yingtzee asked on OzBargain:

Where do you find all these bargains??

I assume that it is about the cheap clearance item, a Canon IXUS 750 specifically, from Harris Technology. I have actually been buying from HT for yonks, before it became part of the Coles Group. However it has never had an image of cheap no-frills shop, and in general I found them quite a bit more expensive than your average online computer shops in this highly competitive market.

Except the clearance items. Like all big retailers who can be really keen in getting rid of their older stocks, you can expect big savings from those slightly out-dated items. Think how many regular promotions and sales Kmart, Target and Big W are having these days.

However in technology-term, an “out-dated” item might only be 4-6 months old! So if you don’t really need the absolutely latest bleeding edge stuff, you can get good quality gadget with great service and warranty from big retailers like Harris Technology.

Okay. Now, where do I find these cheap bargains on HT? A few ways.

Clearance Category

Harris Technology makes it easy for you. Here you go, the Clearance category of their online shop. There are lots of items listed there that are marked down from their RRP (probably because they are older stocks), ranging from computers, printers, camera, software, etc.

However, be sure to also check the price against price comparison sites. A clearance item might not always be the best bargain, so it is a good idea to use a good price comparison sites to find out whether it is indeed a good deal. I recommend StaticICE for computer parts and gadgets.

For example, Canon IXUS 55 (5MP, 3xZoom) for $329 is cheap, but Canon IXUS 65 (6MP, 3″ LCD) for $499 is stupidly expensive, despite the “clearance” label there.

Sometimes HT’s clearance items can be just a few dollars dealer, but then you have to calculate in the cost of delivery and the level of service.

Clearance RSS Feeds

Yes! They have got it right, by including products in their RSS feeds. Probably not as a result of my preaching, but we shall hopefully see more and more online stores incorporating RSS links to feed the hungry bargain hunters.

They have two clearance related feeds at the moment:

• Products on special
• Clearance products

Just add them into your RSS reader, and you will be notified whenever something is on sale at HT.

Subscribe to Newsletter

The deal I saw on the Canon IXUS 750 actually came from HT’s email newsletter, and it wasn’t even listed under the clearance category. You must have an account there in order to access their subscription facility, where you can subscribe to their deals and specials.

I know most people don’t like those opt-in spams newsletters, and the reason I have subscribed to so many of them is so that I can then filter out the junks and blog about the rest here. It is a good idea to get a dedicated email account for this kind of tasks, so your personal or work email address might be spared from the “newsletter flood”.

Subscribe to OzBargain Blog

Alright. It has nothing to do with Harris Technology, but I would like to announce a new’ish feature here, where you can subscribe to this blog via email. Don’t use RSS? Or have no idea what it is? You can now have new articles here posted to you at most once a day.

Use the email subscription box at the right hand side of this page, and all I need to know is your email address. Thanks to FeedBurner for providing this service.