A couple of tricks when ordering electronics online: 1) Go amazon.com, circuitcity.com, compusa.com, epinions.com, etc, to check the customer reviews. Some expereinces with the products you are interesting might be very helpful for making decision 2) Then go pricegrabber.com, dealtime.com, etc, to compeare tthe prices at different stores. You may also want to check big online/local stores like bestbuy.com, circuitcity.com, compusa.com, officedepot.com, staples.com to see if there are some promotion ongoing 3) next go to deal websites like fatwallet.com, slickdeals.net, dealsvista.com, dealsea.com, dealcatcher.com, to check if there are coupons or special discounts. Some descounts can also be found on ebay for a couple of dollars. Compusa, circuitcity, bestbuy, officedepot and staples update their weekly ad/advertised specials every sunday morning. Sometimes they do provide very nice offers which won't last long. 4) Mail-in-rebates are usually either privided by stores or manufaturers. For store mail-in-rebates, staples is the best. You never need to worry about the e-rebates from staples and compusa. dell, bestbuy, circuitcity and office depot rebates generally are OK. But you may have to wait for several months for officedepot rebates. Most of the manufacturer rebates provided in stores and big online dealers need further tracking and phone calls, especially for small manufacturers. As I know, rebates from ecost.com are pretty energy consuming. An Targus products often play tricks on rebates. Combination of price match with rebates or coupons are for advance useres. 5) Some cell phone offers can be found on http://intelenetwireless.com or amazon.com, walmart is not a bad store for TV, Furniture sometimes can be found at walmart, staples.com or officedepot.com. The later two provide online shopping and free shipping for orders more than $50. For small accessories of laptop, go ebay to get some. Purchase from the seller with good and many feedbacks is strongly recommended. Thy to use paypal for making payment so that you can get most of your money back in case there were some problems. paypal customer service: 402-935-2050. Amazon customer service: 1-800-201-7575 or 1-206-266-2992. 6) Try to avoid online purchase at unknow websites if possible, especially when they offer unbelievable prices. For small online dealers, if the contact address is Brooklyn, NY, keep away from them. There are many such small online dealers from this area. They often sell cameras, camcorders but the whole store may only have one or two products and ... I know there are many big online experts on this list. Please correct me if some of the information is misleading. Hope new students can have an easier starting in Baltimore. 前一段时间听师兄大谈省钱的办法，心里痒痒的。花了半个下午时间研究了一下各种折扣， 写了一篇笔记介绍一下常见折扣，贴出来和大家分享。 1． Mail in rebate（MIR） MIR是最常见的折扣方式，很多东西甚至会是free after rebate(FAR)。 -----例子----- 你看到Dell laptop $600 - $100 mail in rebate = $500 你付$600 + tax 买笔记本 你把下列物品寄给DEll a. Receipt - 收据 b. UPC - 包装上的条形码 c. Rebate form - Rebate的表格 N年过去了（一般要等一个月以上） 你收到一封Dell给你的信，里面有一张$100 Dell给你的支票 加起来，你一共付出$600 + tax - $100 = $500 + tax 好处是最终你还是省钱 坏处是周期长并且有不确定性 -----比较好的网站----- http://www.slickdeals.net/ http://www.dealsea.com/ - deal量少，但精 http://www.dealsVista.com/ - deal比较全，更新也很快 2． Coupon 通常是一串数字或者代码，例如showmethemoney。网上购物checkout时，输入这些代码，就 可以直接扣除一定数额。 -----例子----- 你看到Dell laptop $1000 - $250 off 1000 coupon: showmethemoney = $750 你把laptop加入购物篮，价格显示为$1000 你找到coupon的选项，输入showmethemoney，点Apply Coupon，价格显示为$750 你付$750 + tax 好处是立即产生折扣，不用像MIR那样要等很长时间。 坏处是不象MIR那样普遍，有时还要花钱从ebay上购买。很多coupon只能够用有限次。 -----比较好的网站----- http://www.fatwallet.com/ 网上最骨灰的折扣网站 3． 竞价拍卖 这种方式主要在www.ebay.com上面存在，通常是竞价二手物品，也有很多便宜的新东西。有 入门视频教程http://pages.ebay.com/education/buying.html 4． 机票折扣 http://www.sidestep.com/air/ http://www.kayak.com/ 都是机票的搜索引擎，一般能够找到很低的价格。