Monthly Archives: January 2006

10% Off Amazon.com On Over 900,000 Books. — But Not That Much Cheaper

Posted on by

I’m not sure if anyone has seen the new Buy.com commercial yet. I’ve actually only seen it on TV once myself. Buy.com’s new advertisement campaign is claiming 10% off Amazon.com’s prices on over 900,000 books.

10% off Amazon Book Prices at Buy.com!
Doesn’t sound to bad, does it? Especially if you are after technical books, which cost an arm and a leg to begin with. Well, I found out today that the offer isn’t as great as it sounds.

I just ordered two books from Amazon.com, because the true price difference between the books was only $0.02. Yes, you read that correct. Two cents.

First off, here are the two books I ordered and the prices at each store, using A to represent Amazon.com and B for Buy.com:

Now, it doesn’t take a wiz to figure out the totals came to A: $52.78 B: $47.50. Looks good for Buy.com, right? Well, for some people that would be enough. A $5.28 price difference, which is exactly 10%.

But wait a minute now, we’re ordering online. That means shipping. Now, both stores offered free shipping. But I decided to compare this using the standard 3-5 day shipping.

Once again, Amazon.com was more expensive. Charging $4.98 to ship to the 37849 zip code where I live, while Buy.com only wanted $4.36. This brings our totals up to A: $57.76 and B: 52.86. Buy.com still with a cheaper price. So what’s the big deal? Tax. Buy.com charges it, and Amazon.com didn’t. That added another $4.88 to Buy.com’s price. And, as I said earlier, that bring the total to two cents less than Amazon.com. Not really saving enough for me to fool with Buy.com.

Now the only problem is, I ordered the wrong book. I wanted a book that was strictly MySQL 5. Not PHP5 + MySQL. So, I’ll be returning that book.

To be fair, I decided to run the test once more to see what I came up with. I used the following books:

  • Universal Command Guide: For Operating Systems (ISBN: 0764548336)
  • Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (ISBN: 0060987103)
  • From Emeril’s Kitchens: Favorite Recipes from Emeril’s Restaurants (ISBN: 006018535X)
  • CCNA Certification Library (CCNA Self-Study, exam #640-801) (ISBN: 1587200953)

Price total + standard shipping + tax (Buy.com only) came to A: $127.26 $126.17. A buck difference. Big enough deal for you to choose one over the other? Probably not for me. I guess it just really boils down to who you like shopping with more.

OCC Forums Updated

Posted on by

The OverclockersClub.com forums were offline for a few hours this weekend while LinuXProX and Bosco upgraded to the latest version of IPB.

As with any update, there were some changes… some good, some bad. What is your thoughts on the new forums?

Coming Soon — Part VII

Posted on by

I figured it was probably time for another update. While nothing has been finished, I have made a lot of progress on several areas.

The forums are coming along nicely. While I still have to create some more images for the buttons, I’d say the default forum skin is probably 80-85% done. I may try and work in a few additional “hacks” to give the forums some additional flexibility.

The news system has come a long way, yet still has a long way to go. Rather than using a pre-built one, I’ve created my own. This allows me to have a system that works exactly how I want it to, while at the same time giving me the chance to expand my PHP skills. I’ve integrated a BBCode parser so news submissions and comments can contain BBCode.

As I said, the news system still has a long way to go. Two of my main goals for the next several weeks include building the admin section, and optimizing the code a bit better. I’d like to add some AJAX functions to it, but that will only come at release if I have time.

For those of you that have actually seen the site, you can forget everything that I showed you before. :D Over the past two days, I’ve created a completely new design layout. I still have some additional testing on it in various web browsers, but if all goes well, it’ll allow me to do some very cool stuff in the future. :)

Yes, I am still planning on launching the site early this year. No, I don’t have a specific date available. It’ll be here when it’s ready. Remember, this is just a one man show (for now).

Google Video Store Now Open

Posted on by

You’ve probably heard by now that Google announced it would be opening an online “Video Store”. This bit of news came out of the CES expo in Las Vegas.

Well, the latest post on the Google Blog let’s us know that the Google Video Store is now open. You can buy episodes of Survivor, MacGyver, CSI, The Twilight Zone, Star Trek DS9, Voyager, and others. You’ll also be able to purchase NBA games 24-hours after the game.

Downloads aren’t limited to just desktop environments. Google will allow you to download videos to your Apple iPod (video of course) or Sony PSP.