[sambo]

LoBelly, I think forums such as this one allow people to exchange a lot of information, enabling them to buy more things "sight unseen" than in the past. Whether the product/service is good or bad, everybody soon knows about it.

In my experience, you can easily save 30-50% over local sources by searching eBay or online stores. Lucas lights and most chrome bits are often that much cheaper, even after paying freight. But it's not always the case... I think it was Jegs who I nearly ordered from recently, they wanted something like 90 USD to send me a $70 uni joint, the only freight option was Fedex. No thanks!