| 'Twas
the beginning of the holidays
and all through the house,
not a creature was
stirring...
except for my mouse!
Holiday shopping season. Some
love it, some dread it, some want to hide in a
closet until it's over. No matter how you feel
about the shopping, this is the time of year to
really show your love with special gifts. The
days of "shop 'til you drop" are over, however.
Now you can get it all done and never leave the
house.
The
Ground Rules
Like any good game,
internet holiday shopping has a few ground rules
to make it better. Keep them in mind, and you'll
have as much fun as the elves at the North Pole.
Remember
it's the worldwide web
-- pay attention to the address of the
sites you visit. If the site name ends
in ".co.uk" for instance, you'll be ordering from
England. That's not a bad thing, but you need
to be aware of currency exchange rates and shipping
costs/delays. It's easy to get so enthralled with
the items that you don't see what you're dealing
with until it's almost too late.
Stick
with sites that have Secure Server technology
so that your credit card information will be safe.
You can tell a secure site by looking for the
small padlock at the lower right
of your screen to be locked,
and for the site to send you to a page that begins
with "https://" -- the "s" stands for
Secure.
Shop
around and save! The nifty thing
about internet shopping is that you can compare
prices instantly from a number of retailers if
you know what you're wanting to buy. Below are
a number of links to comparison sites. (Refer
to tip above! Just because the price
is low doesn't mean the retailer is reputable.)
Sites
to use for comparison shopping:
Botspot
Bizrate
My
Simon
Shopping
Best
Web Buys
Price
Scan
Price
Grabber Bottom
Dollar Consumer
World
Smart
Bargains Overstock FindGift |
