Holiday shopping made easier!

With Thanksgiving being tomorrow, a lot of minds already seem to be on the holiday shopping season. There is "Black Friday" and then "Cyber Monday". Frankly, I was never one to get all crazy about the sales. In my house, my kids know that I will get them something they want whenever they ask - if they deserve it and I can afford it - so the sales make little difference. I am not putting myself into a crowd of overzealous people for some video game, television, or tickle me Elmo.

Perhaps it is mostly that I am not a crowds person. I will admit, I do like scoping out deals at times, looking for those few coveted items I really want but can never afford (like a Kitchen Aid stand mixer.... sigh.) When I want to scout the deals, my focus is shopping online from the safety of my desk. Even then, it is really hard to find the deals. If I want to look for something I need, like a new DVD player, I have to go to each page to check them out. This means visiting several sites to see who has the better deal. It makes the whole shopping experience seem tedious to me yet again. Shopping should be fun, right?

Well, as I was browsing the web, I came across a solution. Canada Post offers a service via there web site where you can comparison shop for the same item from several different locations. It shows all the prices on one page, so all you do is put in a search term and it looks for you!  

Let me show you an example: I could search Apple products for that iPod that I have been wanting (yeah, I'm a little behind the times with my mini-disk walkman), and it will come up with prices for iPods from five or six different sellers - along with the shipping charges so I can figure out easily which one is the best deal.

I also noticed that several of the listings offer free shipping due to whatever deal they may have with Canada Post to ship and promote for them. This is good for the buyers though. That is less money out of my pocket, which is always good. So now, the only question is "Which one will I pick?" Well, always the frugal one, I plan to come back and check out the prices Monday to see who is the best deal then. ;)

Share with me your experiences with this site - I love to hear about awesome finds.