Being as value-conscious as I am, every dollar I spend on gear must translate into direct usability. I like quality gear, but I won’t pay more for it than I think it is worth (to me). I rarely impulse buy, and in-store sales rarely attract my attention because of the markup that exists on the sale items already. Maturing this mentality for nearly a decade has helped me develop an obsession for research, patience for pricing, and frugality that most people don’t care to achieve. In it’s most visible form, this careful planning and purchasing is what started RigCast.
Getting good deals is more than luck, it’s careful planning and intelligence about trends and options. However, there are a few resources that I use regularly which help me acquire a lot of good valuable gear (sometimes high-end), on the cheap. These do not require as much luck or intelligence as much as they require patience and attention. Here are some high-value websites that I frequent, purchase from often, and highly recommend.
- The Backcountry ODAT Sites – The classic and popular one-deal-at-a-time website for outdoor gear. They get their inventory from Backcountry and Department Of Goods (Backcountry’s outlet store). Basically one item goes up, at 50-90% off MSRP, and it sells until they sell out of it, or it times out. Here’s the family today:
- Steep and Cheap “SAC” – For camping and outdoor equipment.
- Whiskey Militia – For snowboard, ski, surf, and skate gear.
- Bonktown – For road biking gear.
- Chainlove – For mountain biking gear.
- DVOR – An invite-only site that discounts hunting, firearm, and optics gear. Here’s an invite for all the RigCast readers.
- The Climb – Another invite site like DVOR, that sells camping, exercise, winter sports, and outdoor gear. Here’s an invite for RigCasters.
- GearHog – Yet another invite-only site that focuses on firearm gear, but also includes deals for knives, optics, and gift cards. Very slow deals here. Here’s a RigCast invite.
- Huckberry – A freely accessed deal site that offers up deals that are fairly unique when compared to other deal sites. You can expect to see creative and interesting apparel and goods, novelty specialty items like high-quality shaving gear, and even discounts to pain races like the GoRuck Challenge.
- CleanSnipe Tracker – A consolidation website, that doesn’t actually sell things. It’s a great place in the cloud to view most of the deals currently available around the web, including deal-of-the-day offerings. It does not include invite-only deals.
- Retail Me Not – Can’t find the item that you want (or the patience) at any of the aforementioned sites, but it is readily available elsewhere online? Use Retail Me Not to find coupons and discount codes to enter upon checkout at other websites. Don’t just search for the item you want, search for the stores that it is available at.
- Google Shopping – The most popular shopping tool is, of course, Google Shopping. Type your item in, and compare who is selling it (and for how much) all over the web. Use with caution, as I’ve previously seen the best deals for an item omitted from Google Shopping results.
- “Dredging” – Dredging is what I like to call the process of unintentionally running into a non-advertised discount code, strictly from digging into a topic for the sake of information and research. For example, there’s a lot of forums out there that specialize in one thing. These forums often provide light discounts to their members from companies that sell items related to the forum specialization. For example, Ford Raptor Forum members receive a small discount with Addictive Desert Designs. There’s a lot of places that offer discount codes like this (including YouTube), but you won’t often find them unless you have an interest in the topic, you are digging around, and sometimes you must be participating. I’ve come to find hundreds of discount codes unintentionally by dredging, but I rarely use them as they typically range from 5-15% off. Occasionally dredging will lead to networking connections who can offer deeper discounts. However, you shouldn’t dredge just for coupons. You should dredge for information and socializing, and the discounts will come naturally in time.
- Promotive – Promotive is a highly restrictive website that offers deep discounts to certain groups and organizations. Depending on the group you are a part of, your discounts and brand selections will differ. You absolutely must be a member of one of the participating organizations to get any sort of discount. Groups might be a Search and Rescue team, a broad LEO grouping, or military outfit. It is very strict, and you must provide credentials, but if you are a part of any organizations (especially ones that thrive outdoors) you might want to check in at Promotive to see if your organization is participating.
There’s really no reason to pay full price for any gear online. Using these tools, I guarantee you can find any item at a discount from MSRP. Good luck, and have fun with the addiction.