Useful Price Comparison Tool: PluginDeals Reseller Price Check Search Engine

[PavlovsCat]

Plugin Deals Reseller Price Check Search Engine 

I came across a search engine from a Facebook plugin and sample library deal group I'm in that I think has a pretty useful tool that lets you check prices on sample libraries and plugins sold by resellers like Plugin Boutique that enables for you to compare and find the best deal. Like the guy who posts for his similar deals website,  which I and others have found to have some very outdated pricing and alerts that aren't working,  these folks are mostly going to show you prices for stuff they make affiliate money from, but they can still be valuable tools,  they just won't show you anything the website owner doesn’t get a cut from. 

https://plugindeals.net/plugin-reseller-price-check/

Edited March 16, 2023 by PavlovsCat

[stusmithmusic]

Just spotted this! Thanks for sharing! ?

For the record, we're not affiliated with all the resellers on our Reseller Price Check tool, though we are with a few, of course. But we do show prices from resellers we get nothing from, such as JRR and Audio Deluxe. Similarly, we're one of the only services to share deals from all corners of the world on our Facebook group, SubReddit, Twitter account and other channels, without purely focussing on those we get commission from. So those are some of the best places to find offers from indie devs and the like. 

One thing to bear in mind is that most resellers (and there are many) get their products and pricing from the same central distributor (usually xchangemarket or plugivery) so, unless they're doing some shifty shenanigans, the majority of them will carry the exact same prices for most products. So we tried to include the top, most trusted, resellers who also sometimes have exclusive discounts. You could still technically use the plugin price drop alerts just to know when a sale is on and then get the prodct from a reseller of your choice.  We're also limited in space on the page and the size of database available at the moment so we settled on these 7-8 top resellers. 

This particular service has cost me a lot more in time and money to build and maintain that it has earned back so far! As with all the APG and PD stuff, the service to the community comes before profits. Luckily, I also have a day job! ?

 

[jeffdrawscomics]

This is great. Thanks for sharing ,  @PavlovsCat!

[PavlovsCat]

3 hours ago, Audio Plugin Guy said:

Just spotted this! Thanks for sharing! ?

For the record, we're not affiliated with all the resellers on our Reseller Price Check tool, though we are with a few, of course. But we do show prices from resellers we get nothing from, such as JRR and Audio Deluxe. Similarly, we're one of the only services to share deals from all corners of the world on our Facebook group, SubReddit, Twitter account and other channels, without purely focussing on those we get commission from. So those are some of the best places to find offers from indie devs and the like. 

One thing to bear in mind is that most resellers (and there are many) get their products and pricing from the same central distributor (usually xchangemarket or plugivery) so, unless they're doing some shifty shenanigans, the majority of them will carry the exact same prices for most products. So we tried to include the top, most trusted, resellers who also sometimes have exclusive discounts. You could still technically use the plugin price drop alerts just to know when a sale is on and then get the prodct from a reseller of your choice.  We're also limited in space on the page and the size of database available at the moment so we settled on these 7-8 top resellers. 

This particular service has cost me a lot more in time and money to build and maintain that it has earned back so far! As with all the APG and PD stuff, the service to the community comes before profits. Luckily, I also have a day job! ?

 

Kudos to you for including retailers you don't have an affiliate relationship with, @Audio Plugin Guy! I've posted about your Facebook group before (https://www.facebook.com/groups/plugindeals/), as I find it super useful and have even recommended it to fellow musician friends and developer friends.  

FTR, I'm totally cool clicking on one of your affiliate links, like our own @cclarry, I think you perform a very useful service.   I just try to be helpful and explain to people that what happens when someone builds one of these search engines is that they most often either completely or mostly include shops that provide them with an affiliate kickback (or greatly prioritize listings for the shops that provide affiliate kickbacks and over those shops that don't). 

 Now, that's understandable, such sites aren't an  altruistic endeavor, the folks building them are looking to make money. And, I'm certainly not opposed to that, I'm a business owner myself.  I just want to make sure my fellow forum members are aware that these tools aren't showing them a full picture of the best deals and that choice is often guided by how much profit the comparison site owner can make from the reseller (or developer) from affiliate kickbacks. So, in an ideal scenario, a comparison site would include every seller of the included products, regardless of affiliate relationships. But it's unlikely that anyone would be compelled to build that.  Kudos to you for not just including the sites you have affiliate relationships with. In the end, I think that makes your site a more valuable tool than the others. It actually makes me more likely to choose your site over alternatives that primarily include sites they have affiliate marketing relationships with. 

I also appreciate your candor and how informative you are. I think you do an excellent job with running the Facebook group, keeping it focused and civil, and I really like the price check tool site -- which admittedly, I haven't spent much time with --but it seems very promising! Keep up the good work. 

[stusmithmusic]

16 hours ago, PavlovsCat said:

I also appreciate your candor and how informative you are. I think you do an excellent job with running the Facebook group, keeping it focused and civil, and I really like the price check tool site -- which admittedly, I haven't spent much time with --but it seems very promising! Keep up the good work. 

Thanks! It's aways my intention to be open and transparent with all the stuff I do. I'm just working on the next stage of updates to the Price Check thing... mostly technical issues I need to overcome to keep it running and speed it all up a bit. After that there may be some new features and a bit more cross-communication with the regular deals database that feeds the ULTIMATE Deals List (which is not just scraping resellers and requires a lot more manual work to maintain).

Watch this space! ?