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Commerce Sites
Last checked 3/1/2024

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    Comparison Shopping/Search Engines:

  • Consumer World4 out of 5 has links to all kinds of consumer resources. They have a great list of links to comparison sites, a price checker, links to sites showing what's on sale at brick and mortar stores, etc. .
  • Shopzilla is a search engine for shoppers.
  • Yahoo Shopping
  • Google Shopping shows comparative pricing.
  • mySimon searches for various categories of products including books, CD's, hardware, and software. Shows a comparison of prices on various sites.
  • Price Grabber is a shopping bot which will find the best price of goods in almost all categories. They also have a newsletter so you can be informed of bargains in your desired category.
  • Shopper from CNet, has a great computer products search engine and comparison page.
  • Respond.com4 out of 5 You tell them what you are looking for and they send your request out to a bunch of sellers who will contact you. Very good service.
  • Nextag4 out of 5 - finds the best prices for stuff with product reviews and ratings.
  • RoboShopper will search for goods available to you on the Web.
  • DealTime - you select a category and enter what you're looking for and this bot goes out and finds it for you. Shows comparison pricing. Good search engine.
  • Deal Pilot does comparison shopping for books, music, and videos.
  • AddAll searches for book prices in thiry online book stores.
  • AllBookStores does an excellent job of searching for book prices online book stores.
  • CheapCheapCheap finds deals.

    Gadgets:

  • Gizmag has reviews and news of a lot of gadgets and new electronics.
  • Boy's Stuff is a UK company selling unusual gifts.
  • Firebox is a UK company selling all kinds of gadgets including devices for the kitchen and home.
  • TheInventory has links to a bunch of gadget sites and also has a nice home page full of browseable articles like "What is the Best Space Heater" or "Movie Art Books That Deserve To Be On Your Shelf".
  • The Gadget Flow sells all kinds of gadgety items.
  • Brookstone has the usual collection of unusual gifts, tools, and gadgets.
  • Hammacher Schlemmer - unusual and expensive.
  • Sharper Image has mostly electronic gifts.
  • SmartHome has electronic gadgets for the home.
  • Dynamism brings you the latest gadgets from Japan.
  • T3 is a British company with a lot of gadgets.
  • Engadget is interesting to browse. It covers a lot of tech stuff but is more useful as a news site rather than a review site.
  • The Verge is reported to be staffed by ex-Engadget writers.
  • Gizmodo - the gadget blog.
  • HomeToys - Home automation and home entertainment systems.
  • I Want One of Those - gadgets from down under.
  • ShinyShiny - a gadget site with a slight feminine bent.
  • Mighty Goods - displays 'stuff' that you can buy on the Web. Mostly cool, but useless, stuff.
  • Cool Tools Kevin Kelly's reviews of very cool tools.
  • Computer Gear sells tech toys of all kinds.
  • Coolest Gadgets is a blog about gadgets.
  • SlipperyBrick has announcements of new products in a bunch of categories.
  • Oh Gizmo has a lot of gadgets, gossip, and news.
  • Selling Your Gadgets Online
  • Gazelle will buy back used gadgets.
  • Walyou is a gadget blog. Very cool stuff.
  • Quirky is kind of like KickStarter. You can vote or shop for new, innovative items on the edge of development.
  • Dude I Want That sells all kinds of gadgety items that almost nobody can afford.
  • notcot is a design blog that has some great links to very creative stuff including food, furniture, videos, and gadgets.
  • Wired Reviews - usually interesting to read but subject material tends toward the more expensive gadgets.
  • Busted Wallet has reviews of expensive items.
  • Digital Trends
  • Giz Wiz Biz is Dick DeBartolo's review site. These are mostly one-shot reviews of gadgets but the site is pretty eclectic.
  • StreetTech is an old blog that reviewed techie toys. Hasn't been updated since 2009.

