You Bought That on the Web?

TIP OF THE DAY

You Bought That on the Web?

You Bought That on the Web?

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/18/technology/circuits/18shopp.html?ex=1258520400&en=0d580e80cde8e316&38;ei=5088&38;partner=rssnyt
By MICHELLE SLATALLA

F my picture were on the wall at the post office, it would hang beneath a sign that said "Ten Least Wanted." In the photo, I would be shown trying to foist a gaily wrapped holiday present on an unsuspecting recipient.

The poster would list my crime ("world's worst gift giver") and some of my aliases ("Novelty Necktie Nellie") and describe me as being "considered armed and extremely dangerous with credit cards at this time of year."

I've been trying to go straight. In the past few holiday seasons, shopping online helped me take the first steps. The Internet introduced me to no-hassle Web sites that offered no-nonsense suggestions for tasteful and useful gifts like, say, the women's cashmere turtlenecks at bananarepublic.com (they're available this year in four colors, for $158 apiece) or the holiday swizzle stick sets at crateandbarrel.com (made of handblown glass, they're adorned with snowmen or Christmas trees this year, $6.95).

Suddenly, imagination-challenged gift givers like me were giving everybody the same thing. My modus operandi was to efficiently point and click my way through stores stocked with reliably interchangeable merchandise like books (this year amazon.com will offer last-minute "holiday guarantee" shipping for $3.99 on orders placed by Dec. 20) or pillar candles (they cost from $5 to $8 at potterybarn.com, depending on height).

But recently I started noticing that nearly everyone on my list already had a cashmere sweater.

And pillar candles.

And a stainless steel cocktail shaker.

And a brightly colored striped scarf.

And unused credit left over from last year's

Amazon.com gift certificate.

But luckily for recipients on my list, some Internet merchants are staying a step ahead of bad gift givers like me. This year a growing number of sites are making it easy for me to buy stuff online that doesn't look like I got it online.

A variety of sites, including yoox.com (which sells designer clothing and jewelry, among other things) and saigoniste.com (which specializes in Vietnamese imports), are selling one-of-a-kind items that nobody else will be able to buy for people on your holiday gift list.

"Retailers have spent years trying to make it very convenient for shoppers to shop online," said Lauren Freedman, president of the E-tailing Group, a consulting firm in Chicago. "By now many people know the companies they like, and they will go to those to shop. But there is that growing specialty element."

Just in time, too, with shoppers poised to spend more than $15 billion online this holiday season, an increase of up to 26 percent from last year, according to comScore Networks Inc.

In the early days of online shopping, stores that sold quirky merchandise were likely to have peculiar checkout procedures. But no more. At many smaller sites, even gift wrap has become a standard feature. The only caveat for shoppers looking for a one-of-a-kind gift is this: Allow yourself plenty of time to browse. The supply is limited, and selection can be hit-or-miss. But I'm happy to say that the most idiosyncratic aspect of shopping online at the following sites was the inventory:

YOOX.COM
One day last week I clicked on Collectible Vintage in Special Areas and found a selection of seven one-of-a-kind fashion items, including a 1970's era Gucci leather handbag ($250) and a 1980's era Aquascutum trench coat ($1,100, size small). The one-of-a-kind selection, which Yoox began selling this month, changes as pieces are sold. "In under one week we have sold nearly half of all the goods," Hilary Bowers, Yoox's co-founder, said last week. " We will be uploading more product continuously."

PHOTOWOW.COM
This site promises to turn any photo into custom artwork by applying what Robert Schiff, the company's president, calls graphics arts expertise to create Warhol-esque four-panel Pop Art designs or vintage hand-tinted prints from even the humblest snapshot. Photowow.com can restore damaged family photos ("Let us eliminate the tears, cracks and water damage"). But it's not cheap; the site charges separately for designing, for printing and for framing a single image. Prices can edge close to $1,000 for the largest sizes. "We get everything, from little shots taken in a photo booth to pictures taken with very professional cameras, and we have to manage to make each one look like a masterpiece, and we do," Mr. Schiff said.

SAIGONISTE.COM
In addition to an unusual selection of eclectic, modern Vietnamese items like lacquerware and woven yoga bags, the site sells a few one-of-a-kind products. Last week it was selling a hand-carved marble tic-tac-toe set ($70) and a Vietnamese political propaganda poster ($495).

