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Eleven Top Online Auction Sites
Shopping auction sites requires a few caveats—beware of designer knock-offs, check the feedback ratings on sellers carefully, only pay through secure options like PayPal. Once you’ve got the cautions out of the way, however, there’s the possibility of finding some truly great deals, even on items that are rare or one-of-a-kind. Also there’s the thrill of being the top bidder—if you enjoy that sort of thing (and we kinda do). Check out our reviews of these sites so you’ll know where to begin:
UpperBid.com. The most designer (Armani, Marc Jacobs, Michael Kors, BCBG Max Azria, etc.) and vintage items we’ve found thus far, and it looks the most like eBay, too, which may not exactly be a big deal except that means it’s familiar and relatively easy to read/navigate. Our fave find? A Miu Miu handbag (which appeared legit) with a buy now price of $59.99.
OnlineAuction.com. Lots of apparel, lots of handbags, a huge list of detailed categories. Okay, we like—but a few random clicks didn’t bring us much in the way of super-hot deals (there were several Juicy Couture handbags for example—which would be super except the prices weren’t much different than if you bought them directly from Juicy Couture). That being said, if you don’t mind browsing quite a big, OnlineAuction.com is a site that appear to have a good reputation and an extensive number of sellers.
CQout. When, at first look, we see more than 44,000 apparel items available, our heart rises just a little. And upon further inspection, oodles of cool shoes (Chanel, Fendi, Christian Louboutin), handbags (Gucci, Hermes), and apparel, with current bids well within the realm of affordability. Jackpot! The downside? Many of the items would be coming from abroad (the site is based in the UK) meaning pretty high shipping costs. However, if you find a fab designer deal on the cheap, the additional shipping still might be worth it . . . just watch your budget carefully. And there is a “local only” tab to sort out auctions closer to home, meaning in the US—the pickings are much slimmer, but many sellers offered free shipping.
ePier.com. After sorting through pages of random items on some other sites, we appreciate ePier’s search function—which, when we clicked “apparel” took us to the next set of categories (kids, men’s women’s) and then upon clicking “women’s” even more categories (designer clothing, evening wear, jeans, etc.). Of course, “designer clothing” brought up items like an Express skirt and Wilson’s leather jacket, but still. Well organized, easy to navigate, and opportunities to peruse classifieds, trade, and wanted item listings as well.
ShopGoodwill.org. We’re just going to come right out and say it—we love Goodwill. We love the stores, and we love the online site, mostly because this is the first auction site we’ve come across that when we clicked on women’s apparel, we came up on the first page with a mink coat and a vintage black, rhinestone studded dress. Okay, so we weren’t in the market for either, but it made us feel like we might really find something here. A little further searching turned up a few things more in our price range, like a Dooney and Burke handbag with a starting bid of $5.59 and a pair of new Nine West Black Leather Pumps (in a hard to find size 10 yet!) at $11 with 12 hours to go . . . Our favorite part is that being items sold through Goodwill organizations throughout the country, we’re pretty confident that the namebrands we’re bidding on are authentic items, not cheap knock-offs. And it’s for a good cause.
eBay.com. Of course you knew we’d get to this one sooner or later . . . and there’s probably not much we can tell you that you don’t already know. It’s the behemoth of online auction sites, and if you’re looking for something—anything—you will most likely find it here. The deals, however, aren’t quite what they used to be. We remember the days of actually getting designer and brandname goods for, almost literally, a song—now, with lots of eBay “businesses” and “buy now” options, the prices just aren’t as good as they used to be. Still, it’s no fuss, no muss—easy to find items, easy to bid, and pretty darn trustworthy payment options.
