Jim Karpen Tips

Top Commerce Sites

February 2001

It's time for a review of some of the best commerce sites--in case you missed an earlier column or haven't yet gotten around to trying them. A number have emerged as industry leaders.

Chief among these is eBay, which expects more than $6 billion in sales this year, according to Time magazine. A few years ago when we reviewed it, it was a fledgling auction site. Now it's a huge business--and a darling of Wall Street, with its stock price heading up at a time when other Internet stocks are falling.

The scope of items being offered is staggering. Lately the site has added areas such as eBay Motors and eBay Business Exchange. You can buy or sell anything from a used school bus to a doll.

eBay is ideal for unloading items you don't need. When I upgraded the hard drive on my computer, I sold the old one on eBay. From what I can tell, the eBay auctions favor the seller, with items often fetching a good price.

Conducting business online means exchanging money, and PayPal has emerged as the leader in that area. Once you set up a PayPal account, sending someone money is as easy as sending an e-mail message. I would guess that the majority of transactions on eBay now use PayPal.

Amazon is still getting most of the press as a top online retailer. Even though many other major retailers have emerged, some with lower prices, I still favor Amazon for buying items such as books, videos, and CDs because I like the way that it tracks my interests and makes recommendations for additional purchases. Plus, the reviews by consumers can sometimes be quite helpful.

The low-price leader is unquestionably CyberRebate, where the many of the items are free (after rebate). Recent freebies included a CD player that retails for over $200 and a personal refrigerator that retails for over $300. They are currently even offering free shipping. It's always a little worrisome to put out a chunk of money with the promise of getting it back, but when I spent $100 on a sports bag, the rebate came--just like they said it would.

MySimon continues to be one of the best shopping search engines. And if you're looking for computers, electronics, cameras, games, and the like, my favorite sites for low cost and good service are Buy.Com and Outpost.Com.

My most recent discovery is the Lands' End site. They have an overstock section with excellent prices, and within that a section titled On the Counter that offers amazing values, like the 100% silk sport coat that I recently got for $12.