Research with the Shopping Sleuth

Jun 27, 2000 - © Reginald Vickers

I think it is interesting the two different styles of shopping that I have within me. When I shop in the real world, I do the majority of my shopping without a plan, or purpose. I go from store to store looking for bargains. If I spot an electric nose hair clipper for 70% off, it's mine. It's fast and furious.

Yet my expectations on the Internet are much slower. When I come across a bargain on the Internet, it is then that my work begins. I was in the market for a printer a few months back. I wasn't desperate but a $50 rebate for an Epson 740 caught my eye. This propelled me into my search mode. My first stop is always to CLICK on the Shopping Sleuth

You can try it out below by clicking on the category that you're looking for:

Once you get to the site, you can uncover hundreds of reviews, articles, and ratings for the product you are interested. Then, still at Shopping Sleuth, you can find for the best price through online stores, auctions, buying groups, classified ads, and person to person auctions. My search for the Epson 740 brought 106 results with the lowest price being $119 at MicroWarehouse ($119-$50=$69). What a deal! The reviews that I found at Shopping Sleuth were also very helpful.

But I wasn't done yet. I was looking for an even better deal.. I discovered that Lexmark was offering a $100 rebate on their 5770 photo printer. I performed my search with Shopping Sleuth and read the reviews. This seemed like an excellent printer for photographs (which is what I was hoping to do a lot of). I searched for the lowest price but only came up with a $219 price tag. That would bring it down to $119, which wasn't as good as the Epson. I then went to my trusty old friends at uBid. There it was, with 5 minutes left, the 5770 for $99. I was amazed that I won the bid at $139. With the rebate, I would end up with a $200 printer for $39! It only took me 2 months to do the research (about 400 man-hours) and 5 minutes to place the bid.

The copyright of the article Research with the Shopping Sleuth in Online Shopping is owned by Reginald Vickers. Permission to republish Research with the Shopping Sleuth in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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