If you wish your website to be added to this list call 0870
199 3871
or email : info@chardnet.co.uk
AUCTIONS
|
QXL
www.qxl.com
|
|
QXL is the biggest online auction house in
Europe and its online tour makes a great
introduction to the mysterious world of
bidding online. There's a good selection of
goods available on the site and it's always
bustling with activity - the Holidays section
is always worth a visit.
|
The Real Hollywood Online Auction
store.universalstudios.com/usacution
|
|
Universal Studios auctions off props and
costumes from its TV programmes and films at
this excellent site. You'll also find plenty
of signed photos for sale and unusual items
such as the pant suit actually worn by Marlene
Dietrich.
|
Sandafayre
www.sandafayre.com
|
|
Sandafayre is the world's largest online
auction for stamps. The site might look a tad
dull but it should be your first port of call
if you're looking for first editions and
postal rarities. Every week Sandafayre holds
huge auctions selling everything philatelic
from single stamps through to valuable
collections.
|
Sothebys
sothebys.amazon.com
|
|
Sothebys has teamed up with Amazon to offer
some very special online auctions. You'll find
unusual and rare lots here including old books
and manuscripts and entertainment and sports
memorabilia. The online guides are well worth
reading if you're looking for an introduction
to the art of collecting.
|
Vectis Auctions
www.vectis.co.uk
|
|
Vectis specialises in online auctions of
collectible toys. If you've been hoarding away
old Corgi and Matchbox cars or ancient Hornby
train sets this is the perfect place to get
rid of them. You can even look back on
previous auctions to see what kind of prices
these collectible toys are going for.
|
Rating : 4/5
|
Yahoo! Auctions
uk.auctions.yahoo.com/uk
|
|
There's a phenomenal amount of stuff for sale
on Yahoo's person-to-person auction site and
they're a mix of UK and US-based items. The
site is extremely busy and it's free to use
for buyers and sellers. Yahoo also runs lots
of charity auctions, which are well worth a
visit.
|
Auctions.com
www.auctions.com
|
|
You'll find some unusual lots for auction on
this site including historical signed photos
and bizarre items including an Amish wash tub.
Since it's a US-based site the prices are all
listed in dollars but it's well worth a browse
simply for the variety of goods on
offer.
|
BidnBuy
www.bidnbuy.com
|
|
From here you can jump off to two separate
sites. Buyer2Seller is a person-to-person
auction, while BidnBuy auctions off computer
products and peripherals. The site is based in
Ireland but they will ship to anywhere in the
European Community.
|
Bullnet Auctions
www.bullnet.co.uk/auctions
|
|
This site mixes business auctions with
person-to-person sales. It's free to buy and
sell in the person-to-person auctions. The
site gives you useful background information
on any seller you might want to deal with and
tells you if they've successfully sold from
the site before.
|
BuyStuff
www.buystuff.co.uk
|
|
The busiest area of this online auction is
the car section. Most of the cars for sale
come with photos and comprehensive
descriptions. You can even auction off domain
names here.
|
eBay
www.ebay.co.uk
|
|
The UK version of the giant US
person-to-person auction site is impressive.
It's free to put your stuff up for sale here.
And although many of the auctions are based in
the US you can search for only those lots sold
in the UK.
|
Ebid
www.ebid.co.uk
|
|
You get to run your own auction on this site
by putting up your own goods for sale. Be
warned though: if you do manage to sell
anything you will be charged a percentage of
the final bid. There are lots of products
being auctioned here and Ebid is especially
good for computer hardware and software.
|
Eurobid
www.eurobid.com
|
|
This nicely designed site shows you which
auctions are closing today so you could pick
up a few bargains if you get in there with a
winning bid right at the last minute. The
sellers come from all over Europe and so the
prices are listed in euros, although the
seller specifies what currency they want to be
paid in. You'll find everything from books
through to villas for sale on this site.
|
First Auction
www.firstauction.com
|
|
If you like your auctions fast and furious
check out the Flash Auctions on this site.
First Auction hold 21 half-hour auctions every
day - check out the online timetable for more
details. Bidding starts at a dollar on the
Flash auctions. The site is US-based but you
can still get some bargains.
|
Amazon Auctions
www.amazon.co.uk
|
|
You've got the potential to reach over 13
million buyers around the world if you auction
items at Amazon. It's free to put an ad up
there, you simply fill in an online form.
