Read the Fine Print

Here's a quick lesson about the importance of reading the fine print. Not everything that you see on Group buys are the same as the original product. MyDeal today had the Galaxy Nexus 7 selling at $199. The cheapest places to buy this was offering the same product for $249 according to StaticIce. So what was the catch? In the fine print, and only in the fine print, they said this:

• Tablet is a professional Asus factory refurb (the maintenance/repair of this item has been professionally conducted by Asus Australia and includes a 1 year Asus Australia warranty)

I have no problem with the fact that they are selling a factory refurb and I think it is good that it comes with a one year warranty. However, what I am concerned about is that the images that were shown never alluded to the fact that it was a factory refurb. Just exercise due diligence when you are buying from a group buy website and, really, any other website as well.

Treat Group Buy Purchases Like Any Other

As the popularity of group buy vouchers declines, I have noticed there have been more products on sale rather than restaurant vouchers and services. One tendency is to assume that these products are at very competitive prices because they are on a group buy website.

Here is an example that I just saw today. It is for a Solar LED Motion-Detecting Outdoor Light for $39.

The thing is, it looks very much like the one on DX.com called the Outdoor Solar Powered PIR Sensor 1W 100LM 6000K 16-LED Lamp - Silver + Black which is available for $US23.70 with free delivery to anywhere in the world. 

So just remember that not everything on a group buy website is worth buying straight away just because there is a timer next to it counting down the seconds left for this once-in-a-lifetime purchase.