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Buying a Digital Camera

Use Comparative Shopping Search Engines

SUMMARY: Looking for the absolute best prices for digital cameras or digital camera accessories? Search many online vendors at once.

If you're looking for the absolute best price for a digital camera or high-end digital camera accessory, instead of manually going to several online vendor websites, you may wish to try using comparative shopping search engines. These websites allow you to type in or browse for a particular product, then show you prices listed on a variety of vendor websites.

Depending on the shopping search engine, other items may be listed along with the product's price at each vendor:

* Shipping price
* Does the vendor list the item "in stock" (you may still want to check the vendor's website just in case)
* Does the vendor charge sales tax
* A "rating" of the vendor by the shopping engine's users - whether or not they deliver as promised

Use shopping search engines as a starting point. Listed prices may not reflect the actual prices on each vendor's website (they may be higher OR lower). Be sure to read other peoples' opinions and be careful when purchasing items from a vendor you have never heard of before. Plus, be careful with prices that seem too low to believe - some vendors may aggressively try to sell "package deals" that may or not be a good deal for you.

Here is a list of just a few comparative shopping search engines, provided for informational purposes only:

* BizRate - http://www.bizrate.com/

* CNET Shopper - http://shopper.cnet.com/

* Froogle - http://froogle.google.com/

* mySimon - http://www.mysimon.com

* PriceGrabber - http://www.pricegrabber.com/

* PriceSCAN - http://www.pricescan.com/

* Shopping.com - http://www.shopping.com

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The MalekTips website was created in 1998 by Andrew Malek of Envision Programming. The page's goal is to freely disperse computer-related tips, hints, and informative articles. Tips are organized to be easy to find, and are presented clearly, in easy-to-understand language. MalekTips also provides information and links to public-domain, open source, freeware, shareware, and commercial software available for download. < more >