You'll find a mix of US and UK-based auctions
and there's a wide selection of goods on
sale.
|
Auction Hunter
www.auctionhunter.co.uk
|
|
This person-to-person auction site attracts
plenty of activity. However if you don't want
to hang around bidding all day, you can always
set up the RoboBid which bids automatically
for you up to your pre-set ceiling. Auction
Hunter also conducts Dutch auctions on this
site.
|
The Thesaurus Group
www.thesaurus.co.uk
|
|
More than the normal internet auction
sites. Times,dates and places of sales sites
across the UK, plus Auction Search allows
you to search 1,000 pages of catalogues from
over 600 auction houses and ACTS tracks
stolen fine art, antiques and
collectibles.
|
|
CD's,
TAPES, DVD's, & VIDEOS
|
101CD.com
www.101cd.com
|
|
This site doesn't look great and the design
is very basic, however it does stock over one
million CDs, DVDs, videos, games and books.
That figure includes over 500,000 import CDs.
Price and breadth of choice are the big
selling points here. A selection of the top 40
major new releases are going for a mere
£9.99 and that price includes postage
and packing within the UK. For each CD you get
track listings plus reviews from other 101CD
customers.
|
Audiostreet
www.audiostreet.co.uk
|
|
The prices are very reasonable on this
UK-based site with some chart CDs selling for
a mere £9.99. Even better, delivery is
free to UK addresses. The site is a doddle to
use - you just search the database by artist
or by CD title. You get to see your name in
lights if you add your own album reviews to
the site. If you want to stay on top of the
charts you can choose to view only the last
fortnight's worth of new releases.
|
CD Paradise
www.cdparadise.com
|
|
This site is a spin off from WH Smith. The
selection of CDs is reasonable with many going
for as little as £9.99. You can search
for the title of CD or go to a specific artist
or just browse through a musical genre. The
CDs are well reviewed and you can submit your
own opinions to the site. Shipping rates are
fixed at £2.95 if you order over
£50 worth of products and the items
should be dispatched within 48 hours. There's
also a handy Email Update option that lets you
know when your favourite artist releases a new
CD.
|
CDNow
www.cdnow.com
|
|
CDNow was one of the first and remains one of
the best and most comprehensive of online
music stores. The site is based in the US,
which means you get attractive US prices. The
good news is that CDNow use a European
shipping centre to speed up delivery and cut
down on costs for those over the pond. You'll
find Realaudio samples of many tracks on the
site so you can get a taster of a CD before
you buy. You can even create your own greatest
hits CD by downloading tracks at the very
reasonable price of 99 cents per track.
|
Emusic
www.emusic.com
|
|
This professional looking US site stocks a
huge range of CDs. Many of the CDs available
have sample tracks that you can listen to for
free and you can download tracks at 99 cents a
pop. The site also has a music news service
and plenty of background information on the
artists. There's even a pretty comprehensive
list of live gigs around the world.
|
HMV
www.hmv.co.uk
|
|
The huge high street music and video store,
HMV, as got a rather good web presence as
well. In case you hadn't guessed already, the
site offers you the chance to buy everything
on-line that you can get from any one of the
standard shops. The front page contains that
week's new releases, any of which you can buy.
As you would expect from HMV, the back
catalogue is truly immense, and the search
engine allows you to find what you are looking
for with ease.
|
Boxman
www.boxman.co.uk
|
|
This site is very simple to use and it's
fast. But perhaps the best news for music fans
is that it sells CDs at very competitive
prices (the price of chart CDs varied between
£10 and £11). You can search the
CD database by title, artist or by a specific
track. If you're lucky you might find you can
even listen to sample tracks of your chosen CD
over the Internet.
|
Yalplay
www.yalplay.com
|
|
Yalplay sells chart CDs at prices of around
£10.99, which is a couple of quid
cheaper than you'll find them in high street
musical outlets. As well as CDs the site also
stocks a reasonable selection of vinyl and
mini-disks. You won't find much background
information on the artists and there are no
track listings, which can be frustrating. Most
CDs are shipped out the next working day at a
delivery cost of £1.25 for the first CD
and 25p for each CD thereafter.
|
BlackStar
www.blackstar.co.uk
|
|
The simple design of this site means it's
fast to load and easy to work your way around.
You're tempted in on the front page with
special offers and free postage costs on DVDs
and videos. You can browse by film genre or
search for specific titles. There's a plot
summary for most of the films and suggestions
of other films you might like to see in the
same genre. The site is not short on bargains
either - some popular videos were available
for a mere £3.99.
|
DVD Box Office
www.dvdboxoffice.com
|
|
This site offers free shipping worldwide,
which makes a pleasant surprise. Of course
because Boxoffice is based in the States you
can get hold of films before they're available
in the UK and they're much cheaper than over
here. New Arrivals take centre stage on the
opening page of the site and you're looking at
prices between $25 and $30 for the latest
movies.
|
DVD Express
www.dvdexpress.com
|
|
If you are serious about DVD, then the only
way to go is to import titles from America.
