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Flex Innovations Guide to getting the best deals. COUPONS Many retail stores price match their competitors. What you'll find out is that these retail stores will price match their competitors coupons as well. Here's an example: At one retail store I saw that they sold a Dremel Scroll Saw Model 1830-01 for $199. This saw was then clearance priced at just $129.00. Most people would just buy the saw at this point thinking they just saved $70. This is great of course, but you can do much better! The next step is to find the best coupon and the best place to look is online. I tend to frequent slickdeals, fatwallet, and other types of "deal" websites that often have links to the most recent coupons. A search for current printable coupons might work, just make sure you don't sign up or fill out personal information to get that coupon because coupon code websites can give you extra spam mail, pop-ups, etc. Keep in mind that many of those websites implant cookies on your computer so that they may receive commission on sales from certain website. Anyways, at the time I was buying this scroll saw I had three coupon options: 1. $10 off $50 purchase. 2. $10 off $30 purchase. 3. 15% single item in store. I chose the 15% off one since it offered the biggest discount. Print and keep the other two coupons just in case the cashier or manager decides not to honor the first coupon you choose. A rule of thumb with clearance items is you never want to call stores to see if they have the really good deals. If you do, the person answering the phone or employee checking if that item is in stock, may buy that product before you can. So the trick is to go to a store IN PERSON equipped with your coupon codes and advertisements. I like to hide them from view so I don't appear to be one of those customers that causes trouble to get good deals. First ask an employee or customer service representative perhaps in a different department usually oblivious to that item you are asking for. They will do a search in the computer to see if that item is in stock. If they find that item in stock, tell the you'd like to buy it and for them to get it for you. Once you have that item in hand, your next step is to go to a cashier who looks to be in a good mood and knows what they're doing. If the line is very long, then this may work to your advantage. If you choose an employee too inexperienced they may call for a manager's approval when you show them the coupon. Managers love to say "no" over the phone which is why I like cashiers who know what they're doing. First ask that employee nicely if they price match competitors and then hand them the coupon. The trick is to make it seem they will be doing you a huge favor if they discount the product. Cashiers feel good about their job when they make a customer satisfied. In addition, mega retailers will do whatever it takes to steal customers from their competitors, even if it involves discounting an item a bit more than they'd like. If the cashier refuses, then say "never mind", and go look around a bit and try it on a different cashier if you think it may work on somebody in a better mood. If you want to get technical you can ask to speak with a manager, and ask them to check if they got a memo from corporate regarding price matching this coupon and then raise a big fuss. Sometimes this will work though the employees won't like you for handling it this way. In the end, if you play your cards right, your clearance item just got an extra 15% mark-down and you've got yourself a pretty good deal. Want to take this deal further? Read On: GIFT CARD 10-15% DISCOUNT You can pretty much buy ANY gift card on craigslist. The trick to doing this 100% safe is to pay the person cash for the gift card AFTER they've spent all of it on the items you want. This involves the seller using the gift card to buy items that the buyer wants to buy. Then after that transaction takes place, the buyer gives cash to the seller of the now spent gift card. You can save an additional 10-15% off that item you just bought. You just have to schedule the purchasing of such gift cards on the day that there is a good deal. If you combine this gift card tactic with the competitor price match tactic then you can save as much as 30% or more on an item that would have never been on sale. Refurbished or Used Buying products used on Craigslist can give you items that you only pay 50-10% of the street price. Make sure you know exactly what part number you are getting and know how much it originally sold and how much it sells for now. It's also wise to TEST the product before you buy it, though I know this is not always possible. There are great websites that sell parts to help you rebuild/refurbish tools such as ereplacementsparts. Most of the time people are selling an item REALLY cheap because some small part is broken or malfunctioning. It may only be missing a $5 part. An example is I bought a $435 drill press for $80. The chuck wasn't working and that's a $50 part. Rather than buy a new chuck, it took me about a minute to grind some material away that was jamming the chuck. Now it works great and I didn't even have to buy a new chuck. Another great source for used tools is refurbished resellers. An example is hitachi tools that are refurbished sell from reconditionedsales.com. I bought some refurbished tools that literally look brand new. Others looked a bit used and dirty. It really depends but I've never bought a refurbished product that didn't work. The Alpine receiver in my car is now 9 years old and it was a refurbished model purchased from crutchfield.com Refurbished products can be anything from items that didn't sell in a retail outlet, or a factory recall on new items due to one minor change. Refurbished can also mean a used product that is faulty due to a defect in the design. To be careful about this one it's always good to look up reviews on the product at websites like amazon.com where real users write their opinion on the product. Knock Offs All too common, a product is being manufactured in China, and sold with a brand name in the USA. Well these factories in China like to manufacture additional units using the same technology, plastics, and parts as the product they are selling to the USA. Thus, what you end up having is a black market knock off that sometimes works identical to the real item. If you can find the knock off and research indicates that it does the job well, then by all means support China. Remember this article is to save you money, not to support the American economy... Harbor freight is an example. You can pay $4 for a coping saw WITH blades from Harbor Freight. A similar saw is sold at Home Depot and Lowes for about $8ea. All three saws are made in China. There are exceptions though since sometimes the Chinese versions will use SOFTER steel alloys or cheaper plastics. A great example is in drill bits. Chinese high speed steel bits from harbor freight are just no match for most American high speed steel. The Chinese alloy is softer and will bend. The American counterpart is more rigid, will stay sharp, and crack rather than bend if that ever occurs. Certain "wear" products are better suited to the motto: "You get what you pay for". This is why I would prefer drill bits from Milwaukee, Dewalt, etc... Another suitable choice is to buy an ONLINE brand name bit that's made in china, only with higher standards. An example is Lee Valley or Woodcraft bits. Then there's the case of comparing a clamp to a clamp, you might not find a difference in performance that justifies the extra $10-20 extra you have to pay for that USA brand name. Conclusion I hope you all do your best at shopping around. Eventually you'll realize that the small mom/pop shop is the most expensive. Then comes the mega retail USA chain, Next is the no-name import chain, and finally... used/refurbished/clearance items. The best advice I can give you is to keep the following tips in mind: 1. Keep an eye out for clearance, mark-downs, sale items locally though watch out that those items aren't missing any crucial parts. 2. When planning to buy something, look for coupons/competitor coupons, and consider buying a used gift card. 3. If the cheapest place is online, then Buy it with a credit card so you can reap points. Then pay the balance off fast enough so you don't pay interest. 4. As always... your other two options are to "do it yourself" or "do without it"... |
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