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I've been pricing basic components for my new build and normally I just go straight to the egg.. This time I started looking around ith google and Newegg was almost consistently 20 USD higher than other sites (notably Amazon). I was looking at case, mouse, printer, and a couple other components, so it wasn't a one off thing. I like the Shell Shocker deals usually, but for normal purchases, I'm startingto look elsewhere... Anyone else notice this?

Yes, Newegg boosted their prices a few months back. The "weekend specials" are usually still priced decently at Newegg, but the routine prices are frequently higher than Amazon, Directron, BHPhotoVideo, etc.

Been that way for a couple of years, just like their return policies used to be, but no are longer, spectacularly better than their competition. It is a question that the egg is no longer new and hungry. They invested early in a big-time reputation and now that they are mature they are choosing to reap the rewards of that investment and collect profits rather than growth. As long as they don't blow-it badly that reputation can last a very long time in spite of reality. All they have to do is maintain relative parity with their competition and that they are doing. As you said, they are still decently priced and their return policies are reasonable too.

My workstation was built by using parts exclusive from Amazon and microcenter. I saved well over a hundred bucks by going that route . I have prime so i received everything next day for $8 and thats only because my order was shipped from two different warehouses, way less than newegg which was like $30. Motherboard, case, gpu, ram, and fans all came from Amazon. They have majority of the OEM like corsair evga sapphire etc.

Microcenter always has the best deals on cpus even after taxes. Sad part is you can only buy one.

Newegg has stopped being going my go to spot in like 2009 as I started to notice their prices began to creep up above everyone else and their warranty shrink to 30 days on everything.

Yes, I've noticed it! My 2008 build had all components (except the monitor) sourced from Newegg. My most recent build's components were mainly from Microcenter and NCIX US. Newegg was higher on all those components, even when excluding the NJ State Tax.

As JustAnEngineer mentioned, their weekend specials and regular deals make their prices a little more competitive.

What Newegg still has going for it is the best on-line catalog in the business. It's easier to search products on Newegg than anywhere else. They also take their own professional photographs of the products so that you can see exactly what you're ordering.

If I'm searching for a thing that I know about, I'll use Amazon or Froogle (aka "Google product search") or Pricegrabber, but if I'm trying to select one out of a group of things, Newegg is the easiest place to shop.

Microcenter undercuts newegg on CPUs to sell everything else; I usually wait for a sale to buy from either Microcenter or Newegg anymore though.

Microcenter destroys everyone on CPU prices. If you live near one, you shouldn't look anywhere else. If you're patient enough, they occasionally offer ridiculous motherboard/CPU package deals. Six months ago I got someone an i5 2500k for $179 and an Asus Z68 board for $59. I see them offering completely free AMD boards with a CPU purchase. And they'll often pricematch Newegg/Amazon on other stuff too.


As far as Newegg, yeah, their prices have slowly edged upward. I can tolerate a few bucks more, but the shipping charges can get out of hand if you don't specifically search for free or discounted shipping. Still, their site design and product information are just head and shoulders above the competition. Amazon is often inaccurate or doesn't list complete information. Nobody has a better guided or power search than Newegg (with regards to computer hardware). You'd also be hard pressed to find a place which gives as accurate and detailed information, with quality photos. Truth is, if I buy somewhere else, I've already researched and compared products using Newegg first.

But yeah....it does feel like they're coasting a little.

They are coasting a little. The deals are still pretty good, but many of the other sites have better prices on non-promo items. One advantage they do seem to still have is in selection. Hard to find some of the specialty or oddball stuff on every site, though newegg seems to have a wide selection. Though if you're ordering online...

I too have to watch prices more carefully that in the past and sites other than NewEgg get my business more often than they used to.

However, the biggest offense that NewEgg has committed IMO is the slider driven sorting for things like screen size on laptops or monitors. It is so frustrating, it resets your selection if you sort it differently, and it doesn't persist through back and forward browsing... Not to mention I can't see the number of items that fit a given selection until I've made it, they took the best interface out there and completely tanked it.

