Читать книгу Do As I Say, Not As I Did - Michael N Marcus - Страница 32

•Before you bid in an auction, either online or in the real world, do some research. Determine a realistic value for your object of desire and bid cautiously. People often get so caught up in the fever of competitive bidding that they lose sight of the value of the item and just concentrate on winning.

•Some people are good at budgeting. Others are hopeless. If you are hopeless, at least analyze your expenses—maybe from credit card receipts. You’ll probably be amazed at how much money you are wasting.

•Check out the limited-time special deals at such websites as Woot.com, Overstock.com, 1sale.com and Thatdailydeal.com. Some products are new and others are refurbished. There’s no reason to reject an item simply because it’s been previously returned or refurbished, but know what you’re getting and pay an appropriate price.

•Cars are always on sale, and so are tires and oil changes.

•Prices for items that are not on sale when you’re ready to buy are often negotiable.

•Negotiate for a time-specific deal. You can probably get the “September Special” price in August or November.

•Mattresses and foundations (the things that used to be called “box springs”) are sold at regular price only between 3:00 and 3:05 a.m. on one Thursday per month, and only in leap years. All of the rest of the time they are on sale.

•Store brands (“house brands,” “private labels”) can save you money and may be surprisingly good. Walmart’s imitation Oreos are excellent and ShopRite’s Manhattan clam chowder is one of the best I’ve ever tasted. I’ve never regretted any Staples-brand office products I’ve bought. Some are low-priced commodity supplies but others are innovative items developed by or for Staples.

•You can probably save money on cable or satellite TV, Internet and cellphone expenses. Call customer service and explain that you’ve been offered an amazing deal from a competitor and ask what the current service provider will do to keep you as a customer. This strategy can also work with newspaper and magazine subscriptions even if there is no competitor to jump to.

•You may be able to save money on personal and business insurance by switching to a new company. There are often special deals to entice new customers. A year later if the price jumps up—and it probably will—you can change again.

•If you’ve been with the same insurance agent for many years, ask him or her to shop around for you.

•Sellers on eBay frequently offer brand-new products for personal and business use at ridiculously low prices. Make eBay one of your regular shopping spots.

•I know someone who saves 1% to 15% and sometimes gets even bigger discounts by placing orders for a huge variety of products through Ebates.com. He starts shopping at Ebates and then goes to another website or drives to Home Depot or Neiman-Marcus and picks up his order.

•You’ll probably be exposed to lots of “free” offers and low-price deals online and on TV and radio. Be sure you know the shipping and the mysterious “handling” and “processing” charges before placing the order. You can be sure the charges for shipping, handling and processing cover those items, plus the cost of the “free” item—and provide a profit.

•If you need money fast you may be tempted to go to a pawn shop. Whether you want to get a loan or sell something, don’t expect to get more than 10-25% of what you originally paid for the item. Gold and silver jewelry is often melted down. Unless the ring, necklace or other item is unusually beautiful or from a famous designer or store (such as Tiffany) you will get only what the metal is worth as scrap. What you think is a diamond may be a synthetic stone with little value.

•You can probably get more money for an item if you sell it on eBay than if you take it to a pawn shop, but it will take longer to get paid.

•Approximately 100% of emails from third-world countries promising to make you rich are scams and should be ignored. (below) I wrote a book about this.

•When a group goes out to eat, announce at the meal’s beginning that the check will be split evenly. This should prevent Steve from ordering nine beers and Sally from ordering an extra meal to go home as part of the group’s check. If people are abusive, exclude them from future meals. If one or some folks plan to do a lot of drinking, have them ask the server for a separate beverage check.