About Saraf Bazar
One person’s notes for people about to spend serious money online.
The name
In Indian markets, a saraf is the person you trust with gold. He rubs it on a black touchstone, reads the streak, and tells you whether it is what the seller says it is. A bazar is the market around him: noisy, full of offers, and not all of them honest.
That is the job here. Expensive purchases are sold with a lot of shine: list prices nobody pays, “record lows” that aren’t, specs that look better on the box than in your living room. Saraf Bazar tests the claims against each other and tells you what holds up.
Who runs it
Saraf Bazar is an independent publication operated by Sahil, who owns the sarafbazar.com domain and is responsible for everything published on it. It isn’t owned by, funded by or affiliated with any manufacturer or retailer I write about.
Who it’s for
Saraf Bazar is written for buyers in the United States making large online purchases: portable power stations, 3D printers, drones, robot vacuums, laptops, graphics cards, OLED TVs, noise-cancelling headphones, e-bikes, mattresses and VPN subscriptions. Prices are in US dollars, and rules (FAA and FCC drone rules, CPSC recalls, US retailer return policies) are US rules.
Most of these purchases are decided in public first, in threads on Reddit, posts on X and boards on Pinterest. I write the page you can link in those conversations: dated, sourced and plain about who should skip.
Who writes it
Appraisals carry the byline of the contributor who wrote them. Today there is one: Sahil, the person who runs the site.
The site is built for more than one contributor. Each has a profile page with a bio, any material connection a reader should know about, the products they stand behind, and a referral code so I can see which contributor’s shares lead readers to a retailer. I don’t invent reviewers, personas, quotes, testimonials or star ratings. When someone joins, their real name goes on their work.
How I research
My appraisals are research-based. Unless a page says otherwise, I haven’t tested the product myself. The method is written down on How I appraise.
How the site makes money
Saraf Bazar intends to earn commission through affiliate links: when you buy through a link marked “Paid link”, the retailer may pay me, at no extra cost to you. Today no programme has approved the site, so every retailer link is marked “No commission on this link”. Commission never decides a verdict. See the disclosure.
Corrections
If I got a price, a spec or a rule wrong, email hello@sarafbazar.com with the page and your source. I fix errors and note significant corrections at the end of the page.