Webidz.com. Webidz gets pretty high marks from lots of the online auction site reviews we read, and they had a reasonable amount of apparel. But designer stuff? Not so much. We searched for a few designer names (Marc Jacobs, Vera Wang, Burberry) and came up with 3 items total, none of which were particularly tempting deals even at the starting bids. But, if you’re in the market for, say, sports memorabilia, toys, books, and collectibles, this just might be the site for you (the “sports memorabilia” category alone boasts more than 28,000 items . . . )
uBid.com. When clothing items are relegated to the “Everything Else” category, we know this isn’t exactly a site made for fashionistas (the day we looked there were only 45 apparel items, total)—so if you’re just looking to pick up designer apparel on the cheap, skip it. However, if you’re looking for computers, electronics, fine jewelry and watches, however there are plenty to choose from, with lots of auctions that didn’t even have reserve prices.
Overstock.com Auctions. Overstock.com is where we love to shop for namebrand and designer goods at big discounts, so we’re delighted to find that Overstock.com Auctions looks exactly like it’s easy-on-the-eyes overstock counterpart, featuring all the same categories, but with auction items from retailers and private sellers. Want some Overstock.com-worthy deals at potentially even cheaper prices? Look for the seller name “Overstock Returns.”
PropertyRoom.com. A police auction site, PropertyRoom.com is just what you might imagine, featuring items that have been stolen, seized, found and otherwise acquired by more than 1,100 law enforcement agencies that are involved with the site. Of course, designer goods are on the docket, but just don’t expect to find a specific item you have your heart set on. Instead, think of it as an adventure—one never knows when 200 Burberry handbags might be seized by authorities in Des Moines, for example (it could happen!). And we’re pretty sure the transactions are reasonably secure.
Amazon.com Auctions. We’re only including this because you may be wondering about it—but the honest truth is, don’t bother. Amazon may be a Goliath in terms of online sales of, well, just about everything else under the sun (and at great prices, if we do say so) but for auctions? Well, it’s clear that it’s not a priority. First of all, to log-in to Auction.Amazon.com one must have an account, and once logged in, you’re inexplicably taken to a page that says “search transactions.” Well, we didn’t want to search our transactions. So we clicked the teeny tiny “auction” tab—only to be taken back to the log-in page. Um, nevermind.
Six Great Online Swap Sites
Recycling is in-not only in terms of the environment, but also in terms of fashion—and these sites are leading the online swapping community. Before trading your goods, you need to know a few things: be careful swapping used make-up, always ask for clear photos to help you assess the quality of the garment you’re swapping, and make sure you understand the shipping fees and dispute policies of the site.
Swapstyle.com. Possibly the most stylish-looking of the swap sites we’ve visited, SwapStyle.com is also probably the most well-known and frequently used. Super easy to navigate, categories include accessories, apparel, shoes, maternity, cosmetics, and even books. We found everything from a Macy’s party dress (value: $13) to a Prada handbag (value $1,200), and items can be for swap, for sale, or both. You have to register to use the site, but the registration process is pretty painless—to list items, however, there’s a subscription fee (apparently $20 per year, but the first year is free . . . )
MyFashionSwap.com. MyFashionSwap comes in a close section in terms of LOOKING like a fashion site, but of course a pretty package isn’t everything. We like this site—particularly the no-fee-basic-membership (you’ll pay small fees if you choose to utilize things like front-page or category features for their items)—but the number of items available at the time we browsed was pretty darn limited, and the browsing through pages was a bit frustrating as they didn’t always load properly after page 1. Hmmm. Still, the items we DID manage to view included things from BCBG, Theory, Marc Jacobs, etc. So we’ll try to be patient.
DigNSwap.com. Totally user-friendly, DigNSwap.com strips away all the fancy (read: useless) bells and whistles with a simple search or browse format, which brings you to pages with clickable thumbnails for de-lightful swap items like Stuart Weitzman heels and Marc Jacobs jackets. Listings give you all the basics—color, size, condition, etc. The selection is quite limited, but when the items are really good, it’s worth an occasional browse to see if you can find something in your size . . .
