My mother once lamented about my long wish list. I was probably about 12 at the time, and had been pouring over the Sears catalog, which was the equivalent of Amazon back in the day, for those of you too young to remember rotary phones and party lines and computers took up entire floors of buildings and they weren't in homes. 

My only-slightly-snarky reply was that I wanted to make sure both she and my Dad, who were divorced, both had a selection to choose from. I was aware that not all toys are created equal, nor are the stores who carry them, let alone the budgets that buy them. I would create a master list, and then split it between the two of them, with a mix of stocking stuffer cheap to only in my dreams pricey.

One year, the wishlist wasn't done, and my Barbie didn't just keep up with the proverbial Joneses, but surpassed them.  My mom and my Uncle Donny both bought me the Barbie Catamaran.  

My jet-setting spy Barbie, who dated GI Joe and hired Ken as a butler suddenly needed marina space, and lots of it.  No country camper for her. She already dressed well; my mother would earn pin money by making clothes for barbies and selling them, so her wardrobe was always current.

But two catamarans?


It's a bit easier today, at least for the web savvy.  Amazon wishlists have holiday settings so items someone else bough get filtered out.  Now if only there was a site that managed multiple wishlists. That would be really handy.

There are at least a few generic wishlist sites, but none of them, from what I've seen, can integrate pre-existing, model specific wishlists from other sites, such as amazon, Crate and barrel, etc.  I don't know about you, but when I'm the Sally type of person; when I want something, I usually want something specific, and certain features are a must-have.  Although, come to think of it, it would be handy if Amazon had a feature to allow for generic listings, too, because sometimes I don't know precisely what I want and what the best features are. 

But wishlists are very handy, nonetheless.  I use them to curb impulse buying, and help me plan out and budget my purchases.  It also helps me establish a baseline price so I can research best deals.

I ended up getting my new 32" LCD HDTV on new egg, for more than $200 cheaper than many sites and stores; with free 3-day delivery and no tax, the savings were even more.  I don't know of any local electronics stores selling TVs, so my options were big-box, and instead, I went big internet. Amazon Warehouse was slightly cheaper but gave an estimated delivery date of February (?!!) so NewEgg it was, and they've always done very well by me.  I put the model I bought in my shopping cart on Amazon a couple weeks before I bought it, along with a few other top choice models I was considering, and the prices fluctuated daily.