Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
products. If an online reseller stocks a particular manufacturer's products, it
will tend to stock the entire product line, whereas local retailers often pick
and choose only the most popular items in a product line. Of course, the pop-
ular products are usually popular for good reasons. Online resellers are also
more likely to stock niche products and products from smaller manufacturers.
Sometimes, if you must have a particular product, the only option is to buy it
online.
Use Tax
Ah, but you don't have to pay sales
tax when you buy online, right? Well,
maybe. In most jurisdictions, you're
required by law to pay a use tax
in lieu of sales tax on out-of-state
purchases. Most people evade use
taxes, of course, but that free ride is
coming to an end. States faced with
increasing budget problems, which
is to say all of them, are starting to
clamp down on people who buy
from online resellers and don't pay
use tax. States are using data-mining
techniques to coordinate with one
another and with credit card compa-
nies and online retailers to uncover
unpaid use taxes. If you don't pay use
taxes, one day soon you're likely to
hear from the audit division of your
state department of revenue, asking
what those credit card charges were
for and why you didn't report the use
taxes due on them. Count on it.
Online resellers usually advertise lower prices than local retailers, but it's a mis-
take to compare only nominal prices. When you buy from a local retailer, you
pay only the advertised price plus any applicable sales tax. When you buy from
an online retailer, you pay the advertised price plus shipping, which may end
up costing you more than buying locally.
Although online resellers
may
have a lower overall price on a given compo-
nent, it's a mistake to assume that this is always the case. Local retailers fre-
quently run sales and rebate promotions that cut the price of a component
below the lowest online price. For example, we bought a spindle of 100 discs
on sale from a local retailer for $19.95 with a $10 instant rebate and a $20 mail-
in rebate. After the cost of the stamp to mail in the rebate form, they
paid
us
$9.68 to carry away those 100 discs, which is pretty tough for an online reseller
to match.
In particular, local retailers are usually the best place to buy heavy, bulky, or
fragile items, such as monitors, cases, UPSs, and so on. Local retailers receive
these items in pallet loads, which makes the cost of shipping an individual
item almost nothing. Conversely, online resellers have to charge you, directly
or indirectly, for the cost of getting that heavy item to your door.
Whether your purchase your PC components from a local brick-and-mortar
store or a web-based retailer, here are some guidelines to keep in mind:
• Make sure you know exactly what you're buying. For example, a hard
drive may be available in two versions, each with the same or a similar
model number but with an added letter or number to designate different
amounts of cache. Or a hard drive maker may produce two models of the
same size that differ in price and performance. Always compare using the
exact manufacturer model numbers. Before you buy a product, research
it on the manufacturer's website and on the numerous independent
websites devoted to reviews. We usually search Google with the product
name and “review” in the search string.
• Vendors vary greatly. Some we trust implicitly, and others we wouldn't
order from on a bet. Some are always reliable, others always unreliable,
and still others seem to vary with the phases of the moon. We check
http://
www.resellerratings.com
,
which maintains a database of customer-reported
experiences with hundreds of vendors.
• The list price or
suggested retail price
(SRP) is meaningless. Most com-
puter products sell for a fraction of the SRP, others sell for near the SRP,
and for still others the manufacturer has no SRP but instead publishes an
estimated selling price
(ESP). To do meaningful comparisons, you need to
know what different vendors charge for the product. Fortunately, there