Rehash. Rehash takes an environmentally-friendly position on item swapping and, well, who can argue? Regardless of the angle, Rehash is primarily about books and clothing, and if you don’t mind browsing, we saw plenty of cute stuff to swap. There’s also a forum and a “question and answer” page, if you want to, well, talk about swapping, we guess.
MakeUpAlley.com. Makeup swapping? Sounds gross, right? Well, fortunately the idea of MakeUpAlley’s swap page is to swap all those hardly-used makeup and beauty items you bought that weren’t what you’d hoped, which, at least in theory, sounds like a reasonable idea. Maybe. While we’re not certain we’ll be using this particular swap site, we just wanted you to know the option was out there—the decision to swap lipgloss with a total stranger is ultimately up to you (in the FAQs, they do recommend only swapping unused mascara. Right.)
ChanceXChange.com. This is not a fashion/apparel swap site, but we’re pretty sure that all of us probably have other stuff cluttering up our closets (and basements, and lives) we’d like to swap out—on ChanceXChange, that means CDs, movies, books, games, and a few random miscellaneous items. So, if you have some oldies but goodies you’d like to unload—and/or you’re desperately seeking a copy of “The Santa Cause: It’s a Punk Rock Xmas” (seriously, it’s on there)—it’s totally free to register and swap so you have nothing to lose.
Have More Swap Sites? Add Them to the Comments…
Top Community Sites for Discounts and Coupons
Popular blog community sites like Digg, Stumbleupon, etc can be a great resource for bargain hunters looking to score online coupons and deals. A search for shopping related terms (bargain, shopping, deal, coupons) can turn up a wide range of results, meaning it’s up to you to sort through them to find what you want—however, they also turn up results you might not get by using a search engine like Google (at least not in the top 50 results). Our top sites? Try these:
Stumbleupon.com. StumbleUpon.com is a popular and simple to use community site. A quick search for “coupons” turned up several new sites. We also like this link that popped up (in the form of a “StumbleUpon Coupons” button to the right of our search) which took us to a page with links to a whole bunch of retailer coupons including Bloomingdale’s, Chadwick’s, Aeropostale, and many more.
Delicious.com. We searched “coupons” here, as well, and came up with a completely different, but equally useful list, for everything from groceries to online coupon code portals to sites with specific store coupons and deals.
Technorati.com. Searching Technorati gives us the most specific results (“coupons” led us directly to blogs featuring “Kenneth Cole coupons,” “Borders coupons”, etc.) and also turns up informational articles on our topic which, if you have the time to browse, could lead you to even more great money saving tips.
Digg.com. Much like the sites above, Digg is another place where members earmark (here they call it “digg”) sites and blogs; the number of diggs received is noted next to the listing title, and in theory, the more diggs the better. Well, that’s relatively subjective but it’s nice to have some kind of barometer against which to measure the bazillion results we got when we searched for “coupons.” And, quite frankly, we didn’t actually find any valid coupons (we were pleased to discover a few moments later we could sort by “newest first”—phew. And while we STILL didn’t find any actual coupons, we did find articles and posts about coupons, discounts, savings, that we think would probably save us a buck or two upon further scrutiny.
Kirsty.com. We’re honestly not 100 percent sure what this community is supposed to be all about—the front page is a bit of a mystery in terms of style and focus—however, there was a search box, and when we entered the term “coupons” it gave us a a few links to coupon pages from a variety of online retailers (from Kellogg’s to Huggies to Pillsbury) but nothing specifically apparel-related. When we typed in apparel coupons, we got a few, along with some links to discount stores like Amazon.com and Shopping.Yahoo.com. Not earth-shattering, but a possibility.
Blogcatalog.com. Calling itself “the blogger social network”, Blogcatalog seems to have a pretty broad base, and of course, a search function—so we entered our search term “coupons” and came up with plenty. What we liked is how Blogcatalog breaks it down—instead of one long list of hits, they’re divided into categories like “directory”, “blog posts”, “social searches”, and “discussions” so you can pick which category suits your needs best (“directory” is where found the actual coupon pages, but “blog posts” could be useful in directing you to things not listed elsewhere, and “discussions” might allow you to ask other shoppers for tips on finding great deals).