MAMASMINERALS.COM
Along with gemstones, fossils, minerals and lapidary and rock tumbling supplies, Mama's Minerals has a one-of-a-kind merchandise category that one day last week listed such items as a 46-ounce geode from Brazil ("cut in half to reveal the intriguing and beautiful interior, which is one of Mother Nature's mysteries," $25.75) and a 5¼-inch fossilized shark tooth (on sale for $264.75, was $275).

FLEUR-NEWYORK.COM
This site sells antique planters and containers (including glazed jars from France, circa 1860, from $850 to $1,400), furnishings (like a pair of wooden sunburst mirrors, $1,500 apiece) and garden statuary (I was partial to two carved stone busts of Roman emperors, $15,000 for the pair).

LANDOFMARBLES.COM
Although the cluttered design renders this site harder to navigate than the others, the unusual selection of antique marbles makes up for the confusion. From the home page I clicked on Antiques, then arrived at a page where I could mix and match to put together a collector's bag of specimens from shooters like the brown Benningtons ("clay marbles fired in a kiln with a brown salt glaze," $11.99 apiece) and peewees like the clay marbles from Germany that were described as having "flaking paint in an assortment of colors" (99 cents each).

I also stumbled upon a number of sites selling merchandise that although not necessarily one-of-a-kind was unusual and charming enough to elicit a surprised thank-you from even the most battle-worn recipient on a bad gift giver's list. At yosemitehide.com, the Western Ware's Cowboy Collection includes dinnerware with the evocative black-and-white images of the frontier photographer Laton Alton Huffman ($23 for a mug or $118 for a four-piece place setting). At chefmall.com, which sells equipment for professional and home cooks, I found a useful selection of heavy-duty BurnGuard oven mitts, and, for the cook who has everything, commercial meat slicers that would look at home at the local deli. And at quelobjet.com, I found graphically striking imported tea towels decorated with wine labels ($18 apiece), which I was tempted to buy for myself.

There are thousands more unusual sites like these, of course, all touting the sort of peculiar merchandise that has the potential to end up on gift recipients' "Ten Most Wanted" lists. But knowing they are out there can be the most frustrating part of hunting for unique gifts online. You suspect they're lurking a click away. How do you find them?

This year two search sites are offering new features that may help bad gift givers like me to home in on the unusual and the unique. I tested Yahoo's Shopping search site and shopzilla.com. While I had limited success, they are worth a try.

At Yahoo, which searches among 50 million products at 200,000 merchant sites to try to find what shoppers want, my most successful search was for "vintage fiesta ware." After I typed my query into the keyword search box at shopping.yahoo.com, the site helped guide me through the maze of the Internet.

"Do you mean 'vintage fiestaware'?" the site prompted.

"Vintage fiestaware," I agreed.

A page with 12 results appeared, on which tiny thumbnail images of Fiestaware demitasse cups and compotes appeared alongside the text results. The pictures allowed me to quickly eliminate irrelevant results. A new feature that Yahoo rolled out this month allowed me to Refine Results and to narrow my search further by price and merchandise category.

In the end, Yahoo steered me to moodindigonewyork.com, a seller of Fiestaware that I did not know about.

At shopzilla.com, launched this week by the shopping comparison site formerly known as Bizrate, a new "flexibrowse" feature makes it possible to browse for clothing online.

"It's hard work making it possible to find soft goods like clothing online, but it's where we excel because we have more items listed in that category than anyone," said Chuck Davis, the company's chief executive.

At shopzilla.com's homepage last week, after I clicked on Clothing and Accessories, the flexibrowse feature helped me narrow the search, first by category (women's clothing, at 1,183 stores), then by type of product (outerwear), price range (greater than $150), brand, (The North Face), features (waterproof) and material (nylon). Suddenly, a women's Atmosphere Jacket appeared on my screen. It was $159.95 from mbstores.com.

Another useful feature both search sites offered was the ability to save results. Studies show that even bad gift givers spend a few minutes a day browsing online before swooping in to make a purchase; it's nice to have my research organized for me.

"At Yahoo, we think of the new My Saved Products feature as a way to have a locker where you can store your searches," said Rob Solomon, a Yahoo Shopping vice president.

This early in the holiday shopping season we bad gift givers have the luxury to take our time finding just the right one-of-a-kind gift.

Of course, in a week or two, when I start to panic, you may run into me at restorationhardware.com, buying stainless steel cocktail shakers in bulk (from $40 to $65, depending on size). If so, I'll be hoping nobody on my list already has one shaped like a penguin.

E-mail: Slatalla@nytimes.com