Way back some time ago, I posted an article to the site sharing some of the most popular apps for Firefox OS for musicians as well as some articles on how to make smart purchasing decisions and how to eliminate gear acquisition syndrome with a little understanding of consumer psychology.
Technology, apps and consumer psychology were some of the topics that I felt like were getting zero attention and discussion in the world of musicianship, guitar and bass guitar and it was time for a bit of a change.
Hence, I made those posts – and they were received quite well throughout the social media world.
The positive feedback prompted me to make this post: a roundup post on some of the best Add Ons and Extensions for Mozilla’s Firefox and Google’s Chrome respectively for shopping and saving money.
Though these browser extensions are typically used for saving money on clothes, shoes or food, they can be used just as well for saving money on bass guitar gear.
Whether it’s cables, stands, gig bags or pedals, there’s always money to be saved when it comes to buying gear – and here are some of the tools that even the casual Internet buyer shouldn’t miss out on.
So here are 10 browser extensions – five for Firefox and five for Chrome – aimed at getting you to save money on online gear purchases:
Firefox Savings Add-Ons:
Pricelink
Pricelink is an all in one shopping tool for Firefox.
Remarkable comprehensive to all aspects of the shopping experience including shipping and handling costs, price comparisons and available coupons or discounts that you may or may not have even known about.
Have you found the lowest price on a product?
What are the shipping costs?
Are there coupons for the site you’re visiting?
Pricelink will tell you.
The Add On checks over 4,000 U.S. merchants (!!!) for lower prices, displays shipping costs with those price comparisons and alerts you to coupons or free shipping codes.
Can’t beat that, right? Well…
Windowshopper
Here comes the Windowshopper Add On!
Windowshopper’s big claim to fame is the sheer vastness of how many prices you can compare at one time from so many places.
AND you can see how the item compares on in any site in the US, UK, Germany, France, Canada or Australia.
From the Firefox website:
WindowShopper will present products from more than 50,000 stores (!!!!!!) including Amazon, eBay, Best Buy, Newegg, Macys, Nordstorm, Overstock, Staples, Target, and Wal-mart. Our index covers over 200 million products in practically every product category. If we find a deal, we’ll show it. If we can’t, we’ll show you similar products you may also be interested in.
Comprehensive? I think so.
eBay Sidebar
If you play bass or any instrument for that matter, eBay is the place to go for, well, just about anything and everything.
Let’s say you’re looking up a new BOSS distortion pedal but you don’t want to have to skip around eBay, refine your search, try again, refine your search, try again and continue to scroll through pages and pages of listings.
Even more, you can be notified in-browser about when listings are about to end and if you’ve been outbid so you can jump right on and re-claim your BOSS pedal before someone else does.
What’s an easier fix to see all the lowest prices and all the most recent listings in a single keystroke.
Enter eBay Sidebar for Firefox (as well as for Chrome).
Boo.ly
What can Boo.ly do for you? Well…
- Boo.ly uses HTTPS for greater security – meaning that your data will be encrypted from other people and less likely to be used by 3rd parties
- Boo.ly product price comparison, much like the other Add Ons we’ve looked at up to know
- Boo.ly presents up to date coupon codes and voucher codes so you never a stale code or piece of information
- In the same search tab, Boo.ly shows additional product images and prices on search engines in addition to product specs, related items
With all these features, it makes sense that the Add On was ranked #1 in Shopping in Firefox’s Add On library
But wait – this little Add On has more to offer:
Search as normal and Booly will add price comparison, money saving deals, and up to date coupon codes to your search results, product pages and online stores.
- Get Lower Price Notifications
The booly price bar will notify you when a cheaper price is available elsewhere. You can also access technical specifications, related items and accessories. Automatically scans 30,220,700 prices from 3946 merchants in the US and UK. possibly with related deals and coupons for the merchant- Never Miss Out On Money Saving Coupons, Deals & Offers
Booly will automatically notify you if there are any money-saving coupons, free shipping codes and special offers available for the site that you are on, otherwise it will stay hidden.- Enhances Your Favorite Search Engine
Booly will add inline product images and prices next to individual product results. Click to access price comparisons for that item, possibly with related deals and coupons for the merchant. You can get the best price directly from your search results.- Enhanced Security And Control
Booly Uses HTTPS to keep you safe and secure online, want to hide the Boo.ly bar from a particular merchant? No problem, just click the cross located at the top right.
Invisible Hand
Like the eBay Sidebar we already covered, this tool is also available for Chrome for instant download and application.
Invisible Hand is best thought of as a marriage between Boo.ly and Pricelink: it has the coupon finding capabilities of Boo.ly with the search-for-the-best-price-across-many-different-sites capabilities.
The Add On is particularly good for Amazon searches.
Chrome Savings Extensions
eBay Extension
Are you a Chrome user and still want eBay at your fingertips without having to actually go to eBay.com?
Here’s the eBay Extension for Chrome. Identical to the Firefox Add-On, just for Chrome.
The Camelizer
The Camelizer is one of the more interesting Extensions we’re going to look at on this list.
Rather than overtly providing you with how you can save money or what the best deal around the Internet is on this particular item, The Camelizer actually shows you the pricing history of a given retail product.
You can even make an account on The Camelizer’s website and keep log of different product histories for later reference.
Best Price
If the other shopping Add Ons and Extensions haven’t done it for you yet, consider checking out the Best Price Extension for Chrome.
Unlike the other tools mentioned up until now, The Best Price uses a color-coded system for quickly and easily discerning whether or not you’re looking in the right places for the best prices.
When you’re on a retail item’s page, say, on Amazon, Guitar Center or Newegg, and a drop down is made available to you to see the prices of that product around the Internet, you’ll see three different colors, each with different meaning:
- Green means that the same product you’re looking at is cheaper somewhere else online
- Blue means that the price is similar to other retailers and
- Orange means that the price is higher on other retailer’s sites
It’s a pretty handy feature for quickly determining whether or not to stay on this page or to jump to another one for the best deal.
Dealplus Coupons
Dealplus Coupons is one of the most comprehensive coupon finding Extensions offered through the Chrome Extension store.
When you’ve landed on a retail product page, Dealplus will automatically present you with a listing of coupons for that item.
Granted, you won’t be able to apply the coupon electronically and the coupon is only useful in person, the thing to remember is that you’re being presented with instant savings that can be printed out with a few keystrokes and taken to the place where the item is sold for savings.
Internet coupons are a significantly overlooked aspect when it comes to instant savings on just about anything you can think of.
Moreover, there are dozens of sites that offer instantly downloadable coupons on thousands of products online or in person. Here are a few:
- Coupons.com
- My Coupons
- Short Cut Saver
- Coupon Cabin
PriceBlink
PriceBlink lets you know when there is a cheaper version of the product you’re looking to buy somewhere else on the Internet.
It’s a very simple, but very quick, direct and effective tool for instantly discerning whether or not this is the lowest possible price for a given item.
And application and use is very straightforward and very automatic.
Just visit a product page somewhere online a *boom!* a little dropdown will appear telling you that Item X is available at Website Z for Y dollars instead.
Can’t get more straightforward than that, right?
Conclusion:
Regardless of which browser you use, there’s no reason not to look into having a tool that can help save you money – especially if you’re a frequent online buyer (like me).
Each of the apps mentioned here offer a similar service, but do it in a different way.
Some are more inclusive of accessories and others only list competitor’s prices and leave you with that.
Some people like to have a lot of selection and choice at their fingertips, others just want the bare basics, but whatever your choice is it’s worth looking into what is the best tool to make it happen.
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