The problem is choosing a suitably reliable
site. DVD Express is one such site. Offering
thousands of titles, as well as music CD's and
movie merchandise, this is a great site. The
design allows you to search for a title based
on a key word, or delve through the structure
in place.
|
DVDplus
www.dvdplus.co.uk
|
|
This site looks very stylish and proved to be
easy to navigate. You can search for videos or
DVDs by title, actor or director or you can
browse by genre. Each DVD comes with a plot
summary, reviews and a star rating. If you're
stuck for gift ideas then why not visit the
Inspire Me section where you'll find a list of
10 classic films that anyone would
appreciate.
|
Filmstore
www.filmstore.co.uk
|
|
This site is a subsidiary of the Odeon cinema
group and it sells the top DVDs and videos.
Each movie comes with a plot summary and you
can search for specific actors or directors.
There's a special section called TV Heaven for
cult soaps and TV shows on video which
contains classics such as Brideshead
Revisited.
|
Filmworld
www.filmworld.co.uk
|
|
You'll find a good selection of videos and
CDs on sale at Filmworld. The movies are
accompanied by detailed background
information. Movie buffs will appreciate the
many and varied ways you can search the
Filmworld database - by film title, director,
actor, distributor or by a specific year. You
could even use the online Film Atlas to choose
films made in specific countries. And just to
get you in the mood, you can even check out a
few film trailers online.
|
Video Paradise
www.videoparadise.com
|
|
Video Paradise is yet another WH Smith spin
off. You'll find plenty of special offers on
the site, with most of the videos being backed
up by comprehensive movie reviews along with
customer comments. If you're not sure what you
fancy watching then check out the video charts
for inspiration. Videos are sent out within 48
hours and delivery is charged at
£2.95.
|
Entertainment Express
www.entexpress.com
|
|
Not only does Entertainment Express sell
videos but it also turns its hands to CDs and
software. You'll always find some attractive
special offers at the site with many videos
going for as little as £3.99. If you're
looking for inspiration you can browse by
genre or find a specific title by typing in a
movie title or an actor's name. The prices are
good and include delivery costs.
|
|
SHOPPING
|
Iceland
www.iceland.co.uk
|
|
The TV ads tell us that Iceland sell more
than just frozen food and in attempt to
compete with the big boys they've recently
launched an online shopping service. The
service is available to customers living
within a 10-mile radius of an Iceland store
(or three miles within the M25 area) and, even
better, delivery is free if you order over
£40 worth of goods. As you'd expect from
Iceland the prices are competitive and the
range of goods available is impressive.
|
Lastorders.com
www.lastorders.com
|
|
Instead of nipping round the corner to the
local offy you can get all your booze from
Lastorders. The site stocks over 250 products
and is strong on lagers, ciders, spirits and
Alcopops. The choice of wines is less
impressive, wine buffs will be better off with
a dedicated wine merchant. Prices are
reasonable but do bear in mind the fact that
you're usually ordering in bulk. The delivery
fee is £3.50 per order.
|
Organics Direct
www.organicsdirect.com
|
|
We might all want to eat healthy organic food
but it can be tricky to find a good local
supplier. Organics Direct gets around this
problem by delivering its range of organic
fruit, vegetables, dairy produce, bread, wine
and cakes to anywhere in the UK mainland.
Bizarrely, you can even order organic nappies
from the site. The produce comes highly
recommended - the company won the 'Box scheme
of the year' award in the National 1999
Organic Food awards. A mixed vegetable box
will set you back a mere £12.95
including delivery.
|
Tesco Direct
www.tesco.co.uk
|
|
It's good news for Southerners on the Tesco
site - if you live in London or the South East
you can order your weekly grocery shop from
the Tesco site and get it shipped direct to
your door. If you live in the rest of the UK
there's a fair chance you might still fall in
the Tesco online shopping catchment area -
you'll just have to type in your postcode to
see if you're one of the lucky ones. There's
an excellent range of goods available from the
site including items from the off-license area
and magazines and newspapers. Delivery costs a
fiver and if you order early enough goods can
be shipped out the same day.
|
Whittard Of Chelsea
www.whittard.com
|
|
The tea and coffee specialist Whittard has
branches all over the country, and now you can
order your tea and coffee over the Internet
with this simply designed, easy to use site.
As well as tea (covering heaps of varieties
from Oolong Black Dragon through to English
Breakfast) and coffee (covering virtually
every coffee you care to mention), you can
also order china and 'specials' (biscuits,
gift vouchers, hot chocolate). Whittard will
even ship items over to America for you.
There's one area of the site that Americans
will find particularly useful, it gives you
instructions on how to make the perfect cup of
tea.
|
Worldfoods
www.worldfoods.co.uk
|
|
It's not always easy to get hold of organic
foods, which is where WorldFoods steps in with
its range of unprocessed, additive-free foods.
