Have you got a special interest? Most people have a special unique interest that gets them excited whether it's a hobby or just an interest. Mine is ceramics, being a ceramicist I love anything to do with the art of ceramics and sculpting with clay. I am always looking for books and DVDs on ceramics, and when it comes to my birthday all my friends and family start looking for presents related to ceramics. I also love Madonna and anything to do with her makes a great present, and finding rare memorabilia is right up my street.



Maybe you are a transport history or a classic films nerd? If so, you are probably always keeping a look out for books or films on the subject. A friend of mine is mad on general history, whether it's to do with the first and Second World War or ancient history that goes back further than that, he loves it. When it's near Christmas or his birthday you can always catch me looking round shops for books and DVDs on history. I often look on Ebay as it can be a great place for finding bargains. The only trouble with Ebay and other auction sites is that the price can sky rocket if a couple of people are bidding and both dedicated to winning the auction. There was a time when I was bidding on a Madonna DVD of one of her first live concerts bank in the 80's.

It was quite a rare one or so it said and there were no bidders when I first put my first bid on. Then the day before the auction finished a couple of people bided which put the price up. Being a big fan and desperate to win the DVD I bided again and put a higher reserve on it. For a while I was the winning bidder, until half an hour before the auction ended. Luckily I was online at the time so I bided again and watched and waited. I kept a browser up with the item on and kept refreshing it. The biding had started at around ?3 pound, around 5 minutes before the end the DVD was going for ?35 and it kept rising. I gave up at this stage and just watched. The winning bidder bought the DVD for ?43.50 plus ?2 for postage and packaging which I though was seriously over priced. Surely it can't be that rare, if they made one DVD they must have made a few. So I investigated. Using good old Google you can search online and find lots of interesting online shops.

It wasn't long before I was looking at the exact DVD I had been bidding on, except this was on a special interest DVD site, the only difference being the price was fixed and including the postage and packaging the price of the DVD was just ?8.00! Bargain I thought and snapped it up straight away. And to think I would have had to pay over ?45 on Ebay for the same DVD.

So the moral of this story is, look around before you buy. There are hundreds of online shops and auctions around the internet, some of them selling the same items but each with their own price tag. Comparison sites are great also, but beware there are plenty of them popping up so use a few. They are great if you specifically know what you want.