How to Comparison Shop for an MP3 Player Online

MP3 players are the latest craze in music listening. Able to fit about 10 songs into the same memory as a traditional CD, MP3 players make it economical to store and listen to your entire music collection electronically. Before going and purchasing an MP3 player though, it is always a good idea to comparison shop online. Even if you ultimately plan on purchasing your MP3 player at a traditional “brick and mortar” store, comparison shopping online allows you to research a wider variety of models than a trip to your local electronics store. By checking out many options first, you are likely to know what features and price ranges are commonly available and reduce the chances of “buyer’s remorse” following your purchase.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Internet Access

1. Decide what media your MP3 player will use. There are many styles of MP3 players. The main differentiating point though is what type of “media” the MP3 player uses. Some MP3 players use “data CDs” which you make on your computer that contain your songs as MP3 files. These are often the most economical MP3 players as they allow for almost 10 hours of music to fit on a single 800 Megabyte CD. These are however bulkier, heavier and have shorter battery life than some of the other types available.
   
   Many MP3 players have built-in hard drives. These units do not require any additional “media” such as CD-Rs or flash cards. The iPod is an example of this type of MP3 player. These units tend to hold a huge amount of music with hard drives ranging from 10 Gigabytes (150 hours) to 100 Gigabytes (1500 hours). Some of these MP3 players also combine a screen and include picture and movie viewers. These are the most “trendy” of the MP3 players but are also by far the most expensive.
   
   Somewhere in between these two are MP3 players based on flash memory. These players may have internal memory or the ability to read from flash memory cards like those used in digital cameras. Some players have both. These units are the lightest MP3 players available, some weighing no more than an ounce. These have the advantage of having no moving parts and extremely light weight, making them ideal for joggers or people on the go. These are limited by the amount of external or internal memory available with any models starting at 512 Megabytes and reading flash memory cards up to 8 Gigabytes. With external memory players, to add more songs you simply purchase more flash memory cards.
   
   Finally some MP3 players, primarily intended for home use, do not store songs locally at all but stream the songs from your PC wireless.
2. Decide what features your MP3 player MUST have. Do you want a video screen for displaying pictures and/or movies? If not, do you want a simple LCD display that only shows a track number, or a complex one that can show the artist and title information? If it is a flash-based player, what kind of flash media cards does it support (SD, MMC, XD, etc.)? Does the player have either headphone jacks or line out jacks depending on your application? If it is a hard drive-based model, how many hours of music will you need to store, realizing that once the hard drive fills up, you will need to delete music before others can be added on?
3. Once you have decided which features you want in your MP3 player, it is good to visit a few sites to start getting an idea what the price ranges are for models with these features. A good place to get an overview is eBay and Amazon. These sites have powerful search features, which let you enter feature names and return models that have those features.
4. Make a note of manufacturers and model numbers for players that have the features you want in your MP3 player and the price ranges that they sell for. Once you have these in hand you can hit the general search engines, such as Yahoo and Google. These will let you see a wide variety of vendors who carry these models. Most likely these stores may be more specialized to computer or audio equipment and other models may appear in your searches that better fit your needs. Make notes of these vendors and prices.
5. Take stock of your lists now and narrow your selections down to three or four models that look most promising.
6. Do search engine searches again on those model numbers. This will usually reveal to you the following information:
   -Which vendors sell these exact models.
   -User reviews from people who have already purchased this model. Are they happy with it?
   -Did the vendor meet the buyer’s expectations?
   
7. Next go to a few sites such as reseller ratings or epinions and make certain the vendors you are selecting generally get good reviews.
8. With this information in hand you should be able to make an informed decision on where to buy an MP3 player online and from which vendor.
9. If you are not in a hurry to buy your MP3 player, you can visit “bargain shopping sites” such as Slickdeals and Fatwallet. These sites are user-supported and list the best deals found on various products. Sometimes discounts or rebates are available simply for purchasing your items through these sites. You may have to wait for a good deal to come along, however it is often well worth it.

Tips & Warnings

• Be careful of online vendors with poor user ratings. You can check most vendors at www.resellerratings.com or www.epinions.com.
• If you can wait for a bargain, check www.slickdeals.net or www.fatwallet.com frequently for bargains.
• Watch out for deals that look “too good to be true”. Many times they are and getting your money back could be impossible if you happen to be dealing with a fraudulent seller.
• Be careful of shipping costs. Even if you get the MP3 player for what seems to be a great deal, you may end up paying more if shipping costs are high.