Saving Money How to Try Hard-to-Find Products Before You Buy Them

How to Try Hard-to-Find Products Before You Buy Them

 

When you go shopping for headphones, HDTVs, and other pricey gear, it helps to research, but there's nothing like trying before you buy. It may seem difficult, especially with electronics, but it's not impossible. Here are some tricks to get your hands, ears, and eyes on the stuff you want before you spend a ton of cash.

Reading reviews and doing research can only help you so much. If you find sites and reviewers with opinions you trust, you're in good shape, but as our own Whitson Gordon noted, if it's all you rely on, you'll miss out on better stuff. Research has diminishing returns, and there's a point where only you can really be the judge of whether a pair of headphones, a new TV, or a pair of speakers are right for you. Sadly, most stores don't just let us take stuff home and use it, then decide we don't want it anymore-to a degree. Here are some ways you can still do your homework, but get a more hands-on experience at the same time.

Join Enthusiast Clubs and Groups That Have Meet-Ups

One great way to get hands-on before you buy is to get familiar with enthusiast clubs and industry groups that have regular showcases, community meetups, and enthusiast events where you'll have the opportunity to try the things on your wishlist before you drop money on them. For example, if you're a big fan of headphones and audio gear but you're not keen on dropping hundreds on an unknown product, join enthusiast groups like Head-Fi, where community members hold regular meetups all over the globe to share and talk audio gear. You'll have the opportunity to see and hear the gear you're researching, and talk to knowledgeable people who can help you make an informed buying decision. Photography meetup groups are common too. You can find a group for just about anything at Meetup.com, or any of these other great places to meet new people.
Similarly, don't forget friends, and the beauty of Craigslist. It's useful to help you find bargains, but if your friends have something you're thinking about buying ask them if you can give those headphones or their HDTV a test drive with your own music or movies first. If you're shopping for a discount on Craigslist, trying before you buy is almost a must. Either way, it may require venturing out to the real world, but you can easily supplement your research with a few hands-on impressions.

Sniff Out Brand Stores and Showrooms

Industry groups, trade shows, and showcases that are open to the public are also great ways to get hands-on experience with the things you're considering before you buy. Home shows and showrooms are great places to get familiar with new appliances, hardware, indoor and outdoor design elements, and more without having to flat out buy anything. Trade shows give you the opportunity to talk to industry representatives (who often want to make a sale, so be careful) about their products as well.
Similarly, enthusiast stores and showrooms that specialize in one specific product or category can help you try before you buy. HDTV showrooms, speaker and audio stores, and brand stores are all great destinations. You'd be surprised which brands have stores too-sure you can always try computers at a Microsoft Store or Apple Store, but Sennheiser, Sony, and Bose all have audio stores that showcase their own gear, and most let you listen before you buy (if you buy.) Home theater showrooms-not big box retailers, mind you-will often let you play with TVs and tweak their settings to see what you're in for when you get the model back home. Of course, there's no way to replicate how a TV will look or how speakers sound in your own space, but you'll have a general idea.

Try Loan-to-Own Services When You Find Them

While they're not extremely common, loan to own services that aren't essentially high-interest, high-cost lending schemes do exist. They're generally geared towards specific people though-for example, The Cable Company offers one to audio and home theater fans in the United States, and while you can certainly try headphones, cables, and other audio products before you buy them, you do have to sink in a deposit and agree to their terms and conditions before you can get involved. It's not as simple as picking something off the shelf at the library-although it's about as good as you can get online.
Speaking of libraries, don't underestimate the resources your local library may have available. Some libraries have tool lending libraries, for example, where you can check out power tools you'd need for home repair work before you spend money on something expensive (or instead of spending money on something expensive.) Hackerspaces and makerspaces, as we've mentioned before, all give you places to get your DIY on, but they often allow members to sign out equipment for their own projects as long as they make sure to bring it back and bring it back in good condition (or replace it). Do a little digging in your community-whether it's your local area or your enthusiast community of choice. You may find an organization dedicated to letting people borrow before they buy-or buy used out of that borrowing pool.

Shop Smart and Support Businesses with Good Return Policies

Finally, when you're ready to open your wallet, remember to support those stores that were influential in helping you make your decision, and to give back to the communities that helped you out. The more you pay the favor of good information forward, the more healthy online communities and businesses there are others like you-and for you when it's time to do your homework again. The same applies if you want to take the "buy, try, then return" approach-make sure you patronize businesses with good return policies, support them with your final purchase, and don't abuse those policies just to try everything they have an eventually send it back. Be mindful, do your homework ahead of time, and then make an educated decision.

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While you can't always try everything before you buy it, there are ways to get hands on with the things you're interested in before you throw down hundreds-possibly thousands-of dollars on a new appliance, gadget, or piece of electronics. You may have to do even more homework (and maybe even drive a ways to test things out), but at the end of the day, you'll be happier with your purchase in the long run if you do the extra legwork. Bonus: You won't catch yourself trying to sell your mistaken purchase to buy what you really wanted later if you do that legwork now.