Less taxing than Newegg?

April 3, 2007 12:00 PM

I love Newegg.com's service, but the NJ sales tax they charge is a downer. What alternative online computer parts retailers are out there with comparable levels of service but that don't charge sales tax for shipments to NJ?
posted by de void to computers & internet (11 comments total)

I think that anyone who can deliver both NewEgg like prices AND service is going to do a relatively large volume of business, enough that it isn't going to be easy for them to avoid collecting and paying NJ sales tax.
posted by Good Brain at 12:17 PM on April 3, 2007

I thought sales tax only applied to intra-state purchases? If not that my suggestion may or may not be helpful, but mwave.com is in California, their prices are competitive with newegg & they're generally very efficient (I don't know what "level of service" you expect from an online retailer...)
posted by dagnyscott at 12:28 PM on April 3, 2007

GlobalComputer (http://www.globalcomputer.com/) is a subsidiary/partner of NewEgg, but I've heard they charge sales tax to different states than NewEgg. Might be worth a try.

TigerDirect is somewhat skeezier than NewEgg, but they're based out of Florida and I don't think they charge sales tax on out-of-state orders. However, it's been a while since I've ordered anything from them. (They have a link to an FAQ page about Sales Tax, but there's nothing there -- perhaps it's been removed.)

I think the days in which you can reliably dodge sales taxes by ordering online are drawing to a close; more and more places are charging tax for states even if they don't maintain a presence there, and are based in sales-tax-free states themselves.
posted by Kadin2048 at 12:34 PM on April 3, 2007

ZipZoomFly is competitively priced and has similar stock. Only charges sales tax in CA. Not as good a website as NewEgg, so shop there.

Watch out though, you might get busted by your state for avoiding the use tax. (snicker)
posted by smackfu at 1:01 PM on April 3, 2007 [1 favorite]

[a few comments removed. metacommentary about tax scofflaws and highway funds can go to METATALK, not here, thanks.]
posted by jessamyn at 1:15 PM on April 3, 2007

As an aside, part of the reason NewEgg has good service for you is that shipping times are low, for obvious reasons. The CA places will be 2-4 days slower.
posted by smackfu at 1:29 PM on April 3, 2007

Kadin, what "skeeze" have you experienced with TigerDirect? I've generally found my stuff arrives on time, if not a day early (NY resident), and the prices are pretty good (and sans sales tax). The times I've had to make returns or exchanges have gone relatively smoothly. I am genuinely curious, not a shill.
posted by Xoder at 1:38 PM on April 3, 2007

TigerDirect is fine (they're actually a subsidiary of a very large PC builder), but I usually use ZipZoomFly if not NewEgg.

They (Systemax, who owns TigerDirect) bought the outfit we used to source our prebuilt computers from, so we end up dealing with them a lot and don't have any trouble. Also, they have warehouses in many places, but most of our stuff comes from Ohio. If the same is true for you, ground shipping should be pretty quick to NJ. Some of it has been coming from Illinois lately, though. Either will be faster than ground shipping from California.
posted by wierdo at 2:29 PM on April 3, 2007

"I thought sales tax only applied to intra-state purchases?"

...

"...more and more places are charging tax for states even if they don't maintain a presence there..."

FWIW, NewEgg maintains a rather large warehouse in NJ, thus requiring them to collect NJ state sales tax.

Personally, I'm willing to put up with that in exchange for the fast shipping times, and their good customer service record (including my own experience).
posted by CrayDrygu at 3:46 PM on April 3, 2007

@xoder:
Actually I hadn't looked at their site in a while, and it looks like it's been overhauled pretty dramatically, but my recollection was that TigerDirect was at one point a lot harder to navigate than NewEgg. I think that was the major turnoff for me, at the time when I was buying a lot of equipment (maybe 24-36 mos ago).

Though, the thing that really annoys the heck out of me (and this is admittedly minor and personal), is that TigerDirect lists the price after rebate first, and then lists the actual price below it, while NewEgg lists the actual price first, and then below says "$50 mail-in rebate available" or whatever. IMO, TD's "asterisked" pricing is borderline unethical: the price I want to see first is what they're going to charge to my credit card, not the price after I maybe get some money back in six weeks, if I jump through their hoops and send in my box tops / UPCs / whatever.

In terms of "service," there's nothing really horribly bad about them (I mean, not Broadway Camera sketchy), but in general if you do some searching and read some forums they seem to have a slightly less stellar reputation than NewEgg. I think most of the issues stem from them being more than one company internally, and a certain level of internal finger-pointing that sometimes occurs because of that when something gets FUBAR. I haven't experienced any personally, but I've read some anecdotal reports of it.

As long as you know what you're buying and aren't going to try and hit them up for technical support, I'd never really tell anyone to actively avoid them. Just make sure to dot all the i's and cross the t's if you get something with a rebate.
posted by Kadin2048 at 5:25 PM on April 3, 2007

ZipZoomFly was my first thought for where to turn if you're avoiding New Egg for whatever reason. (My current computer came from ZipZoomFly despite my being in California -- New Egg didn't have the motherboard I wanted.) I've also ordered things from TigerDirect a couple of times, and there was nothing wrong with the experience.

(The details are complicated, and there's talk of changing them, but, generally, a mail order business with a business presence in state X must charge X's sales tax on orders shipped to places in state X; state Y, where the mail order business doesn't have a presence, cannot compel the business to charge sales tax on orders shipped to state Y.)
posted by Zed_Lopez at 5:30 PM on April 3, 2007