The Best of Online Shopping: Discoveries

Discoveries
International	Discovery--Web Shopping Goes International Web shopping used to be limited to a few stores in the United States. But now you can shop around the high-tech world for a unique flavor, some bargains, and the feeling that you have been on a trip, without suffering jet lag.
Auctions	Discovery--New Auctions to Win The bidding is breaking out of the auction sites, spreading to portals, stores, warehouses. Here are a few new places to win an auction, whether you are buying or selling.
Shopping on America Online	Discovery--Shopping on America Online There are some real pluses to doing your shopping within the world's biggest portal, but even non-members can get big benefits from visiting America Online's Web site, and doing their shopping from there.
Prescription & Over-the-Counter Drugs	Discoveries--Prescription and Over-the-Counter Drugs We've run into a few great new sites, to supplement the ones we identified in our book. Plus, for your amusement, we report on some, well, dubious discoveries--drugstores that warrant the thumbs down sign.
Bonus: World Prints	Discovery--World Prints If you like images, you'll enjoy playing with World Prints. This company gives you a little wallpaper utility called Image Catcher, built so you can download images off their site, every day if you wish. The download works well; the instructions are clear; the pictures fantastic. They appear in your background and screen saver. We’ve been looking at Machu Pichu, the abandoned houses and walls at the top of the mountains in Peru, and a Japanese arch set out in the shallow water, as a welcome. The idea is that if you go back to their site enough times to pick up the freebies you may stroll over to buy their posters and prints (they claim to offer 100,000 images, arranged in galleries). They do sell some frames, but only as extras; this is not a frame shop. The images are top notch. Only downside: they embed tiny ads in their screensaver software, which float around the screen whenever you are looking at the picture: a little dizzying. Sample items for sale: Ansel Adams, Clearing Winter Storm, poster, 36x25.5, $39 Footsteps in the Sand, National Geographic image on a dozen notecards, 5x7, $12.95 Pablo Picasso, Guernica, poster, 19 6/8 x 39 3/8, $33


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