So, a couple of years ago I ran across Woot.Com. They’re the exact opposite of your usual DotCom online store - rather than many items available on a long-term basis, they sell one item a day, starting at midnight. The item remains on sale for one day until it sells out; at midnight they release another item. They buy in bulk (counting a little on impulse-buying) and sell cheap. “Great”, I thought, “finally a place to buy cheap arcade-style joysticks“.
But they don’t ship to Australia. So who does?
Zazz.
You can’t really call a Woot-alike “The Original”, but they were certainly the first in Australia, to my knowledge. They haven’t quite hit the big-time yet; and don’t offer the same level of bargain as Woot does, but they still offer the odd interesting item. Be warned, though - they’ve been having some problems testing items before they sell them (see ZTM’s post here); while I’ve no doubt they’d make it right down the track, it’s something to think about before you impulse buy.
Catch of the Day.
…are tied in with Daily Deals, which is more your run-of-the-mill remaindered stock outlet. Catch of the Day also bend the one-item-a-day mould slightly; they have “Small Fish” deals on the side of the page, presumably for things they only have a small stock of.
Snap it up.
…seem to be down for maintenance a lot. They’re apparently in the same game as Zazz and CotD.
UPDATE: Looks like these guys are down for good.
Bargain Blogs
Oz Bargain
Oz Bargain Blog
…are both run by the same guy. Both list various specials from around the web; Oz Bargain Blog is more collaborative. Why he doesn’t just roll both sites into one, I’ll never know. UPDATE: Scott, who runs both sites, has added a comment here, explaining the logic behind both sites. Better yet, there’s a post here explaining the differences between the two.
Jonk’s Bargains
…is another bargain blog. It’s structured more around categories than time, unlike the other two bargain blogs.
Other Useful Sites
StaticIce.com.au
…are all price comparison sites; hanging out until Google’s Froogle decides to enter Australia. StaticIce is IT-only; it’s the most useful one of the bunch as it seems to be updated more often, and gets you a better price on IT hardware than the others.
So there you have it; a collection of sites I hit (almost) everyday. For those of you using Firefox; remember that if you bookmark them all in one folder, you can open them all in one click , thanks to the “Open All in Tabs” option at the bottom of the folder.
3 Comments
Re: OzBargain
“Why he doesn’t just roll both sites into one, I’ll never know.”
Well, I run both OzBargain Blog and OzBargain.com.au. I initially started OzBargain Blog as a casual blog sharing some bargains I have found back in 2005. After a while people kept on sending me deals asking me to post on my blog. Instead of me doing all the writing for those sending me deals, I just said to myself, “well, why do’t I start another site that let people contribute bargains/deals collaboratively?”
Thus OzBargain.com.au.
The direction is to move all the bargains listings to OzBargain.com.au. In fact many other people contributed there, and we run weekly competitions to win shopping vouchers. As of the blog, I intended to shift its focus. It will be a bit more of an editorial. I’ll also post the bargain hunting scene around Australia. There will also be review of other Australian bargain sites, etc. These are what has been “planned”, except I don’t yet have enough time to put them into action
Hopefully that clears the confusion.
–Scott
Thanks, Scott. Congrats on the new baby, by the way - s/he’s going to be a savvy consumer with you as a parent!
Hi just saw this post for the first time.. Thanks for the link! I have just had some visitors show up in my referral stats from your site. Funny, given how old the post is.
Jonk’s Bargains is getting re-launched in the next week or two at Jonk.com.au
I’m tinkering with the design in front of everyone at jonksbargains.com still - there’s going to be three new sections, make money online, gadgets and how to build a website.
There’s also quite a few more cheap websites added.
It should be good
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