Before newegg.com came into the picture and years later after their high *** price tags (2018).
Well, as I sort of implied above, Newegg will , without remorse or regret, will nail you with a "stupid tax", if you shop unwisely. For example, right now, they're selling a 120 GB Samsung 850 EVO SATA 3 SSD, for "$84.95". (Although it does say "put in cart to find out the real price). I suppose MAP could be an issue for them.
But, if you continue shopping Samsung EVO drives, you'd come to find out the have the new 860 model with 240 GB capacity, for exactly the same price, $84.95. It's sort of like avoiding malware, you have to watch what you're clicking
http://www.pricewatch.com/
http://www.pricewatch.com/
This would be the place to find out which online stores or local stores had best bang for bucks.
If I take this approach, while it's very true I can find cheap prices on laundry lists of components which really have very little to do with computing in 2018, such as 500 GB, (and smaller), old fashioned spinning HDDs.
One thing about Newegg, above most to all others, is the fact they are as reliable as sunrise, they ship almost instantly, can be reached by phone or chat, and have a very good record of guarding your personal information.
That's not so, not reliably so, or certainly isn't a known fact, when you're dealing with dozens of vendors, hitherto unknown to any given buyer.
So if you decide to shop for absolute best price, you could wind up giving out your credit card information to possibly dozens of different vendors, any of which might be unreliable with regards to a number of factors.
I'm going to stick with my customary shopping tactics of, following pricing closely, buying at the best price, regardless of instant need. (I know I'll need that 2 TB hard drive one day soon, so I'll buy it for "stock"). I'll stick with dealers I know trust, Newegg and Microcenter, as much as possible, if only for peace of mind with the financial and information protection they have always provided.
I admit I have a superstitious aversion to dealing with anything Ebay or Paypal, and may that seem, (or actually could be), an irrational fear.But, it's still the way I intend to continue doing business online.