Xanga.com. Not our top pick, but this no-frills blog community did turn up some coupon and bargain sites when we searched, so if you’re really struggling to find something, it might be worth a look. However, some of the blog results were “locked”—so we couldn’t view them unless we signed in. Meaning we actually had to register. Meaning, well, some of us might not want to bother.
MyBlogLog.com. This is a Yahoo!-based blog community, so it’s members tend to be not quite as obscure as some of those on, say Xanga.com—and our coupon search turned up a whole bunch of blogs devoted to the topic, many of which appeared to be current and legit (a pitfall, quite frankly, of depending on the highly-unregulated world of bloggers). Worth a look.
Buzzfeed.com. Not so much a community as a portal for blog postings on all kinds of topics (and we do mean all kinds). Including, as it turns out, coupons. A few anyway. However, when we searched “discounts” and “bargains” we got the heads up on a few more deals, so if you have a minute it couldn’t hurt to look—you might save some money, even if it’s not on anything fashionable. We got a free sandwich from Arby’s, for example. We’ll take it.
Top Ten Online Money Management Tools
Nothing takes the place of a good financial planner, but if your budget doesn’t warrant it (or accommodate the accompanying fees) there are some online tools that can make planning and saving just a little bit easier. We’ve compiled our top ten, to help you get organized even faster.
Mint.com. This comprehensive site allows you to create an anonymous account, add your bank, credit card and investment accounts—in five minutes time and that’s all the info they require. Then, Mint pulls your balances, purchases, stock trades, etc., to create a total overview of your financial picture. Features include graphs, automatic expense categorization, and budgeting tools.
Wesabe.com. Wesabe.com combines online financial management tools with a community atmosphere, and is anonymous and secure. The site, like Mint.com, offers an overall financial picture using your banking information, etc., offers tips, and allows you to discuss financial issues with other members.
Smartypig.com. An online savings account—really—that allows you to set your goals, contribute money, and even allow friends and family (if you should be so lucky) to contribute to your account. Certified by the McAfee SECURE Security Scan daily, and absolutely free to users, Smartypig might be just the tool you need to stay on track. One caveat—once you reach your goal (though you can cash out early too with no penalty) your funds are put on a debit card OR you have the option of receiving them on a gift card for a number of partner retailers—meaning temptation to shop could blow your resolve to save for something more practical.
ManageMe. Free and suitable for personal and business use, ManageMe bills itself as being so easy you can teach your kids to manage money with it—and we think that’s a fantastic idea quite frankly. While the site doesn’t appear to offer specific advice as some others do, it’s quite straightforward to use. Set up your account (you can even set up multiple accounts to meet your needs), and you can include profiles to manage for friends and family, receive bills and deposit reminders and alerts, set budget limits, and generate budget management reports to keep everything in order.
Geezeo.com. Manage your money, participate in the Geezeo community with other like-minded members, search financial products, and get practical advice in useful financial management articles, all in one place. One stop shopping is always a plus for us, so we like the comprehensive nature of Geezeo.com. We also like that the money management features don’t stop at organizing and budgeting—there are also tools designed to help you get out of debt, plan for retirement, and buy a house.
PearBudget.com. This option isn’t completely free—there’s no charge for the first 30 days, and then it’s $3 per month after that . . . but we’d heard good things so we decided to check it out anyway. Turns out this is a fine option for those who really need something simple and straightforward—translating the old “envelopes” method of money management (remember those days) into a web-friendly tool, with fully customizable categories. It’s also backed up automatically online, and fully exportable to a CSV file, so you can do regular back-ups yourself, if that makes you feel better.
