I am an online shopping year-round, but especially during the Holidays. I live in a highly populated retail area, so I try to make as few trips to stores as possible during the months of November and December. Even if the stores were not overcrowded, there were not overly long lines, and it were not impossible to find a parking spot, just trying to get to the store from my house would take four times longer than it normally would during other times of the year. Having lived here for 8 years, I have nearly perfected my system of online Holiday shopping. The first thing I do is make a list of all my gift recipients and what would be the ideal gift for each person. Then I start my comparison shopping for the best prices for each item. I have a small handful of go-to sites when I look for the best deal for most items and one of those sites is eBay.
I have been an eBay shopper for not quite two decades now. If you take the time to read the product descriptions completely, including shipping fees and return policies, and to check the seller's feedback rating, then you should generally not have any problems with your purchase. eBay will save you tons of time because it is many sellers competing for your business in one place. Usually, I go with the the seller with an outstanding feedback rating who has the lowest price for a Buy-It-Now item. I do not usually have the patience to wait for an auction to end, unless it is a hard-to-find item. One other thing I want to point out is that there are larger retailers selling on eBay now. It used to be that only small businesses were found on eBay, but now you can find well-known retailers, such as Newegg.com and Toys"R"Us.
Checkout the eBay items I found for people on my Holiday gift list . . .
- For my husband: ZyXEL PLA4215KIT 500 Mbps Powerline Pass-thru Gigabit Ethernet Adapter (with Free Shipping!)
- For my 8 year old son: 7th Generation Yellow 16GB Apple iPod Nano (Free Shipping!)
- For my 5 year old son: Sakar Cyber Gear SMS Text Messenger (also with Free Shipping!)
- For my 5 year old daughter: Hello Kitty Alarm Clock Radio w/Night Light
- For Mom: Butterfly Twists Fold Up Ballet Flats
- For Dad: D-Link MovieNite Plus Streaming Media Player (Free Shipping again!)
- For my sister: Tea Lover's Gift Basket
- For my brother-in-law: Xbox 360 Kinect The Hip Hop Dance Experience Video Game
- For my writer: Celadon Pottery Vase with Frog from Bali
- For myself (It's statistically impossibly for me to shop for others without finding something I want for myself.): 14k White Gold Hematite Dangle Earrings (Yes! Free Shipping!!!)
I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour for Mom Central Consulting on behalf of eBay. I received a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate. All opinions expressed are my own.