The Wonder of Online Shopping

One thing that I absolutely like about living in US is being able to shop online. My first online shopping experience was in Freshman year. After kena sucked blood by the university's bookstore during the 1st sem, I finally found out the smart way to get textbooks is to buy online. Eureka!!! Everything is just one-click away.

Off course, I was skeptical at first. What if I kena conned by the seller? What if my credit info kena stolen? What if the package got lost/damaged in transit?

Books - nothing much can really go wrong with these, other than getting the wrong editions, or those in terrible conditions. Gotta be careful when you are getting the international versions; first, for science/math/engineering related books, make sure the units are correct (English not metric); second, there are good quality ones, most probably imported from sg or msia, or "pangsai-chua" quality ones, most probably from china or india, and they usually cost the same. I once got a "pangsai-chua" version which was pretty bad. The papers were thin, and the ink got onto my fingers. I think my butt deserves better.

CDs - used to buy LeeHom's album from yesasia.com. The price isn't cheap after converting, but it's going to cost the same if I were to shipped it from msia. Ebay is also a cool site to find asian entertainment merchandise. My only issue is I can't really trust individual seller.

Tech Gadgets - definitely get these online. You won't believe how many good deals you can find out there in the cyber world. dealsea.com, techbargains.com and slickdeals.net are the 3 main ones that I always visit. These are sites that post offers available at different companies. Gotta have some self control though, you could easily buy a lot of craps that you don't really need.

Clothing - kena burnt with these. It's hard to estimate size, which varies so much with the cutting and design. friends were laughing at my geekiness when they found out that I actually shop for clothes online. Well...I did have pretty valid reasons - some discounts are valid online only, and I hated shopping at the mall because of the crowd. Unfortunately, the discount wasn't worth it at all when I had to make the trip to the mall to return the clothings that didn't fit.

Shoes - really got into shopping shoes online recently. Got a pair of Born shoes a year ago, and loved it. My current favorite site is shoebuy.com, simply because it offers good discounts. Another plus point is its free shipping (including returns); there was once when I had to make 3 returns because I kept on getting the wrong size (a flaw with online shopping), and I didn't have to pay a nickel. Just ordered 2 pair of shoes recently, and I am hoping they turn out right. Well, I guess this is just part of the excitement you get from online shopping, kind of like gambling on your own judgment.