Mac Musings

Finding the Best Online Software Deals

Dan Knight - 2003.07.11 - Tip Jar

Value is a way of life at Low End Mac, so I'm always looking for a deal.

When I bought my eMac, I researched the various models available, compared the price of new and refurbished hardware, and finally found the deal I wanted at the Apple Store. I got exactly what I wanted, a 700 MHz eMac with a Combo drive, for exactly the price I wanted to pay, US$749 shipped.

When I bought a 512 MB upgrade for my eMac, I want to ramseeker to find the best price including shipping. Then I compared what I found to recent deals on dealmac. I ended up buying from Coast to Coast (18004memory.com).

So when it came time to order a 10 client upgrade for Retrospect, I did my homework. I first went to Google and typed "best price software" as my search words. From there I followed one link after another looking for the best prices. I checked the first two pages of listings, including some of the sponsored links.

Some sites didn't list Retrospect upgrades at all, and several that listed some didn't list the 10 user package. I ended up printing out the findings from four of the 10-12 sites I visited.

BizRate.com

First up on Google was BizRate, which had a good search engine - and then asked for my zip code so it could calculate the total cost including shipping and sales tax (where applicable) once I chose the upgrade package I wanted.

Of 13 stores listed, the price for the 10 user Retrospect upgrade to version 5.0 ranged from $77.03 to $109.00 before shipping. Four of 13 stores didn't allow BizRate to calculate shipping, so I ignored them. (Looking at the printout now, I see that these stores didn't have low-end prices to begin with.)

The best deal was $83.86 delivered from Page Computer.

MySimon and Shopper (from Cnet) didn't list the package I wanted.

DealTime

I next found prices on the DealTime website. DealTime listed five dealers with the 10 client upgrade. Base prices ranged from $77.43 to $99.95. Using my zip code, DealTime displayed shipped prices from all five dealers. These ranged from $84.94 to $105.55.

The best deal was $84.94 shipped from Etech Warehouse.

PriceGrabber didn't grab prices on the software I sought.

PriceScan.com

The next site with prices for the Retrospect client upgrade was PriceScan, which found prices from five dealers. Base prices ranged from $77.03 at TheNerds.net to $90.95 at Computers4Sure.com (where do they come up with these names?).

PriceScan included shipping costs for two of the five dealers, but it did not include them in the displayed price, making a full comparison between the dealers impossible.

NexTag

I followed a sponsored link to NexTag, which had prices from five dealers. The lowest price for the software was $77.98, and the lowest shipped price was $91.17. Only one of the five dealers listed didn't show shipping costs.

On the second Google page, I checked out Price.com, but no luck finding the specific package I wanted.

Amazon.com

The world's biggest bookstore, Amazon.com, has a sponsored link. I followed it, searched for "Retrospect upgrade," and found what I wanted, although it wasn't displayed on the first page of results (which only showed three - what's up with that?).

I didn't find the lowest product cost at Amazon, but because of their free super saver shipping, I did find the lowest delivered cost for a 10 user Retrospect upgrade to version 5.0. Instead of paying $91.17, $84.94, or even $83.86, I was able to order the software for just $82.99.

It may not ship for a week, and it may take 5-9 business days after that to reach me (how can anyone be that slow?), but I got the best deal.

I also checked dealmac, of course, but couldn't find any current deals on Retrospect upgrades there.

Conclusions

It's incredible how much prices varied on the software package, from $77.03 to $109. And it's also fascinating how much different the various price tracking sites were. BizRate found a lot more dealers than any of the other sites (13 vs. 4 or 5), and it found the best prices (with and without shipping) of any of the price trackers.

After all that research, it's odd to discover the best deal at Amazon.com, which none of the price trackers included in their lists. Then again, it's also nice to find the best deal from a company that we've had a relationship with for years and years.

We've found the best price, got the software on order, and look forward to it arriving next week. And now I'll be able to back up all the Macs on our network again.

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Dan Knight has been using Macs since 1986, sold Macs for several years, supported them for many more years, and has been publishing Low End Mac since April 1997. If you find Dan's articles helpful, please consider making a donation to his tip jar.

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