Overstock.com

Full review
Overstock.com is a very dangerous place for me to visit.

I went over there a few minutes ago, just to do a little research for this review, and nearly walked away with a Bissell Little Green Cleaner for "just" $39.99. I’m telling you, I had the puppy in my shopping cart and my credit card in hand, when I made myself pause. I clicked back over to Epinions to make sure I really needed a Bissell Little Green Cleaner for $39.99, and after reading a few reviews, sanity returned. Back over to Overstock, I unloaded my cart...and then a Farberware 18-quart Electric Roaster for $48.99, just $2.95 shipping caught my eye.

Sigh. The roaster is still in my cart. I’ll check Epinions after I finish writing this review for you. I hate to pass up such a deal. This place is dangerous.

What Overstock Sells

Jimminy Cricket, what doesn’t Overstock sell?

Home & Garden. Electronics & Computes. Books, Movies, CDs & Games. Jewelry, Watches & Apparel. Sports, Travel & Toys.

You can buy a diamond ring or a DVD player or a walnut wine bar. Purchase toasters, and blankets and a small singing bowl from Nepal. Acquire electric bikes and snowboards or the talking sock puppet from Pets.com.

Cliché though it may be, there is something for everyone at Overstock.com.


Impulse Shopper Beware

Beware, beware, beware. Overstock.com markets themselves beautifully. Each and every item is positioned as an incredible deal, huge list price, big red slash, comparatively tiny sell price, huge “you save” figure and percentage. Buying the Bissell Little Green Cleaner and the Farberware Roaster will “save” me $190.00 total today. More buys like that and I can give up the day job and just live off my Overstock.com earnings, yes?

Let me tell you the truth: Overstock.com has some great deals. Overstock.com also boasts what look to me like inflated list prices. They swear, in their FAQ, that each list price is the official MSRP, but I’m still skeptical. The Bissell Green Machine can be purchased from Walmart.com for $68.00 today, even though the list price is $129.99. Overstock’s price is still quite a savings, but I’d never buy anything at Overstock without knowing the going rate for the product at a few other major retailers. In general, by the time something hits Overstock, it’s on sale everywhere else, too.

Take a breath before you buy and make sure

1) You really need that singing bowl from Nepal
and
2) You really are getting the deal that it appears you are getting


What I’ve bought from Overstock.com

I’ve placed five orders with Overstock over the last two years and I’ve been happy (enough) with every purchase. Here’s the story of two of them:

Lighting

Overstock has a nice selection of Mission style and Tiffany style lamps and chandeliers. I bought a Mission Style Hanging Light for my kitchen for $114.99. The list price, I recall, was about $399, which I considered to be grossly inflated. I’d shopped around enough to know that there were plenty of places I could get a similar light for around $115 but I chose Overstock because I had a coupon, and because their shipping is just $2.95. I knew I was getting a good deal.

My light came just a few days after purchase, packed beautifully. It’s important for me to note that this order was drop shipped directly from a lighting store in Maryland. Overstock the company never touched this lamp, but they were able to provide accurate tracking information and email updates on my order, as if they had. If I hadn’t looked at the shipping label, I’d have never known it didn’t come from them.

I’m very happy with my light.


Comforter

I’d been shopping for a new comforter forever, mostly concentrating on the PrimaLoft name. I wanted a hypo allergenic, alternative down comforter, and I didn’t want to pay $300. I narrowed my best deal to EddieBauer.com, where I could buy a full size Prima Loft (230 stitch count) for $139.00 on sale. Great price, but at $139.00 I felt as if I were marrying the comforter for the next decade. I couldn’t pull the trigger and go through checkout without shopping just a bit more.

The same day I was pondering checking out with my Eddie Bauer cart, I opened my email, and clicked on yet another message from Overstock. (My, they do keep in touch.) What to my wondering eyes did appear but an alternative down comforter for $39.99!

I rushed off to Overstock and carefully examined the pitch. There was no name brand on this comforter, and the stitch count was just 200 on the cover. For the domestic uninitiated, you judge the quality of linens and such by the stitch count. 200 is very low.

$39.99 isn’t much of a gamble when it comes to comforters. I figured the worst that would happen was I didn’t care to use it as my personal comforter and it would become an extra in the house. I purchased within minutes of receiving Overstock's email.

My Comforter takes the slow boat

I’d been shopping for a comforter for so long, I didn’t really care how long my package took to arrive, or so I thought. I waited. And I waited. I continued to use my years old ratty blanket. And I waited some more.

After two weeks, I checked my order status to see where the heck my comforter was, and that’s when I came upon some very interesting information about how Overstock ships products that it actually keeps in stock itself:

I placed my order on 11/20. Overstock put my comforter on a tractor trailer with a whole bunch of other customer orders on 11/22 (according to my order status). They drove their tractor trailer to a Fed Ex terminal in Columbus, OH, and arrived on 12/02, at which point Fed Ex took over. My comforter arrived to me on 12/05. Add it all up, 15 calendar days to get to me.

Am I mad? No. I paid $2.95 shipping. I got a comforter, which I love by the way, for just $39.99. I’m still happy. But I've learned that I need to assume any order from Overstock can take two to three weeks to get to me, and never count on faster.


What I would never buy from Overstock.com

Electronics and computers. Many of their products are reconditioned or refurbished. Some of them, apparently, have come to Overstock by less than traditional means. If you are considering an electronics or computer purchase, you must read Magenta321’s Epinion on Overstock. She’s got a horror story about a Palm purchase.

http://www.epinions.com/content_71801409156

Personally, I’d never touch their jewelry either. I’ve read both good and bad Epinions about jewelry purchases...if you are considering Overstock for jewelry, take a few minutes to read through Epinions reviews so you can look out for pitfalls. Apparently, it's possible to score a huge deal on high ticket jewelry items, but I'll pass. I don't know enough about high ticket jewelry to be sure that the deal is as good as it is positioned to be.


Overall Recommendation

I recommend Overstock.com, with four stars, for an educated consumer. They have always provided me with quality merchandise because I knew what I was doing before I pressed the “buy” button. I don’t recommend using Overstock as the first place you look to buy anything, and I don’t recommend using Overstock if you are anxious to receive your purchase quickly.

You can get an excellent deal if you do your homework, and resist the danger of impulse shopping. In the time that it has taken me to write this Epinion, my urge to buy a Farberware 18 quart Electric Roaster has faded and I'm off to Overstock to unload my cart. Score one for moderation, as long as I don't see another "steal" while I'm there.



Update: Alert reader, bonniesayers, reminded me that Overstock accepts PayPal as one of their payment methods. This is unusual for a major retailer, and could be important to many folks. Thanks, Bonnie!

Update 09.02.03

I've been on an Overstock roll recently. Among other purchases, I got the deal of a lifetime on 6 kitchen chairs. I couldn't find what I wanted for less than $125 a chair anywhere. I shopped for (literally) months, and was finally able to nab chairs for $69.00 each at Overstock. The shipping for the entire order was just $2.95, and my shipment arrived via Fed Ex Ground in less than a week from my initial order. Overstock gets better every day.