First Things First: Purchasing a PC

Over the past 3 years, I have purchased approximately 50 systems from one place - the Dell Outlet. Click here to peruse their offerings. You can save as much as 50% off of Dell's normal sale price on business class and home systems by following these steps:

• Sign up for a free BigCrumbs.com account to save on every Ebay transaction you make. (This is an optional step as it will only save you a small amount). Use a personal email address to which you don't mind receiving junk mail. Click here to learn more about BigCrumbs.
• Check live.com for special Ebay discounts. They will periodically offer as much as 30% off of an Ebay purchase. I purchased $400 of Dell gift certificates for $210 by using this service. Just go to live.com (Microsoft's search engine) and in the search enter: cheap bikes or just click here. You should see a link for Ebay at the top of the page. If the link doesn't mention a discount, then the promotion is not currently active.
  
• Purchase $100 Dell gift certificates for $65 to $75 on Ebay. While these can only be used one at a time, they are still a nice way to save an additional $35 off of a system. Many Ebay sellers will list 4 at a time for $300 or so.
• Be sure to sign up for Dell's email offers here. They will regularly send a 15% to 20% coupon for their various systems.
• Sites like XP Bargains regularly post special coupons that Dell is offering. You can check out their most recent postings by clicking here.
• Check the Dell home and business outlet regularly. Prices vary greatly on similar systems from day-to-day. The scratch & dent models can be particularly cost effective. The cosmetic flaws are usually rather small. I recently purchased a Quad-Core, dual hard drive, 8GB system for $425. The small scuff on the side of the case was worth the incredible savings. Similar configurations run about $900 on Dell's normal retail site.

I would love to hear your ways of saving on systems. I look forward to hearing your replies.