Buxfer.com. This site is useful in that it allows you to not only check balances and manage accounts at more than one bank, it also handles the math on those nagging little financial issues like splitting rent and groceries with a roommate, joint vacation expenses, managing a team or organization, or tracking personal loans you’ve made (or owe). It also interfaces with Facebook, iGoogle, iPhone, Windows Mobile, Netvibes and more, allowing for more versatile use.
Cake Financial. If you’re more interested in tracking investments with an online tool than managing a household budget, Cake Financial is worth looking into. The service—totally free—gathers all of your brokerages into one portfolio, allowing you to view the big picture using both charts and easy-on-the-eyes graphics. You also have the opportunity to view portfolios of investors with similar goals, and receive regularly generated reports with tips from other Cake Financial users.
Thrive. Get organized, get personalized advice, and get help planning ahead—really, that’s all you need to get on top of money, and past your bad budget woes. What makes Thrive special? A reader-friendly blog with practical advice and links to good financial-related stuff, and the Thrive “Health Score”, automatically generated from your financial information to tell you your “financial health” in terms of long-term stability. Then it gives you advice on how to improve.
Microsoft Money Management Templates. Would you rather keep your finances in-house (meaning offline) but need some help getting organized on your PC? Visit this site to pick from more than 60 templates—totally free—for everything from monthly household budgets, to wedding and event budgets, to monthly expense planners, and more.
The 15 Best Price Comparison Sites
Comparing prices is the hallmark of a smart bargain shopper, but knowing where to start can be a challenge in and of itself, so we’ve compiled some reviews of the most popular price comparison sites to help you out. Because that’s how we roll. In the name of equal opportunity, we kept our search specific, for Ugg Classic Short Boots (on all except the tech sites, of course). Here’s what we found:
Amazon.com. Amazon.com is probably the most high-profile of the price comparision sites (and the one we reference most on TBF), and for good reason. You’ll find a wide range of products here, from sellers across the web (including auction sites like eBay), as well as exclusive-to-Amazon deals on namebrand and designer items you’ll not easily find elsewhere. The downside? Your less-specific searches can turn up an avalanche of products that don’t always seem to actually relate to your search terms, requiring you to spend a lot more time sorting than you might like.
Pricegrabber.com. Picking our favorite part about Pricegrabber.com is easy: the most comprehensive price comparison featured we’ve seen. Once we’d found our target item, we simply click “compare” and get an easy-to-scan list of sellers with your best price at the top, including how much your total will be with shipping and handling. The Ugg boots we searched, for example, retail for almost exactly the same price at Onlineshoes.com and Neiman, but with free shipping and no tax at Onlineshoes.com, our online order would have ended up costing us $20 more if we’d gone with Neiman.
Bizrate.com. A bit easier on the eyes than Pricegrabber, Bizrate is equally easy to use. Our Ugg Classic Short Boots search actually produced a much longer list of options, which we were then able to break down by most popular, low to high price, etc. including a option to give our own specific price range rather than pick from a too-broad list of pricepoint choices.
Dealtime.com. Dealtime gives you a few different options to shop—you can search your item, shop by category, or take advantage of Buyer’s Guide and Store Directory tools. We searched our Ugg boots here, and found our cheapest price yet—$20 bucks below anyone else thus far on Amazon.com—which is a good example of how not all price-comparison sites are equal (Yep, for the best deal, you’ll have to search more than one. No one said this was going to be easy). Our favorite feature here? The detailed product and store reviews, because being armed with more information can only mean smarter shopping.
Beatmyprice.com. Beatmyprice.com is far and away one of the easiest sites to use—no big menus and messy graphics to sort through—simply enter your product, hit search and get a list. Simple. This is our top pick, then, for those for whom navigating the Internet is akin to hacking through the jungle with a machete; nothing scary here, just great deals.
