Or stop trying to hyper-optimize?
Buy from a handful of trusted brands; if it doesn't work out, don't buy from them again. Like what people did before all this information was available.
Buy from a handful of trusted brands; if it doesn't work out, don't buy from them again. Like what people did before all this information was available.
Say I'm looking for something that costs $20 online. I might look at three or four sites. I might take five minutes. It's not worth it to take more time.
Say I'm looking to rent a ski chalet for a week for $3000. Now I'm taking considerably longer - probably at least an evening, followed by letting it sit in my mind overnight.
Let the size of the purchase scale the amount of time you spend looking for a better answer.
Bigger ticket items are a pain, but they also don't have as much variety, so I'm more motivated to get it over with and choose between my available options fairly quickly (buying house, car, etc). I'm also more likely to be able to adapt the more expensive items to my needs.
However, smaller purchases tend to have far more options and searching more will nearly always turn up even more. Smaller items are also difficult to adapt, and I really don't like to add more to the landfill than necessary, so I worry quite a bit over these smaller purchases.
The amount of time spent optimizing is directly related to the impact.
I won’t spend 1 hr looking for a cheaper hotel if it’s a $10 difference. I will if it a $100 difference.