Online Stores

[Katsurugi]

The other day, I finally got my credit card through the mail. But I have always been a bit skeptical of buying things over the internet, general security issues. To be more accurate, buying things from lesser known sites. I've had luck with Amazon, eBay, half.com, Barnes & Nobles, Newegg and certain other retail stores.

What I'm more interested in is gaming/electronics/music related online stores. Most of the time, they have some pretty good prices when compared to your old fashioned brick and mortar stores. But, several factors (including organization of the site) just make me feel uneasy about purchasing anything through them. I'm not too sure whether I'm being too conservative... as though some sites might look unprofessional their service and reliability can be quite good. From my friends, they said they have had good luck with Outpost, TigerDirect, Overstock and CDJapan as well.

Does anyone have any recommendations for quality online sites/stores?

[zircon]

You'd have to be more specific about what sites you're looking for on... I could give you a good five sites that are all good for buying music gear, but I doubt that's what you're interested in. ;)

[Katsurugi]

Well as for actual products, they're pretty generic.

Video games/systems
- older would be better (NES, SNES, Dreamcast)
Computer parts and accessories
mp3 players or audio devices

As for music, I'm looking into mainly soundtracks but also a site where they have old CD releases as well... something reminiscent of Colubmia House back in the day. For instance, CDJapan has a bunch of OSTs for game/anime titles that aren't readily available here. Outside of Amazon, I really don't know another place I could get older albums released in the US.

But if anyone doesn't have any actual sites, I wouldn't mind someone recounting his/her experience with online shopping either. I just need a good grasp on the reliability of online shopping. I know that there have been security measures put into place to prevent identity theft, but some sites are better at protecting user information than others for whatever reasons.

[chrono26]

http://gkworld.com/


for OSTs and merchandise and such

[zircon]

www.avadirect.com is legitimate (computers/computer parts)

www.costco.com if you're a member, very good

www.jrshop.com - music and computers

www.bhphotovideo.com (has audio stuff too)

[Bahamut]

I tend to buy largely from online stores - they're just as good as B&M, and you avoid sales tax a lot of times. Amazon is probably my favorite site for anything video game related, although I scour for cheap stuff on cheapassgamer.com . One site for preordering video games I've found great though is www.liongames.com (http://www.liongames.com) - they're not known well as a startup company, but you pay via Paypal so your credit card # is protected, and the guy who runs it seems like he's a pretty good guy.

Edit: There's CD Universe ( www.cduniverse.com ) - Amazon is the best source for music CDs hands down though.