ShadowEyez wrote:

They are coasting a little. The deals are still pretty good, but many of the other sites have better prices on non-promo items. One advantage they do seem to still have is in selection. Hard to find some of the specialty or oddball stuff on every site, though newegg seems to have a wide selection. Though if you're ordering online...

^^ This pretty much sums it up. They're still my "go to" vendor for most things (except keyboards... heh) because of selection, and because their prices are generally competitive even if they're not the lowest any more. They're also a known quantity -- they're reliable, and I know that if I need an RMA they will take care of me.

As an aside, the way they calculate shipping charges baffles me. It is almost like they use a random number generator to come up with the shipping cost for each item on their site. I've even had cases where putting multiple items with free shipping in the cart results in a shipping charge -- to get the free shipping on everything, I had to split the order up! WTF?

Long since moved to Amazon since newegg started randomly spamming my work account, which I never ordered from. Prices started creeping up well over Amazon about 2-3 years ago as far as I can tell, the shipping logic is indeed madness, and I'm tired of the "deals/rebate" hassle madness they expect to get lower prices.

I really wish both sites would redesign however. They are a mishmash of completely unrelated crap I don't want to see.

just brew it! wrote:

As an aside, the way they calculate shipping charges baffles me. It is almost like they use a random number generator to come up with the shipping cost for each item on their site. I've even had cases where putting multiple items with free shipping in the cart results in a shipping charge -- to get the free shipping on everything, I had to split the order up! WTF?

Ugh, I've had that too. Extremely annoying. But, I find that the quality of newegg's information, component selection, and their stellar RMA keeps me coming back even if it costs a couple bucks more.
The nice thing about Amazon though is that you get free shipping on orders over $25. I saved $18 on shipping (=20% less total cost) at Amazon on a Silverstone Case compared to newegg just by taking advantage of this.

NCIX.com has pricematch.

Everything is always on sale that way, shopbot.ca, and pricebat.ca are your friend...in Canada anyway.

Newegg usually has way better technical specs and pictures posted compared to Amazon, and for that reason alone I'll go with Newegg on a large order. Too much hassle trying to figure out if Amazon is really going to ship me what I think they're going to ship me.

But for one- and two-item orders I'll frequently go with Amazon, because they will almost always have both the lowest at-checkout price and free super-saver shipping on the entire order, while Newegg will frequently have an extra $5-10 lurking somewhere and then try to incentivize around it with a "free" USB flash drive or a MIR card.

Worth noting, though, that if you don't have an Amazon Prime account as do not I, the free super-saver method randomly adds a couple days of processing and shipping time on some orders, whereas Newegg -- even when offering free shipping -- almost always gets the order processed and out the door on UPS, and to my doorstep, within four business days total.

Well, I for one am willing to pay a few percent premium for the service and selection...99% of the stuff I buy I don't really need anyway.
If I am going to have a hobby, it should be fun and not a PITA.

Which brings me to:

Thank God for Newegg !

Otherwise you might have to shop at BestBuy ....shudders uncontrollably...

Today I decided to buy a few things on Newegg with promo codes which are listed for one of their 4th of July sales. I unchecked the box for "send me the Newegg newsletter" and was greeted with the following message:
A code you entered is exclusive to newsletter subscribers. By checking this box you consent to receive additional deals and promotions through our free e-mail newsletter.

The promo codes are automatically removed if you don't agree to receive the newsletter. Honestly, this isn't that big of a deal, but it's the type of thing that is starting to erode my confidence in Newegg as a retailer. They've constantly got some stupid "deals" going on, which most of the time are nothing special. I'd rather just see the prices marked down and no BS.

