When I chose the Inspiron 1501 laptop I am writing this on, I first configured my system the way I wanted it on dell.com. Before I hit purchase, I was lucky enough to see an ad on the Yahoo homepage for Dell laptops. I was amazed to see an even better configuration being advertised for over $100 less! This was almost three weeks ago.

See for yourself the disparity in pricing on Dell’s website. First look at their preconfigured Inspiron 1501 packages. Then compare those models to the models listed in the Dell Deals section under newspaper ads.

Right now you can buy an Inspiron 1501 AMD Turion™ 64 X2 Dual-Core Mobile Technology TL-50 Genuine Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005 1GB DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz, 2 Dimm 80GB Hard Drive for $638 in the newspaper ad section or pay an extra $224 the normal way.

After seeing the ad on Yahoo, I actually called up the Dell sales people and asked if that was really the best price available. The rep asked for the configuration I wanted and came up with a price much higher than the price through the Yahoo link. I told him to forget it. Within minutes of hanging up the phone he called me back asking if I would buy it if he honored the price I saw on Yahoo. By then, I had already placed the order thinking it was a short term discount and prices would be going up. Today, the same laptop is going for $50 less.

There’s never been a better time to buy a laptop in my eyes. The next step is justifying a broadband card so I can truly become mobile. I just can’t believe my internet costs will exceed the cost of my computer in less than a year.