    Records, CDs, Digital, Tapes:

  • CD Universe5 stars has a great selection. Along with a list of CD's, a search for a particular artist will display a list of similar artists and a list of artistic roots. Good prices.
  • Half.com has discounted pricing on CD's, videos, books, and games.
  • Collector's Choice sells old and hard to find CD's and tapes.
  • Cash For CDs buys your used CD's.
  • Critics Choice sells videos, specializing in the hard-to-find stuff.
  • All Vinyl sells old vinyl records (33's, 45's, 78's).
  • CDExchange sells used CD's and DVD's.
  • 7Digital sells digital music in three different resolutions: MP3, CD quality FLAC, and HD quality FLAC.
  • HDTracks sells digital music in different resolutions including high definition.

    Housing/4 Sale/Rent:

  • Movoto5 stars has a useful search function. The mapping function is dynamic in that the properties that are available can change as you move around on a map.
  • Realtor.com
  • Zillow.com Based on some unknown and proprietary algorithm, Zillow attempts to tell you what your home, or any home in your neighborhood, is worth. You can also find homes for sale by zip code or by simply clicking on a map.
  • Trulia shows you what houses are for sale in a given zip code. It also has historical statistics so you can see how a specific area developed since just before 1900. It looks like the map shows the date when the property first sold.
  • Home.com - sale property search (very few matches on test search), rental search, calculators, tips and advice.
  • EveryHome - Sale property search, rental search, tips and advice.
  • Point2Homes - Sale property search, rental search, tips and advice, good filtering system for the search function. Property info includes demographics, distance to various features like schools, nearby schools, etc.
  • Century21
  • Realtor.com - sponsored by National Association of Realtors - property search (best number of matches), moving, insurance.
  • Senior Housing shows 55+ housing and various levels of care facilities.
  • 55Places5 stars shows 55+ housing communities. Nice search function with workable filtering.
  • Retirement Living5 stars is home of the SourceBook as well as a pretty good database of retirement and aging housing options. Good source to find options even if the details are missing.
  • Homemetry5 stars shows who is living in a given block along with stats on the houses, fire and police incidents, phone numbers, etc. You enter a zip code and it lists the streets. Click on a street to see the details on the housing.
  • USPhoneBook has a reverse address lookup. Historical tax and sales info is available along with a list of owners.
  • Owners Network sells houses directly through the owners.
  • Home Fair - info on buying a home, moving, etc. Includes calculators, city reports, search databases, etc. Includes a number of useful calculators.
  • 4WallsinPhilly has information on renting in Philadelphia.
  • Apartments.com has an effective search engine with plenty of options.
  • Apartment Guide - apartment search, furniture, moving, etc.
  • ForRent - find apartment and other housing rentals
  • Lovely - find apartment and other housing rentals
  • Quicken Mortgage and Home Financing has a bunch of decision helpers and calculators.
  • Mortgage Bankers Association has mortgage news, advice, tips, tools, etc.
  • Montgomery County Property Records shows assessed values, detailed description of home, last sale price, taxes, etc.
  • Interactive Housing Costs Diagram from the Economist, shows rental and purchase data by state over the last 15 years.
  • moving.com helps you find a moving service
  • RiskFactor gives you data on the risk of flooding or wildfire for specific addresses.
  • FEMA Flood Maps has maps that indicate the frequency and types of floods for a selected area. It is helpful to know your map coordinates.
  • FEMA National Risk Index has maps that indicate the risk of natural disasters for a selected area.
  • Free Risk Tool has maps that indicate the risk of natural disasters for a selected area - sponsored by Hazard Hub.
  • American Society of Home Inspectors
  • International Association of Certified Home Inspectors

    Consumer Information/Consumer Fraud:

