Let me be the first to say that as the head of a frugal household I know for a fact that the best deals on a daily basis are found in brick and mortar locations, or “click” and mortar locations (locations with an online purchase and physical purchase presence). However, it is possible to find a better deal online, or be pointed to a local deal that you otherwise wouldn’t have known about.

Real examples of the types of deals a true bargain hunter can look for:
• Brick and Mortar only: Last Sunday Office Depot had their Tom-Tom One on sale for 140 with a 40 dollar mail in rebate. The advertisement was in the Sunday paper, and there were 10 in stock at the store to be purchased when the store opened.
• Click and Mortar: A small wet saw at the store was 59.99, however at the site www.harborfreight.com the price was 34.99. With printout in hand the store manager overrode the price and matched the online price saving 25 dollars.
• Online only: Amarillo Technical Helpers needed some fridge magnets, and VistaPrint.com has always done a decent job, so that was the site of choice to get them. When checking out there was a blank discount code field at the bottom of the page. After a Google search for “Vista Print discount codes,” and entering in the first code that came up on the search the price was dropped from a sale price of 79.99 to 49.99.
• EBay: A good “butt set” (telephone repair tool) that normally would have gone for around $300, was acquired for $75 through a “buy it now”, with a shipping charge of 12 dollars.

Deal Aggregators
There exists a harmonious combination of real world deals and internet deals at places like www.fatwallet.com, and www.slickdeals.net. People post great deals at these sites, and the communities vote on whether the deals are good or bad.

Sending money over the internet:
NEVER send a money order or cashiers check for anything. If you absolutely must send cash use the good old USPS to send the money http://www.usps.com/money/welcome.htm, because fraud through the United States Postal Service is a legal death wish, while fraud through Western Union or something like it is a good way to give away money to non-worthwhile causes

Auctions:
EBay is interesting in that a rip off and a deal is under almost every search. Homework MUST be done. For example, one set of Oakley sunglasses that sold at sunglass hut for $70 went on EBay for close to $120, just because bidders assumed that any Oakley sunglasses would be well over $100. The important thing to remember about EBay is to never purchase something from eBay unless the transaction goes though EBay, and the purchase is made with Paypal, or Google Checkout. Two things to watch out for on eBay are shipping costs, and overpriced stuff. Make sure that you can’t buy the item new locally for less than the cost of the auction plus shipping.

CraigsList:
Craigslist is another interesting beast. It is buyer beware around there. Posts are free to make, and the scammers, creeps, and con artists like to hunt for fresh meat in the postings, but there are legitimate people looking to sell things at good prices that are local to you, just like the local newspaper classifieds. Any advertisements that turn out not to be a local individual or company should be held exceedingly suspect.

Garage Sales:
Even though these are tech tips, and garage sales are far from “tech” related, the internet can still help when haggling for a deal. A recent deal from a garage sale was for a car stereo that the internet showed as going for about $120, the seller wanted 35 for the deck, which was never opened. Not knowing the brand, an uneducated buyer could have purchased a 35 dollar stereo that could be had for 50 on the internet, and thus would not have had a great deal for a garage sale item. It’s handy if you have someone that you can call with internet access while you are rolling around shopping garage sales, or even other sales like car purchases, or furniture.

Remember, in any negotiation or transaction - he who has the most information wins.