Are you local?

While the internet is great at yielding bargains from around the world, it can also be used to sniff them out closer to home. If you don't fancy taking a walk down to your local supermarket to check the notice board, you may want to check out buy and sell or adverts.ie. These can be used as a simplified type of ebay shop: you pick what you want, ring the seller to arrange payment and delivery and boom! you're in business. Great for people who are still wary of dealing with a faceless online seller.

Pros:

• If the seller is nearby you can arrange a pickup, therefore no shipping
• Items can be picked up quite cheaply
• No auction, no suspense, just ring to see if it is available

Cons:

• If you can't arrange a pickup, shipping inside Ireland is quite expensive
• Not sold by professionals, so quality can be hit and miss
• Sometimes the seller can make the sale and forget to take down the ad