5 Ways to Save Money By Using Tech

I have to strongly disagree with the "Go Second Hand". While I am a strong proponent of buying earlier generations of well-tested products, I will only buy them new or refurbished from a store - not 'second hand' which is buying them from someone who has already had use of the item.

In my opinion, buying most types of 'second hand' electronics are a recipe for disaster. It's often impossible to tell how old they are, how what state of repair they are in (especially if buying at auction or online), and whether or not the manufacturers warranty has expired / been breached.

"Use Digital Distribution"

and most of time, you don't have to pay for them...

if you know what I mean...

I agree w/ kanazak I would more likely to go for previous gen, than used. in the world of ipods, the previous version gets a price drop before the new one is launched to help clear out stock.

Yeah I typically go for pre-gen stuff. In fact the only thing that I'm going to get that's this-gen hardware is the Samsung Wave mobile. That aside, I've been contemplating on getting a HD 5750 but I'm yet to spend 150+ euros on a graphics card when I forgot the last time I've played.

Far as other suggestions? I could pitch in a few:

Online call services:

Programs like Skype allow you to call other landlines and other way round at a cheaper cost (most probably) so you make full use of your internet and what you'd spend on phone bills you can either get a better internet package or just pocket more cash than you'd be spending.

No Cable TV:

Seriously with things like Youtube, metacafe and more you can watch all your TV series online without any problems. This will save you from:

1) Buying/paying for the cable box
2) Having to deal with more support (So just internet support rather than internet/cable)
3) Most importantly, you don't need to by another TV set when your monitor/laptop allows you to view everything

Games: Well sure you can probably mark this one out but on the net there's an entire slew of F2P (free to play) full games, mostly MMORPG's that have some item store to get anything decent but still I remember playing Silk Road Online for a while and some for some of IJJI's games. All of which were free and weren't all that bad honestly.

I really think there are some more things but I can't seem to remember them at the moment, I'll post again if they come to mind. Also I have to say I'm somewhat surprised you didn't add the first two I said but I guess there's quite a few things you can do with the internet so something was bound to slip anyone's mind who wrote this kind of article.

2nd hand sports cars aren't the best... I always buy my cars brand new, the warranty is worth a lot especially for turbo sports cars. An EVO-X MR engine is worth around 6k, a turbo is 5k, a transmission is 10k, you get the point.

same as icepick

I use the Internet to provide me with information so that I can avoid being ripped off or buying stupid stuff I don't need. For example did you know tap water is perfectly safe to drink in most major US cities? In many cases it's checked more stringently than bottled water!

As for second hand electronics, I wouldn't recommend it.

How do I save money? I have taught myself to repeatedly say: "I don't need a 5850, I don't need a 5850..." It's brought me to my senses at the check-out on more than one occasion.

Steam FTW!

Lies. Steam doesn't save me money. 75% or so of those sales are too good to pass up, I just bought Fallout 3 GOTY and Oblivion GOTY and rebought Morrowind GOTY (to have it forever on Steam, no scratched disks). If they had never been on sale I'da never have bought them.

... Yeah, okay, so I suck, but it's true.

It helps me become a savvy shopper from looking at reviews and previews of what I'm about to purchase. All this in the comfort of my own desk and not be pestered by sleazy salesperson.

+! Kelavarus. Just bought FEAR GOLD for $10, Batman AA for $20 and I will have Fallout 3 GOTY today ($25). I don't even know how much these games would be new (~$150 - $175), and I got them all for $55. Steam is so full of rule I can't describe it.

How to save money using tech: DONT BUY IT IF YOU CANT AFFORD IT

+9999999

I disagree partially, it depends on what you buy and who from. I bought a samsung lcd 46" 1080p 120hz from a friend for $800. He had got it before circtuit city went out and still has the extended warranty with has 2 years left. At the time anything similar would have cost $1500. Big items are pretty safe as long as you get some background information from the owner and look at the reason they are getting rid of it. If they are the type to have to have the best and greatest, most likely they are just upgrading and the older equipment is fine. laptops, cellphones, graphics cards, and such that have been on the market for over 6 months are definate no-no's;tv's, floor speakers, receivers, blu-ray players are generally pretty safe. Just use common sense and you stand to save so serious bucks.

I have a 09 Charger R/T, while it is not a "sports car" it does have 350hp Hemi. I bought it used with 16,000km on it; 1 yr old.... came with the balance of factory warranty. Oh… also… I bought the car for $18,000 less than new.

Used cars DO come with warranty!

LOL, i did the same thing =D

Oh really? I brought second hand L4D2 from CEX for £15 cheaper than retail and it works with Steam, basically it is EXACT same you would get with new L42 game.

Newegg.com sales

Use online to pay shipping through USPS, as opposed to waiting in line locally. It saves you 5%. Simply have a computer with internet, a printer, a digital scale (to find item weight), basic packing tools and materials and payment method (credit card or so).

How many almost new 1years old 16K km are on the market? I was thinking about 4 years old cars which is the ''normal'' used car age.

You mean stealing them. By this same idea, I guess you justify bank robbing...they've got lots of money, if you know what I mean...

I always end up buying them too. At least they give us FREE content patches regularly. Exemple: CSS, TF2, L4D2 etc. I dont feel like Im getting ripped off when I give my money to steam.

There are tons of 1 year old used cars out there. Many are leases (which you have to take into consideration) or foreclosures. Of course you can alway get last years demo car from the dealership.

I obtain a lot of my PC games now by going to the website Good Old Games (gog[dot]com).I am fed up with DRM on newer releases.The games at good old games have no DRM and their policy is that you can install them on as many PC's of your own as you like.Some of their games are fairly new too.Another way of obtaining newer games is just to install demos.I don't mind that.I might make a rare exception if I just have to have the game and it requires activation but for the most part I have given up on newer games.

One word - OOMA!

With netflix and myp2pforums.eu I haven't needed SUBSCRIPTION TV in two years. I have yet to miss a baseball game or an NFL game either....

ebay and newegg

I send Ecards. No postage necessary and no card fees. Plus, most cards are poorly written now and you can customize things. Not to mention gas money driving too and from the store. Online banking. Again, gas money. Skype, as long as both parties have the necessary equipment, no long distance charges, although I don't pay long distance with my FiOS phone, but that doesn't work internationally. Skype will work world-wide for free. I never buy blank CDs/DVDs to write information on, considering I can save data to my phone or E-mail. Plus, USB Flash drives (not JUMP) are way more efficient, particularly on public computers where users are prohibited from installing any software (drivers, viruses, applications, etc.). They don't break like a disc can, but the tips can bend if you aren't careful, plus you can rewrite at your own dispose, unlike CDs/DVDs. Not too sure about that second hand thing though.

When my parents bought me computers, they always were brand new. Since I've been able to buy myself, I just bought used ones (or refurbished) and the reliability didn't fall significantly, besides the regret of buying a ECS laptop, which probably was bad since new, but this was the brand, not the fact it was used. Like that, I paid less than a half of a new laptop. I think that also helped the fact that I've switched from Windows 98/XP in the computers bought by my parents to Ubuntu Linux since then. The problems I've had in new pcs were mostly lost of all data due to a virus or any hacking I did and in my ECS laptop were the fragile plastic that broke easily and the underpowered power brick that failed once, but as I told you I'll never buy a single screw from ECS anymore. My current Fujitsu-Siemens tablet has just a key that fail sometimes until now (and actually I bought like that).

I'm really surprised no one mentioned avoid sales tax. I won't buy from an E-tailer if sales tax is part of the deal. Sorry Tiger. Sometimes your deals are sweet, but Newegg doesn't have tax in NC.