mouseandhat Wednesday: buying online

Aug 18, 2010 by Joshua

Posted under: mouseandhat

I would not say that I am particularly savvy when it comes to online commerce, but I suppose I have above-average experience in purchasing items online. I do not dabble in auction sites such as eBay, but as a college student in a town with little more than a Walmart and a Kroger, I did turn to online retailers for most of my luxury purchases.

It would be silly for me to write a tutorial on shopping online – get a credit card, fill out the forms and, like anything else, try not to be stupid about it – but I can certainly suggest some sites and services that I have found to be useful and reliable. My luxury buying habits tend toward products that could fit into categories such as technology, music and video games, so if you are hoping for some tips on buying, say, a canoe or some exercise equipment, you would do best to look elsewhere.

Hit the jump for a short list of online retailers that get my recommendation.

Woot! – Miscellaneous, T-shirts, wine, kids’ stuff

The folks at Woot! have a rather peculiar approach to the online marketplace. Every day, the site offers one item – and only one item – and the item is available until it is sold out. At the start of the next day, a new item is available. Regardless of the product for sale, shipping costs $5, and each user may purchase up to three of that day’s item.

The products range from computers and computer accessories to robotic vacuums, cameras, media players, and occasionally obscure items such as bacon salt and assorted nuts. The site also has a section for T-shirts called shirt.woot, with a new design for sale each day for $10, and regular derbies where users can submit their designs for a chance to win money and get their designs printed. At least half of the T-shirts in my closet are from this site. Other sections include wine.woot, with wine and wine-related accessories; sellout.woot, with more name-brand items on sale; and the more recently added kids.woot, with products for kids and parents.

What makes Woot! stand out from other discount third-party sellers, aside from their sales strategy, is the humor that the company injects into each product description and in the site in general. It is clear that Woot! appreciates its users and wishes to promote community among them.

Also of interest are the occasional Woot-offs. These events take place over 1-3 days, and instead of only one item being available for each day, each item is replaced with a new one once it sells out. Many users keep a vigilant watch on the site, refreshing constantly to see if the next item has arrived. To add to the mania of the event, Woot! occasionally offers the coveted Bag of Crap – which is actually a box – containing three random items for $3 plus shipping. Regular users go crazy for the Bags of Crap, or BOCs, driven by rumors that some have gotten ones containing big-screen TVs. I have gotten a couple BOCs myself, though I never received anything more impressive than a computer mouse in either one.

It should be noted that, to my knowledge, Woot! does not deliver outside the United States.

ThinkGeek – Technology, gadgets, geek loot

If ever there were a toy store for geeks of all ages, ThinkGeek would be the online equivalent. Whether it be a fit of nostalgia or a desire for zany gadgets that surely came from the future prematurely, ThinkGeek has a plethora of products that hit the mark. Items range from the practically useless to the incredibly useful.

Like Woot!, ThinkGeek also offers various T-shirts and edible items, as well as items specifically geared toward kids.

One complaint I have with ThinkGeek, though, is that its products tend to be rather pricey. Fortunately, there’s an alternative…

DealExtreme – like ThinkGeek, only cheaper and sketchier

While I have never used DealExtreme myself, I have heard good things from reputable sources. Still, I cannot help but feel that the site is comparable to those street vendors who sell obvious knock-offs to not-too-bright passersby, or those “As Seen On TV” stores found in some malls. Even so, the site’s selection of items is vast, and it includes many items that can be found on ThinkGeek, only for lower prices.

One should be careful to read the fine print when shopping on DealExtreme, though. The site ships worldwide, and some products may be illegal to import, own or use in certain countries.

Steam – game store, launcher and community all rolled into one

The folks at Valve Corporation have worked out quite a system for combating video game piracy. They offer a huge selection of games from a wide variety of publishers, allow users to download game content onto any computer, and advertise new deals on games constantly. To do so, they employ the Steam client, a program that allows users to purchase, download and discuss games. All of this is done with little or no DRM to speak of. Instead, the company discourages piracy by making video games less expensive to own and more difficult to pirate.

Valve and its client are not without critics, of course. For instance, providing users with the ability to download a game but not the ability to sell it after purchasing it could be seen as an inconvenience to the user. Even so, I am impressed with the company’s perception of the gaming industry and how it should deal with customers. The company’s president, Gabe Newell, appears on all accounts to be considerate toward users and capable of humor, to boot. Heck, one needs only look as far as the promos for the various updates for Team Fortress 2 to see what a zany place Valve headquarters must be.

What about music?

I haven’t really got a specific source for music purchases. While it can be reassuring to have a physical copy of an album in case the files get lost, music downloads are becoming more prevalent. To me, where I buy music is not as important as where I find it. So long as I can figure out the name of the artist and the album, I can track a copy of it down somewhere. One thing I have learned from this mindset is that, when it comes to independent artists, one can often find their music for sale at a reasonable price on the artists’ sites. As far as where to hear about great music in the first place, the best suggestion I can give is to check out Pandora Radio.

Well, I hope that a few of you have benefited from my suggestions. Countless other useful sites exist out there in the great, interconnected web of the Internet. Like any regular store, though, be sure to look into a seller you are not familiar with to make sure it is reliable and trustworthy.

Next week’s topic: famous cats

Well then.