There are a lot of places to buy stuff from online. Two favorites are cat5ecablguy and B&H Photo & Video.

First, cat5ecableguy. Well, despite the name, he sells cat3, cat5e, cat6, cable — both patch cables and bulk — as well as other things like speaker wire, jacks, coaxial cable, etc. He’s got quality products and almost always the cheapest around. It’s not unusual to see him selling things at about half the normal price.

I bought a lot of stuff from cat5ecableguy.com when we remodeled one room in our current house — bulk cable, keystone jacks, and keystone plates, mostly. We also buy from him at work — mostly patch cables there. He has prompt shipping and is great to work with. He’s even been helping me track down black CAT6 keystone jacks for our remodel project.

Second, B&H Photo. It seems like if you use a service like shopping.com or froogle to find good prices on things like cameras, TVs, etc., that there are a whole bunch of companies that advertise good prices but then call you to “confirm” an order, only to use high-pressure tactics to sell you way overpriced accessories. Some of them even go so far as to cancel orders for people that don’t purchase the accessories. Others just have bad prices or sell “grey market” merchandise (stuff intended for a non-US market that doesn’t have a valid US warranty) without mentioning it.

This is not B&H. B&H has a bunch of high-quality stuff, good prices (often not the absolute lowest, but certainly among the lowest, and usually the lowest trustworthy store), and good service. They have some large print catalogs you can request as well.

I was surprised to see recently that they’ve added pro audio to their lineup, so when I got a digitial audio recorder, I got it from them. It was a $500 item or so. They called me to confirm the order — on a *Sunday* morning no less — but with them, that really is all it is. “Did you place an order for xyz from us?” “Yes.” “OK, I’ve released it for shipping. Do you have any questions for us?” “No.” “OK, thanks for using B&H.”

I’m not quite sure why they call to confirm some orders, but I think it’s a fraud protection measure.

So anyway, I haven’t been paid to write these comments, and neither place even knows I’m doing this. I just wanted to pass along my experiences with two very nice, clueful, and honest retailers.