when searching for an item online:
1. Shops from my bookmarks (places I've already shopped at and had a good experience with). This is usually when I know that they have that item, or are likely to have that item.
2. Etsy. Mainly when I am looking for something hand-made, or for craft supplies when I fail elsewhere. (This is where I got those pentagons I was looking for)
3. E-Bay. One can find all sorts of things here, though they won't necessarily be cheap. If they are cheap, they're usually from China, and take weeks to arrive. That's the trade-off. Note that I never bid on anything; I only look at "Buy it Now" listings. Bidding for things is too stressful and takes too long anyway.
4. Google image search. Why image search? Because (a) it's quicker to eliminate spurious results when you can see a picture, and (b) if they don't have a photo of the item in question, I don't want to buy from them anyway.
When I'm searching on google for something, there are sites I automatically filter out, such as E-Bay (if I'm looking on E-Bay, their own search is better) and those "shop-bot" sites which give you price-comparisons. Why eliminate shop-bots? Most of the time because they give a lot of false positives for the things I'm looking for, and it's easier just to filter them out. Oh, and I also filter out blogging sites when I can, because they're likely to be blogging about items, not selling them.
Reasons for automatically NOT buying an item from someone:
1. Prices not given ("call for price"). No, sorry, you're wasting my time.
2. Prices not given unless you register on the site. No, you're either a scam trying to harvest emails to sell, or your prices are so expensive you daren't let anyone know what they are.
3. Not enough information given about the item. No, I'm not going to ask for more information; if I have to do that, you're wasting my time.
I prefer buying locally (in my own country) if I can, because postage is cheaper and/or quicker. I expect this isn't much of an issue for Americans, because most of the stuff you want to buy is available locally anyway.
"There's no such thing as a free lunch" and there's no such thing as free postage, not really. I've often seen items on E-Bay where the same item (or one really really similar) is offered on one listing with free postage, and on another listing with non-free postage... but the total amount is the same for both listings. That is, the listing with the free postage has simply added the postage cost to the item cost, thus making the item more expensive. After I realized that, I stopped filtering on "Free Postage" on my E-Bay searches.
Do y'all have any good online shopping tips of your own?
I was talking this morning to a colleague about the joys and pitfalls of online shopping (E-Bay in particular). So I thought that would make a reasonable idea for a post. Even though y'all probably already know this stuff, just thought I'd share my "rules of thumb" for shopping online, anyway.
Usually I'm looking for something in particular, though it isn't always something I've got a good search-phrase for. Sometimes I'm looking for something for a particular purpose, but that purpose could be fulfilled by many different things. For example, recently I was looking for dodecahedrons and/or pentagons (from which I could build a dodecahedron) I didn't care all that much what material it was made of, just what shape it was. So that was specific without being that specific... (and you have no idea how many Washington DC Commemorative Pentagon items turned up in my search...)
There's four categories of site that I look at when searching for an item online:
1. Shops from my bookmarks (places I've already shopped at and had a good experience with). This is usually when I know that they have that item, or are likely to have that item.
2. Etsy. Mainly when I am looking for something hand-made, or for craft supplies when I fail elsewhere. (This is where I got those pentagons I was looking for)
3. E-Bay. One can find all sorts of things here, though they won't necessarily be cheap. If they are cheap, they're usually from China, and take weeks to arrive. That's the trade-off. Note that I never bid on anything; I only look at "Buy it Now" listings. Bidding for things is too stressful and takes too long anyway.
4. Google image search. Why image search? Because (a) it's quicker to eliminate spurious results when you can see a picture, and (b) if they don't have a photo of the item in question, I don't want to buy from them anyway.
When I'm searching on google for something, there are sites I automatically filter out, such as E-Bay (if I'm looking on E-Bay, their own search is better) and those "shop-bot" sites which give you price-comparisons. Why eliminate shop-bots? Most of the time because they give a lot of false positives for the things I'm looking for, and it's easier just to filter them out. Oh, and I also filter out blogging sites when I can, because they're likely to be blogging about items, not selling them.
Reasons for automatically NOT buying an item from someone:
1. Prices not given ("call for price"). No, sorry, you're wasting my time.
2. Prices not given unless you register on the site. No, you're either a scam trying to harvest emails to sell, or your prices are so expensive you daren't let anyone know what they are.
3. Not enough information given about the item. No, I'm not going to ask for more information; if I have to do that, you're wasting my time.
I prefer buying locally (in my own country) if I can, because postage is cheaper and/or quicker. I expect this isn't much of an issue for Americans, because most of the stuff you want to buy is available locally anyway.
"There's no such thing as a free lunch" and there's no such thing as free postage, not really. I've often seen items on E-Bay where the same item (or one really really similar) is offered on one listing with free postage, and on another listing with non-free postage... but the total amount is the same for both listings. That is, the listing with the free postage has simply added the postage cost to the item cost, thus making the item more expensive. After I realized that, I stopped filtering on "Free Postage" on my E-Bay searches.
Do y'all have any good online shopping tips of your own?
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no subject
Date: 2015-05-01 02:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-05-01 05:46 pm (UTC)Invest in Amazon Prime. I've had it for three years and always save more on shipping than my initial investment. On top of that, they have so much free music on Prime I doubt I'll ever buy an mp3 again. And for odd, obtuse things? Amazon has it.
no subject
Date: 2015-05-02 02:19 am (UTC)And I'd rather buy locally (www.fishpond.com.au) than internationally as I said above. I only go to Amazon if I can't find it on Fishpond.
I'm also rather wary of Amazon since I heard about their horrible working conditions.
no subject
Date: 2015-05-02 03:00 am (UTC)But I do prefer online shopping as well.
no subject
Date: 2015-05-01 05:47 pm (UTC)Maybe not the best idea.
I found what I needed through google image search. I was looking for some sort of small shelf and found it at ikea--a wooden spice shelf that comes unassembled so I can shorten it by shortening the wide pieces before assembling, maybe.
no subject
Date: 2015-05-02 02:21 am (UTC)(laughs)
a wooden spice shelf that comes unassembled so I can shorten it by shortening the wide pieces before assembling, maybe.
Good luck with that. I'm not sure I'd be able to get it to go back together if I tried cutting it down, but then I don't have any carpentry skills....
no subject
Date: 2015-05-01 11:44 pm (UTC)As with anything shop around and compare prices before you commit to buy.
no subject
Date: 2015-05-02 02:23 am (UTC)Good point. And there's likely to be a bigger range at their own site, too.