I recently bought my daughter a new cellphone at the AT&T store. The LG Neon was $20 (after rebate, and with renewal of her phone plan). The clear snap-on case to protect the phone? That was $30, plus tax, we were told. We passed. Then I went online to Handheld Items and ordered a similarly designed case for less than $9 shipped. It even came in a zebra-print design that she coveted.

The same goes for a skin for my other daughter's iPod Touch. Target sells it for $25, plus tax. We ordered the same model from MyGearStore (via Amazon) for $13 shipped. Screen protectors? A five-pack was $15-$20, plus tax, at Best Buy, or $2 shipped for a three-pack (using a coupon) from Meritline .

Accessories for any tech gear are almost always significantly cheaper online. It's an area where brick and mortar stores make a tidy profit. Stores reinforce that by carrying a limited selection at a maximum mark-up to take advantage of buyers who want to be good to go with a big-ticket item when they walk out of the door, whether it's a memory card for a camera, an HDMI cable for an HDTV or a case for a cell phone. But that brings up the biggest caveat with ordering online: You have to plan ahead or expect to wait for your accessory when ordering online. After all, shipping time and order fulfillment aren't generally issues in stores.

The other major caveat is product quality. Some of the online products are cheaper because they're made of inferior materials or manufactured poorly -- knock-offs of superior products. But that isn't always the case; it's just something to watch for. The build-quality of the protective case for the phone is excellent. The iTouch skin is identical. The screen protector is a fairly generic product whose differences might not be noticeable. Read customer reviews before buying a product if you're not sure, and weigh whether the price difference is worth the bother. For me, it was.

Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune