It's crunch time for the holiday season so you may find yourself frantically trying to find that perfect gift without wanting/needing to go to the Malls.

So you jump on line and start searching on sites like Pricegrabber.com, Dealtime.com, Shopping.com and the like. Enter in the item you are looking for and they show you many, many places to buy it for as many prices. So do you go with the best price??

Well, sometimes yea! Alot of the time, NO!!

One way to protect yourself is to use a site called Resellerratings.com . This site is a rating directory for Online sites. People who have bought from Online sites post their experiences, both Good and Bad. It's a good way to get a feel for how the company conducts business.

Now when you are looking at these ratings always remember to see how many ratings the site has. The higher the ratings count, the more accurate the review rating.

For example; underwatercamera.com might have a rating of 9.5, but only have 200 reviews, where bhphotovideo.com has a rating of 9.0, but with almost 4000 reviews. B&H has the better rating in this case.

Be aware not all Online sites are listed. If no one posted a review for a particular site, it will not be listed. I have run into this once in great while, usually when a price is way, way below the going rate. So if the site is not listed, it is a good idea not to make the purchase.

There will also be a six month rating & a lifetime rating, these are important too as all companies have good and bad months.

And finally the rating average for all sites listed on Resellerratings.com flucuates between 7 & 8 on the scale of 10. I use this as the baseline. In my opinion, if their rating is 7 or above, I'll take the chance. From 5 to 7, maybe, Below 5, I look for another site.

I do alot of online purchasing so I am aware of alot of sites even though I don't buy from them. So I have bought from sites with low ratings, knowing they have been around for a number of years. (I am assuming if they have been around for more then two years, they are at least making enough money to stay in business) Usually for low dollar items that if something does go south, it's not a big loss.

So use this site before you buy online, while it won't guarantee things will go wrong, it will greatly reduce your risk by helping you make an informed decision on who to buy from.

Happy Shopping!!!