ByKELLI B. GRANT
Tracking down the best prices for everything you buy can save some serious cash when economic times are tough.
That s where price comparison search engines come in. Just type in the item you're looking for and a list of offerings from online retailers pops up, with the best deals clearly highlighted. "Even if you're not buying online, it's an important way to raise price consciousness," says Edgar Dworsky, founder of ConsumerWorld.org, a consumer advocate. "You'll have some perspective on whether the prices you see [in stores] are good ones."
Finding that right price-comparison search engine, on the other hand, is a tougher order. Each site uses its own formula to determine how, when and from where it gathers prices. Some focus on specific categories, like electronics or books, while others only feature listings from partner retailers. The bottom line: Some comparison shopping sites are better at digging up great deals than others.
We put nine major price comparison search engines to the test, hunting down the best prices on eight products: For children's toys, we searched for Hasbro (HAS)
Returning low prices was important, but accurate results were just as vital -- receiving a bunch of listings for purple iPod nano cases, for example, when we wanted the actual device. We also took note of sparse listings where just one or two stores were listed for popular products (like the Legos) or widely-distributed items (the books).
PriceGrabber.com was the clear winner, with results repeatedly among the cheapest and most accurate. Its detailed listings -- factoring in everything from sales tax and shipping to an item's condition and store availability -- made for easy, at-a-glance assessment. Yahoo (YHOO)Shopping
Wondering which other sites are worth bookmarking and which are not? Here's how the competitors performed, from best to worst:
| Site | Features We Like | Performance |
|---|---|---|
| PriceGrabber.com | Earn $5 rebates by adding reviews for select products. Although it initially puts featured merchants up top, "Your Best Price" is clearly labeled. | Excellent. Its prices were among the best in every search, coming in cheapest in three categories and a close second in two others. |
| Yahoo! Shopping | Look for the buyer protection icon below partner merchant listings -- it means your purchase is protected against fraud. | Great. Pulling from the widest range of retailers, it found the best prices in three categories and was competitive on the rest. |
| Shopping.compartner site DealTime.com | Broadens shoppers' options by including eBay listings. Extensive reviews help users determine a product's quality. | Good. It found the best prices in three categories. One hiccup: It offered us a Mintcraft Dancing Sprinkler when we searched for U-Dance. |
| NexTag.com | Price history tracks the item's price over time, as well as the number of retailers carrying it. | Good. This competitive engine's results were near the front of the pack in four of the eight searches. |
| Shopzilla.compartner site BizRate.com | Tweak results using the price range feature to weed out both too-expensive and too-cheap (say, used or refurbished) versions. | OK. It turned up the best prices in two categories. But its results weren't always easy to negotiate almost half of its "Nights in Rodanthe" results were older, out-of-stock versions. |
| StreetPrices.com | Didn't find the right price? Use links to find relevant listings on Craigslist and eBay. Or set up price alerts for notification of price drops. | OK. Its prices were among the best, but it failed to find the Legos, jeans or blender. (Spokeswoman Autumn Looijen says StreetPrices recently branched out from its focus on electronics and is working out the bugs.) |
| Pronto.com | Set price minimums and maximums to focus your search. Find the best deal by sorting among lowest base and total prices, as well as the highest store ratings by reviewers. | Hit or miss. It turned up some good prices, but found zilch on the videogame and the jeans. |
| Google Products | Refine your searches to pull up items by certain criteria, say a product within a set price range, from a certain store or bearing a good seller rating. | Hit or miss. It picked up a wider variety of stores than other engines, but sparsely detailed listings -- no sales tax or shipping noted -- made it impossible to gauge total price. (Google says the tool's aim is simply to find products and point consumers to the stores that sell them.) |
| PriceRunner.com | Date verifications keep you apprised of the latest store prices and availability. | Skip it. It only found the iPod and the blender. "Pricerunner.com is competitive search engine," insists spokesman John Ardis. "It's in the top 25, and it didn't get there by mistake." He declined to comment specifically on the problems we encountered. |
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