  • FCC Consumer Complaint Site allows you to file a formal complaint about cable billing errors, errorneous phone charges, robocallers, etc.
  • FTC Complaint Site allows you to file a formal complaint about robocallers, business fraud, etc. The site claims they will guide the complaint to the appropriate enforcement office.
  • ConsumerWorld
  • The Better Business Bureau
  • Fraud Information Center reports on recent scams, has special alerts, contact information, etc.
  • Internet Fraud is sponsored by the FBI.
  • Privacy.com This site lets you use temporary credit card numbers. You can set limits to how much can be charged on them and how often they can be used. They are connected to your real credit card but vendors that you use online never see the real number. This protects you from fraud and evil-doers who might steal your info from vendor databases.
  • Consumer Research Network is a guide to purchasing decisions.
  • eConsumer is a government site that hears complaints of Web transactions that went sour.
  • FDA Product Recall Alerts
  • Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is a federal organization that has a database of consumer complaints about financial institutions. The public is encouraged to share their experiences.
  • Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
  • Fakespot rates the user reviews of products on Amazon. You enter the URL of the product on Amazon and the site analyzes the reviews. It awards the product reviews a letter grade from A to F based on its algorithm and there is a pretty good explanation of the rating after the analysis.
  • ReviewIndex Enter a URL from Amazon and the site analyses reviews and reports on how many are unverified or fake.
  • How to Deal with Late Amazon Delivery Prime members can get an extension of their subscription.
  • How to See How Much You Have Spent On Amazon This article has instructions on how to get a download of your spending history from Amazon - every purchase for every year. The instructions don't work real well for non-business accounts so you need to click on the link that goes directly to the reporting function on the Amazon site.
  • Checkbook - rates vendors in a number of various categories. Local to Delaware Valley and a limited number of other metro areas.
  • Talk to a Real Person helps you get through the phone tangle at the help desk of various companies and get in touch directly with someone who can help. (2018)
Software

Free Stuff

  • The Free Site5 stars has a lot of links to free stuff including free fonts and graphics, product samples, e-mail, and software. Also has a list of company offers to pay you in exchange for filling out a survey or for performing some other trivial act.
  • Free Stuff from Volition.
  • Hey It's Free
  • Birthday Freebies is a compilation of companies that give free stuff on your birthday.
  • Free Center - free scripts, graphics, software, html checkers, forms, counters, fonts, midi, contests, links to other free stuff sites - with ratings
  • Download Free Stuff Off The Web (2021) This article lists all kinds of stuff you can download for free. Includes software (freeware, old software, commercial stuff, etc.), ring tones, images, books, capture audio from a Web site, and other interesting stuff.
  • Free N Cool Cool? Maybe, but at least it's free.
  • Reference Desk is a huge directory of sites which offer "free" stuff, mostly shareware.
  • Free Stuff is brought to us by the Mining C.
  • Catalog Choice lets you opt out of getting catalogs that you no longer want.
  • Free Center has links to all kinks of free stuff including hosting services, email, program scripts, etc.
  • #1 Free Stuff has rated links to sites that offier free stuff.
  • Trade Publications has a collection of links to free subscriptions to trade publications.
  • Free Legal Forms like wills, power of attorney, etc.
  • Free2Try has a number of categories of stuff you can either try or have for free.
  • FreebieDirectory is a directory of free stuff.
  • DailyDeals
  • Free Samples
  • Free Samples Direct
  • FreeByte has links to free stuff including graphics.
  • Totally Free Stuff has all kinds of stuff that is free as long as you do some little thing like filling out a survey, or buying a sponsor's product, or by providing very personal and private information so that the vendor can build a marketing profile... (don't get me started), etc.
  • Free Cycle This is a recycling site where members can get other's stuff and give away their own stuff - all for free. Free Cycle is moderated by a local volunteer in your neighborhood. Helps you to recycle PC's and phones.
  • Computers With Causes recycles old computer equipment including tablets, phones, and desktops. It will distribute donations to needy organizations.
  • Give Away of the Day - a different application is given away free every day.
  • Only Free is a collection of sites that give away stuff for free or host free services.
  • Free Stuff is a bunch of freebie sites from the Make Use Of folks.
  • OpenCulture is a collection of links to free culture - ebooks, courses, audio books, movies.
  • Download Free Stuff This is an article from the MakeUseOf folks on how to download free stuff like old software, ebooks, images, etc.

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