Being aware of what you're buying online

Buying stuff online is a pretty nice thing for when you can't find a certain item in store, or maybe it isn't carried in store, but can be ordered online. Costco is famous for that, but the important thing is to really look past the title of the item and look at the comments!

Here's an example: 

My girlfriend and I are looking into buying a freezer, we still haven't bought one, but we went to Home Depot and Lowe's and looked at their freezers. Home Depot had hardly any selection, and Lowe's had one that we liked. We're going for an energy savor one that's probably a 15.8 or 16.7 cubic feet big. 

The one at Lowe's was an awesome price, it was on sale, what we were looking for, we'd actually heard of the brand, and the shelves looked pretty decently spaced. 

Well, that night, we got home and were discussing the freezer, and my girlfriend decided to look it up online to see what other places were pricing it at and also the reviews (she always remembers to look at reviews, when I usually don't unless I'm really swaying on my decision to purchase the item). LUCKILY she did. 

We ended up finding out that the brand was horrible, that reviews on google and different store websites that carried this item said that it leaked, that the wiring sucked, that it broke down after a couple months, and that it was loud. There was not one good review on this freezer we had looked at. So, we immediately said no way we were going to buy this freezer.

Now, the only other places in our area to buy a freezer besides the places mentioned above are Sears and the local appliances store. Yesterday, I decided to check out Sears online selection, and found a couple that meet our parameters for what we want out of a freezer. 

One by one, I looked them up; looked at reviews on the actual website, and also on google with various different outfits that had the same model. Out of three or four from Sears, there's only one that I liked enough to share with my girlfriend, two had horrible reviews, and the last one had a mix of good and bad. The one that I shared had one or two bad reviews out of a the 50 or so that I read. 

We can order it online, but we want to actually see the product in person to make sure it is what we really want before we buy it. So sometime in the next week we'll actually go into the store and see it, and who knows, actually buy it!  :) 

This instance, along with a couple others, have happened since I've moved in with my girlfriend, like I said before, she knows to look at the reviews, and it really has taught me a valuable lesson and has saved me some time so I don't end up sending stuff back. 

I do like to buy stuff used online from various sellers, I really only use Amazon for this kind of stuff though, and so I've gotten used to the format, but the same thing can be applied to E-bay even. When buying something from a seller, it's awesome if they have 4 out of 5 stars of 97% positive for the last 12 months, BUT the main thing you want to look at is, how many reviews have they had.

Here are some examples, taken from The Women of Duck Commander used books selection (which is what I recently bought for my girlfriend):

The one at the top, looks awesome, 98% from 32,000 ratings, but the middle one is 96% out of over 400,000 ratings, and finally, the last one is 98% out of 2,000 ratings. Obviously I would go with the middle one. And it you actually went to the link I provided, it would show the prices and quality of the book itself, which you definitely need to read and look into.

Each person is different with their quality of books. I don't mind it to be used, but I want there to be a front cover and no pages ripped. I don't mind if it's discolored or bent or something, but I want it to be usable, ya know? 

There are so many different tricks to be aware of, and I definitely know that these are just a couple that I've picked up on as I've been doing online shopping. If you have any further tips, or agree with my findings, please share in the comments. I'm always looking to learn some more and share the wisdom.