Not to hijack the thread about having all the Christmas gifts bought, I thought we might share cool websites that have neat gift items for not a lot of moolah.
My no-brainer site – Amazon
My new favorite – www.thinkgeek.com
Buy an “Annoy-a-tron” – tiny little gadget that you hide in someone else’s space/office and it beeps at random intervals. My husband had his boss so insane that he had everything from the top of his desk moved into the corner of the room, and he was crouched under his desk, demanding that people come into his office and listen to see where the beep was coming from.
Also bought my daughter’s SO a screaming flying monkey. It fits him.
I love Thinkgeek.com.
Another one that you can easily get lost in for days to …ummmm years is Etsy if you want handmade, fantabulous things of everything imaginable.
A few more that I like:
http://www.worldwidefred.com
http://www.fredflare.com
http://www.buyolympia.com
I really love etsy too! I could spend all day looking through their shops.
Etsy Etsy Etsy. I am a bit late jumping on the bandwagon, but it lives up to the hype for many reasons:
-easy online shopping (with no bidding, spammers, or anything else that makes eBay annoying) -lots of amazing one-of-a-kind vintage stuff (okay, plus some [=tags&includes=title"]real dogs](This item is unavailable - Etsy[))
-you can choose to shop locally, even picking up some stuff to save on shipping
-you’re supporting independent businesspeople
-prices are for the most part incredibly reasonable or cheap (to the point where I wonder how anyone’s making money – it’s got to be a labor of love for a lot of these people)
And, of course, even if you don’t find anything you like, the awful stuff is half the fun.
Okay, that worldwidefred is just terrible. Addictive. I just spent a whole lot of money on that stuff.
American Science and Surplus advertises “Incredible stuff, unbelievable prices!” and they’re not lying. It is a surplus store, which means that the selection will vary wildly, but that’s half the fun. The selection tends towards scientific and hobby scientific items, so if your hobby is building robots, for instance, you can probably find just about everything you need for your latest creation. There’s lots of other stuff too, though.
Oooh cool, they sell nitinol wire! I sure wish I’d known about them before I laid out all that cash on my kids’ orthodontia - I coulda done it myself and saved a WHOLE bunch of money 
A chunk of Aerogel might be fun, too!
Ooh, that Aerogel page is evil. “Say, wouldn’t youuuuu like a big ol’ chunk of Aerogel? Isn’t it pretty? Think of all the neat stuff you could do with your own block o’ Aerogel. You’d buy something like that, wouldn’t you? WELL, YOU CAN’T HAVE IT!”
If you just find it necessary to own giant piles of radioactive ore, keep it outside. If you must store it inside, invest in a digital Radon detector. It will continuously display the Radon levels and should they ever rise too high, an alarm goes off. It’s a worthwhile investment for the serious collector.
:eek::dubious::D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D
OMG, that Regretsy site is just plain awesome.
For fantastic buttons and bumperstickers, I recommend NancyButtons:
Browse the Catalog!
This is giving me flashbacks to the ads in the backs of comic books. Mustn’t… spend… allowance.
For my tricky Lord of the Rings nerd nephews I resorted to New Zealand’s Weta Workshop. Terrific stuff and great service. I also bought a pile of LOTR chainmail keyrings that disappeared to curious visitors without ever being given by me as gifts. They don’t seem to be available at the moment?
This isn’t gonna be groundbreaking to anybody, but I would like to buy great Christmas gifts for cheap.
Now the problem is I don’t totally know where to go to comparison shop, so I am asking the dopernation to help. Post some of your favorite websites to get things for cheap, shopping habits, and best places for best things.
Know where to get cheap appliances? List it.
Cheap electronics? List it.
Great comparison sites? List it.
This could help everyone!
Better for books (although great for DVDs, and other things too sure), but I’ve used Amazon.com very successfully. Check the xx used and new for $xx area (where the Amazon Marketplace shops are), and sometimes I’ve found some real steals. Gently used copy of some normally high priced obscure book for around a buck ($6 with shipping, but c’mon). And better than eBay, what with the not getting ripped off part.
Here is a recent thread that I think had some cool stuff Christmas gift wundersites.