I get an email about new promo code deals almost daily from newegg. It seems like the more things you buy, the more emails you get. Makes sense I guess. I'm certainly a sucker for it. I never buy anything from newegg unless it's at least on sale with a promo code or mail in rebate though, and even then I check Amazon before clicking "buy"

I haven't bought a hard drive there in a couple of years. Best Buy usually has either Seagate or Western Digital on sale on alternate weekends, so I buy then and beat NewEgg's prices.

Another good place for storage is BHPhotoVideo.com

Egglick wrote:

Today I decided to buy a few things on Newegg with promo codes which are listed for one of their 4th of July sales. I unchecked the box for "send me the Newegg newsletter" and was greeted with the following message:
A code you entered is exclusive to newsletter subscribers. By checking this box you consent to receive additional deals and promotions through our free e-mail newsletter.

The promo codes are automatically removed if you don't agree to receive the newsletter. Honestly, this isn't that big of a deal, but it's the type of thing that is starting to erode my confidence in Newegg as a retailer. They've constantly got some stupid "deals" going on, which most of the time are nothing special. I'd rather just see the prices marked down and no BS.

Don't see why it would "erode" your confidence in Newegg. If a promo code is meant for newsletter subscribers, then it makes perfect sense for it to not work for folks who don't subscribe.

Yeats wrote:

Don't see why it would "erode" your confidence in Newegg. If a promo code is meant for newsletter subscribers, then it makes perfect sense for it to not work for folks who don't subscribe.

Not to mention that this model is meant to encourage people to keep buying from Newegg, which is smart and sound business practice.

just brew it! wrote:

As an aside, the way they calculate shipping charges baffles me. It is almost like they use a random number generator to come up with the shipping cost for each item on their site. I've even had cases where putting multiple items with free shipping in the cart results in a shipping charge -- to get the free shipping on everything, I had to split the order up! WTF?

I've seen this when there's a tiny item (RAM, USB drives, and memory cards mostly) that has free "egg saver" shipping and everything else is UPS. In order to select the guaranteed 3-day UPS shipping on everything else, I've had to either pay shipping to get the small item bumped up or split up the order. Makes a very tiny amount of sense. But just tiny - c'mon, throw it in the box with the PSU already.

derFunkenstein wrote:

just brew it! wrote:

As an aside, the way they calculate shipping charges baffles me. It is almost like they use a random number generator to come up with the shipping cost for each item on their site. I've even had cases where putting multiple items with free shipping in the cart results in a shipping charge -- to get the free shipping on everything, I had to split the order up! WTF?

I've seen this when there's a tiny item (RAM, USB drives, and memory cards mostly) that has free "egg saver" shipping and everything else is UPS. In order to select the guaranteed 3-day UPS shipping on everything else, I've had to either pay shipping to get the small item bumped up or split up the order. Makes a very tiny amount of sense. But just tiny - c'mon, throw it in the box with the PSU already.

As another aside, do you guys get Newegg shipments in abnormally large boxes? I've seen decent shipping practices on larger orders, like 12 PSUs, but I've also seen single hard drives packed in boxes 2x bigger than the retail box.

Yeah... Newegg started turning premium a few years ago. There prices aren't THAT much over competition, but they're up there. Usually the specials bring their prices down around the market average or a little lower.

Honestly though, the reason I order to Newegg is when it comes down to the dreaded RMA. I could order through a half a dozen online vendors and get the absolute cheapest prices (I've done that once), but when it comes time for a return not all manufacturers are equal when it comes to that department. Especially if you're doing bulk returns. Newegg just has premium grade customer service. I suppose it's almost like paying an insurance fee on whatever you buy.

Their restocking fees are stupid though. I'm sure they reap plenty of money from that compared to amazon.

