Where can I buy a Sony PSP USB cable?

This is one of the more common questions I see here at Ask Dave Taylor regarding the Sony PSP, actually, and it surprises me because when I walk through Target, Wal-Mart, Circuit City or Best Buy, or similar electronics shops, I always find an area where they're selling peripherals and add-ons for both the Sony Playstation Portable (PSP) and just about every other gaming system on the market. Frankly, it's a huge business (Sony's already sold over 5 million PSPs worldwide).

If you want to shop online, just about any of those sites I just mentioned sell PSP USB cables and related, but there are also some alternative sites that offer good deals too, even including Amazon.com.

For example, at Amazon.com, if you search for "Sony PSP" you'll find that they list almost 300 matches, ranging from the PSP unit itself to games, cables, carrying cases, speakers, and much more.

There's some really cool merchandise available there too, including my favorite USB cable solution, the BoxWave retractable sync and charge cable for $17, though, alas, I have a much more boring cable myself because I didn't see this one when I bought mine. If you want to get more all at once, you can also check out packages like the PSP Pro Starter Kit, which has lots of fun gizmos for your PSP, or, if your budget is a bit tighter, the USB Link Cable with Media Manager for PSP from Intec. $14.99 and it includes software that makes it a breeze to install music and video on your PSP unit.

There are plenty of other possibilities for purchasing not just the USB cable, for just about anything for a Sony PSP. Here's a little spot from the Chitika MiniMall that should offer up some pretty darn good deals on the PSP and related:

There really are a ton of different products available, too, ranging from screen covers (I have one on mine to cut down on glare) to skins for protecting your PSP to hard cases for travel, different styles of headphones, and much more. Lots to check out if you're a shopping maven, that's for sure (and, of course, they'd all be good additions to anyone's Christmas wish list...)

Finally, if you really want to save some money on the cable itself, you can pop over to somewhere like Radio Shack and buy a USB cable there, or even just jump up to their PSP Starter Kit, but beware: if you get a cable that's not high enough quality, I have heard from some people that they have reliability issues with downloads, issues that are quickly resolved when they purchase a new, higher quality USB cable for their PSP.

Good luck!