Pricewatch.com. The design? Completely no frills—but while it lacks all the design bells and whistles, it’s straightforward and easy to use, and produces plenty of results to compare, assuming you have a very specific item in mind. The general categories, however, are not so useful—clicking on Women’s Apparel, for example, produces a weird mix of completely random items that left us scratching our heads, and moving on to the next site . . .
NexTag.com. More tech- than fashion-based, NexTag is still a great place to compare prices for all your non-apparel needs (we have to spend money on other stuff sometime). We especially like the “My Lists” box, where we can keep track of recent searches, viewed items, and create shopping and wish lists.
ShopStyle.com. Not exactly a price comparison site, per say, but a good place to search for clothing and accessories by item type—search for what you want, then break it down by price point, store, sales, etc. We love that we can be as general as searching for “purple sweater” and come up with a ton of great options from stores we love anyway, all in one place.
MySimon.com. Not affiliated with Simon Malls, MySimon is a reasonably intuitive site that’s easy to search or navigate by category—all of which are broken down into sub-categories (for example, the Health and Beauty section includes cosmetics, men’s fragrances, skin care, etc.) and then into even MORE specific sub-categories (like price range, cosmetic type, etc.). A 2008 gift guide is a helpful tool for those of us who need to shop but don’t really know what we’re looking for to begin with.
Smarter.com. By the time we’ve worked our way down to this site, search functions start to seem, well, pretty much all the same. So what sets Smarter.com apart? Fantastic user product reviews, including video reviews that show you the product, how it works, and commentary from the reviewer (an actual regular person who has purchased the product). The site also features coupons and daily deals, so we can not only compare prices on specific items but also find discounts for stores we frequently shop . . . that is smart.
AOL Shopping. We’ve never fully understood the point of AOL—it’s a network that made sense in the original incarnation of the Internet, but since Web 2.0 has sort of gotten buried under an avalanche of equal (or better) networking sites. Still, its shopping function is just another option for comparison shoppers. Our search for—what else?—Ugg boots didn’t turn up anything earth-shattering, but we do like the front page listings of specific stores (again, in case we don’t have one particular item in mind) as well as some shopping guides for the overwhelmed among us.
CNET Shopping. We’re never too excited about sites that take us right to an ad before we can actually enter the site, but everybody’s got to make a buck, we suppose. Once on the actual homepage, we found a sort of tech-haven, with everything from camcorders to MP3 players to cell phones to GPS systems and more. If there’s a tech-head in your household, this is the site to hit—even if you don’t know the tech lingo. As it turns out, the categories are translated into layman’s terms—we like that the computer sub-headings included things like “barebone desktops” and “budget laptops.” Now that’s speaking our language.
PriceRunner.com. Another day, another typical price comparison site—perfectly adequate but not much more. Still, we did enjoy one feature in particular (which puts this one in line with Pricegrabber for us)—once you’ve searched your item, a box at the top asks you to enter your zip code so it can calculate your full price including shipping. The less we have to use our calculator to get to the bottom line, the happier we are, quite frankly.
Google Product Search. Using the Google product search is fine if you’re looking for something really specific (like, say, some Classic Short Ugg boots). However, if you’re entering a more general search term the results can be all over the place, meaning you’ll spend a bunch of time wading through stuff you have absolutely zero interest in—and your ability to sort results is extremely limited. That being said, we do like that Google pulls results from eBay, meaning we might find exactly what we want on auction and get it cheaper than any retailer offering.
Streetprices.com. While most of the sites we’ve reviewed have some redeeming qualities, we’re hard pressed to find a reason to jump straight to Streetprices.com, unless you just can’t seem to find what you’re looking for elsewhere. Why? Well, clicking around on categories we headed to apparel, then to footwear, then to women’s—and got results like a Progestacare Pump and a Yellow Roses Christmas Party Dress for American Girl dolls. Hmmm. We could have then sorted the results by brand, etc., but we really don’t want to have to put that much effort into it, when there are other more user-friendly options out there . . .
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