The Guardian guide to shopping on the Internet - Jim McClellan

The first in a new series of Guides to specific areas of the Internet, The Guardian Guide to Internet Shopping is a complete handbook to any kind of buying or selling over the Net, It's one of the most exciting dimensions of the Internet: global shopping. You can buy anything, from anywhere, at any time. The shop is never shut. But where do you go for best value? And what safeguards should you insist on when purchasing by credit card from a supplier you will never meet? The Guardian Guide to Internet Shopping is packed with advice on the principles of shopping electronically so that you won't get your pockets picked. And it contains an A-Z of the best sites for consumers on the Web: established retailers of anything from gardening tools to books, from holidays to fancy dress. Plus guidance on how to join the many auction sites, which are often less tightly regulated but which can offer you bargains galore and introduce you into the thrift-store dimension of shopping on the Web -- from the purchase of a GBP3.00 pop poster to a rare artefact. Shopping has never been so fast or such fun: you lose the crowds and the piped music; you gain endless opportunities to buy.