Someone else finally noticed? For those of you with a business account... you should also note that I've seen things on normal Newegg that price cheaper than business. This SERIOUSLY pisses me off since as a business we are supposed to be getting better prices. Their "Volume Discounts" are the biggest joke I have EVER seen too. "Ohhh ya!!! .30 off if we buy 10 or more of a $150 item"... Seriously guys? Try taking 5 or 10 bucks off at that point. The highest discount I've seen on a volume item was like a 1.5x and the item cost several hundred dollars. What a rip. You may also notice certain discount codes don't work on business that work on the consumer site. They seriously need to get their **** together. I half feel like starting a personal crusade to warn people of their quick switcheroo. I will say, so far their return department has been great, and they always ship me the right stuff. Only received a damaged CPU once.

I feel like they are throwing their weight around to be honest. But no... I've noticed Amazon being cheaper, with the exception of monitors. The only reason I don't buy purely Amazon is sometimes items wont ship to my location. I don't have time to sift through and build a cart only to have it tell me 3 items out of 15 won't ship.

superjawes wrote:

As another aside, do you guys get Newegg shipments in abnormally large boxes? I've seen decent shipping practices on larger orders, like 12 PSUs, but I've also seen single hard drives packed in boxes 2x bigger than the retail box.

I'll take it, honestly - it has the best chance at survival that way, I think. Especially since they seem to pack boxes with old brown paper lunch bags. Last time I ordered, it was a mobo and CPU, and it wasn't terribly oversized. Might have been a little deeper than it needed to be but not any wider/longer.

Yeats wrote:

Egglick wrote:

Today I decided to buy a few things on Newegg with promo codes which are listed for one of their 4th of July sales. I unchecked the box for "send me the Newegg newsletter" and was greeted with the following message:
A code you entered is exclusive to newsletter subscribers. By checking this box you consent to receive additional deals and promotions through our free e-mail newsletter.

The promo codes are automatically removed if you don't agree to receive the newsletter. Honestly, this isn't that big of a deal, but it's the type of thing that is starting to erode my confidence in Newegg as a retailer. They've constantly got some stupid "deals" going on, which most of the time are nothing special. I'd rather just see the prices marked down and no BS.

Don't see why it would "erode" your confidence in Newegg. If a promo code is meant for newsletter subscribers, then it makes perfect sense for it to not work for folks who don't subscribe.

Because it's a petty nonsense games. They don't say anything about being a newsletter subscriber until you go to place the order, and then it's either sign up or pay more.

Borderline forced subscriptions and making the customer jump through hoops cheapens their name. By jumping through hoops, I'm referring to being forced to pick through and punch in nonsense codes (and type my password for each one), then being forced to sign up for a newsletter, which means later taking the time to unsubscribe from said newsletter. Is it the end of the world? Of course not; but it lowers my opinion of them. What happened to just advertising that you're selling a product for a lower price?

They do tell you that the discount codes are for subscribers only. Besides, you can unsubscribe immediately if it bothers you.

Recently, Newegg has stepped up their offering of customer-specific discount codes. If you buy an item, they'll usually send you a set of codes a week later. These only work with your Newegg account and cannot be shared.

Egglick wrote:

Because it's a petty nonsense games. They don't say anything about being a newsletter subscriber until you go to place the order, and then it's either sign up or pay more.

Borderline forced subscriptions and making the customer jump through hoops cheapens their name. By jumping through hoops, I'm referring to being forced to pick through and punch in nonsense codes (and type my password for each one), then being forced to sign up for a newsletter, which means later taking the time to unsubscribe from said newsletter. Is it the end of the world? Of course not; but it lowers my opinion of them. What happened to just advertising that you're selling a product for a lower price?

I'm sorry if I come across as a jackass here...but are you seriously complaining about saving money? Newegg could just charge you whatever they want and be done with it. Newegg is offering you a special price for being a subscriber. It's not like they're advertising the lowest price and forcing you to go through the rebate process (which would be something to complain about). They're giving you the special price because you're subscribed to their mailing list.

If you're not okay with that, buy from someone else and be done with it.

I was looking at a business account with Newegg... So they don't really offer you any good deals on bulk buys? That seems kinda silly because that's one of the perks they were advertising.