Amongst the myriad products you can buy online
are nuts, snacks, dried fruits, grains and
pasta, organic groceries, breakfast cereals,
seeds beans and lentils and organic
vegetables. The site is smart enough to store
details of your last order so you can use that
as a basis for your next online shop.
|
Sainsbury's
www.sainsburys.co.uk
|
|
Shop online with Sainsbury's and your fruit
and veg is specially selected for you by
trained Orderline shoppers, you can even
specify how ripe you like your bananas. The
online ordering service doesn't cover all of
the UK as yet - you have to type in your
postcode to see if you're in the catchment
area. Order before 9pm and you'll get your
goods by 10am the next day. As with Tesco, the
delivery fee for ordering your grub online is
a fiver.
|
Berry Bros & Rudd
www.bbr.co.uk
|
|
This is one of the best online wine merchants
selling some top quality grape juice. Hang the
expense and check out the vintage section of
the site where you'll see lots of wines at
over £250 a bottle. But there's plenty
to suit at the budget end of the market too.
Each wine comes with a helpful description and
you can search their huge database by grape
variety, country of origin or colour. If you
order over £100 worth of wine delivery
is free, otherwise it costs a rather expensive
£7.50 per order.
|
|
STORES
|
Toys R Us
www.toysrus.co.uk
|
|
The giant toy superstore stocks nearly 1,000
toys on its bright and breezy Web site. You
can browse by category of toys with most items
accompanied by clear pictures. The prices are
competitive and there are often special online
promotions and deals. You should also check
out the sister Babies R Us site
(www.babiesrus.co.uk) where you can buy baby
toys, clothes and even nappies. Products are
normally delivered within three working days
and the delivery charge is £2.50 per
order.
|
Zoom
www.zoom.co.uk
|
|
Zoom isn't a big name on the high street but
you will know the stores behind this new
online brand; TopShop, Principles, Dorothy
Perkins and Evans are just a few of the brand
names represented in this online department
store. Zoom majors on selling clothing
although you can also buy electrical items,
gifts, household goods and even cars if your
credit card will let you. Every product is
accompanied by a picture, so you can see
exactly what you're buying.
|
Debenhams
www.debenhams.co.uk
|
|
Debenhams is one of the first of the big
department stores to actually offer products
for sale online. The online goods for sale are
limited to a selection of gifts and flowers
and you can also access the wedding list
service through the site. The gifts are nicely
presented and beautifully photographed. The
100 or so products are split into section
gifts for Him, for Her and for the Home.
Delivery is free on orders over £125
otherwise it's £2.95 per order and that
includes free returns.
|
The Gadget Shop
www.thegadgetshop.co.uk
|
|
The Gadget Shop is packed full of those
stylish items so beloved by boys everywhere.
You'll find a good selection of the products
available on the high street on this site.
Real gadget fans can even set up their own
personal gift wish list, which is a great boon
if you've got a birthday coming up. If you
don't know where to start why not check out
the top ten most popular items on the site.
Once you've chosen one product just follow the
suggestions that lead you to other similar
products. You could be there for days.
|
Hamleys
www.hamleys.co.uk
|
|
Visiting Hamleys with kids in tow can be a
torturous experience - you'll never get the
children out of there without kicking and
screaming as there's just too much stuff to
play with. Now you can get hold of that famous
red Hamleys bag without setting foot in the
store by shopping online. You can choose items
by category of toy or check out the toy
recommendations. There are even some
limited-edition toys that adults will probably
take a bit of a fancy to. The site looks great
and every toy is well photographed - but be
warned, it's not cheap.
|
Liberty of London
www.liberty-of-london.com/shopping
|
|
This site is gorgeous, which is no more than
you'd expect from this exclusive London
department store. If you're looking for
unusual gifts this is the site to visit.
You'll find exquisite fabrics, hoards of gift
ideas for the man or woman in your life and
some fabulous furniture. All the products are
clearly photographed and then dispatched in
the distinctive purple and gold Liberty
packaging. The items shown here aren't cheap
although you could always click on the button
that pulls up all the items under
£50.
|
MFI
www.mfi.co.uk
|
|
If it's free-standing bedroom, office, lounge
or kitchen furniture you're after, they can
all be ordered online from MFI. If you're
after more detailed information and help on
planning your room you can even book an
appointment with one of MFI's specialist
planners from the Web site. Delivery is free
and as you'll know MFI boasts some of the
keenest furniture prices in the
business.
|
Argos
www.argos.co.uk
|
|
You won't find the entire Argos catalogue
online just yet. Nevertheless the selection of
products is impressive. You can choose to
search by entering a key word or you can relax
and browse through product areas. The products
are accompanied by photos gleaned from the
catalogue. The delivery process is less than
impressive though, Argos state you'll usually
get your product within four to six working
days - which is a bit tardy. Spend over
£150 and delivery is free.
|
|
|