I spent a weekend assembling some cool kits that would make fun gifts for nerdy people like me. Mostly laser-cut parts with lots of gears or moving parts. My recommendations of the best kits are here. But the neatest cool and unusual kit is this small version of the 24-footed Strandbeest, which walks powered by a blast of air. At only $15, it’s a bargain. — KK

When it comes to giving gifts to the kids in my life, I prefer to not buy toys that are trending now but will become junk in a few months. For the holidays, I’m planning on buying from the Engineering Gift Guide from Purdue, which has a lot of inspiration-inducing gifts for boys and girls ages 3-18. — CD

TheReviewIndex finds recurring patterns in Amazon Reviews and then makes sense of it for you. It displays positive/negative ratings for things like “ease of use,” “quality,” “reliability,” and much more depending on the item. You can click through further to see snippets from user reviews pertaining to one particular aspect of the product. Right now the website only supports Electronics, Gadgets and Appliances. Worth bookmarking to make your shopping decisions a little easier. — CD

As a freelancer, I need to keep track of office supplies and other items that are tax deductible. I buy almost everything on Amazon, and I recently learned that you can download your past purchases as spreadsheet files. This is going to save me a lot of time because I can filter out things like food, clothing, toys, etc. — MF

I have great childhood memories of going to estate sales with my mother in rich neighborhoods. Everything but the House is estate sale hunting without the effort. It’s like a more refined eBay. I’ve already spent way too much time bookmarking things and imagining the history of each item. — CD

When I’m in shopping mode I check out BestReviews. Modeled after Wirecutter and Cool Tools, it tests, compares and recommends a huge variety of products, from ATV ramps, to kiddie pools, to pressure washers. It carries no ads, relying on Amazon links for revenue. While its range is vast, the depth of reviews is uneven, but I find their simple summaries of the best stuff worthwhile to check out. — KK

A great hack to know during shopping days is to always check out RetailMeNot before purchasing anything online, outside of Amazon. There is a high chance I’ll find a discount coupon for a retail purchase I am considering. RetailMeNot will give you the coupon code, and the rate of success others have recently had in using it (the codes are crowdsourced). Discounts of 10, 20, or 30% are not uncommon in my experience. I don’t shop without it. — KK

My Subscription Addiction spoilers section is my go-to bookmark when I can’t physically wait to get monthly makeup box from Sephora. But this site is so much more than that. It’s a massive directory of subscription boxes you can search by gender, categories, and countries. As well as reviews, there are promo codes and a free forum for swapping items. — CD

For my tastes, the best holiday gift guide is the annual catalog of cool books, games, toys, and DIY tools put together by The Kid Should See This website. Ordinarily the site hosts the best video clips your kids should see, but during the holidays they compile this long and annotated list of cool stuff that is aimed at active kids, but also works for adults with young minds. — KK

This brief, succinct blog post has great advice on how to find what you want (at least with used furniture) on Craigslist. For instance, don’t forget to search for common misspellings of your target. These tips match my experience in buying used tools on Craigslist. — KK

When I have an idea of what I want, but don’t want to go searching for it at the mall, I use my ShopStyle app (iOS, Android). I can filter my search according to keyword description, color, size, price, brand, department store, etc. The “Tailored Shop” updates daily and personalizes a store based on past searches and favorites — perfect for virtual “window shopping.” — CD

I take full advantage of the Request a Quote option on Yelp. Once you type out your request, Yelp gives you the option to submit the same message to similar businesses nearby. I click the max amount available (up to 10), and find that most people start responding right away! I’ve used this recently to find the cheapest and fastest phone screen repair. — CD

Amazon’s Interesting Finds will give you pages of really cool, surprising stuff. I don’t know how they are curating it, but I particularly like the Fun option. — KK 

Amazon now has a section where they sell originally Kickstarted projects. Bottom up retailing. — KK 

Prices on Amazon oscillate week to week far more than you might think. Paste an Amazon url into Camelcamelcamel.com to see the chart of an item’s price history. If you are not in a hurry, you can use the chart to set a plausible low target price and Camel will send you an alert and buy button when (if) it reaches that price. — KK

Before buying something on Amazon enter the URL for the product at fakespot.com. This free service will analyze how many shill reviewers have rated a product, and award a “Fakespot Grade” from A to F. A low grade doesn’t necessarily mean a product is bad, it just means you shouldn’t take the reviews and user ratings into consideration when making your decision to buy something. — MF