Although New York is definitely not the book wonderland that it once was, it still has quite a few places for the hard-core bibliophile to curl up, search the stacks, and find a great book at a great price.

However, as a cheapskate and recovering bookaholic, I tend to check out books from the library first, choosing only to buy the ones that I really, really need. By following this method, I've managed to cut down my yearly book purchases to only a few dozen volumes; by my standards, this is just a small fix, a little something to get me through.

This, by the way, is the bibliomaniac version of methadone treatment.

It should come as no surprise to those of us that shop via the Internet that shipping costs often undermine the bargain. Some companies so inflate shipping costs that even $4 a gallon gas doesn't make their wares a wise purchase.

One site that will come in useful in fighting the shipping cost blues is Freeshipping.org. This site aggregates free shipping deals from over 700 stores, including biggies like Amazon, New Egg, Target, and Finish Line.

I'd suggest using this site when deciding from whom to buy an item that is sold by many vendors. For example, an Apple iPod Nano, 4 gig 3rd generation, is selling for $144 on New Egg, $145.95 on Amazon. New Egg, however, wants $5.99 for three business day shipping, while Amazon offers free supersaver savings (usually a bit slower, but not always.)

Another similar site, Freeshipppingon.com, is also worth checking out.

Guidance, a company providing technology advisory services, recently commissioned a study of consumer's criteria for internet shopping. I found the results eye-opening.

Show me the money: As you might expect, 43% of you listed price as your #1 factor: Men were slightly higher in this category at 46%. More surprising to me was that those in upper income brackets were substantially more likely to shop on price than lower income customers. 53% of those above $50,000 listed price as their primary consideration, vs. only 37% for those earning less than $25,000. Perhaps that's why they have money.

Price is almost twice as important to young people as to gray-hairs. Retirees placed a much higher value on free shipping, though. Overall, 18% of respondents chose free shipping as their primary consideration, but this rises to 25% among older customers.

My experience runs counter to that of the study's respondents, of whom only 4% listed speed of checkout as the most important factor. I've dumped any number of orders when the checkout process became too unwieldy. When they demand I create an account and password, they've lost me as a customer.

The study has a bit of bad news for brick and mortar companies-- the ability to return items to a local store had very little impact on online purchasers,. Only 1% listed that as their primary motivator.

One more item of interest; those with higher incomes are more swayed by coupons and special promotions.

As we dig for deals for you, we'll use these results to help guide our efforts.