10 Eccentric Sites For Holiday Shopping

Anyone can shop online, but not everyone can find these geek gifts, handmade goods and unique gadgets.
By Jason Notte ,

BOSTON (TheStreet) -- Any houseplant with time and a credit card can buy a popular item from a major online retailer's one-day flash sale and call it a holiday gift. Pros like surprises and know just the sites to supply them.

If you're among the 43.9% of Americans that the

National Retail Federation

said would be wooed by the deep discounts and free shipping they'd find shopping online at

Amazon

(AMZN) - Get Report

,

Wal-Mart

(WMT) - Get Report

,

Best Buy

(BBY) - Get Report

,

Target

(TGT) - Get Report

and other online retailers this holiday season, congratulations: You're in the new mall. In the first month of the holiday shopping season alone,

ComScore

(SCOR) - Get Report

says American consumers have spent $13.55 billion online, up 13% from the same period last year. Cyber Monday accounted for more than $1 billion of those sales for the first time, which represents a 16% spike from last year. Just shopping online alone doesn't make you or your gifts special -- it just makes them easy to get.

Thinkgeek's website sells everything from samurai sword-handled umbrellas to Tauntaun Sleeping Bags -- so you don't have to kill your own.

Across the Web, however, are thousands of versions of the shop around the corner that doesn't sell $200 HDTVs or $5 DVDs, but corners the market on the quirky items that never make it to the mass-market shelves and the scene-stealing stocking stuffers that get $300 worth of reaction out of a $25-to-$50 item. Here are just 10 examples of out-of-the-way holiday sites where

TheStreet

found more than a few of its favorite things:

Thinkgeek:

Any self-respecting geek who's boarded a bus or subway car on a rainy day with a

samurai sword-handled umbrella

($19.99 to $24.99), revived their dusty Nintendo and Super Nintendo games with the help of a

Retro Duo console

($49.99) or worn a

glowing Iron Man arc reactor LED shirt

($12.99 to $17.99) in mixed company probably has given or received an item from this site. While there's a broad market for inherently nerdy gifts such as

Wi-Fi-detecting hats

($9.99) and magnetic

BuckyBalls

building spheres for the office ($29.99 to $34.99), ThinkGeek still plays to a hardened core with such items as

Tauntaun Sleeping Bags

for those unwilling to hollow out an actual animal for bedding as Harrison Ford did in

The Empire Strikes Back

or

$900 replica pulse rifles

for would-be Sigourney Weavers who believe

Aliens

as not just a movie, but an inevitability.

Etsy:

There are more than

13,500 results for fingerless gloves

alone in this giant online haven for handmade goods. While known for its

knitting

,

crocheting

,

jewelry

,

candles

and other smaller items, the site's broadly defined mission of making handmade items readily available also applies to

furniture

,

artwork

and even

shaving sets

. While dealing with the sheer volume of the world's largest craft sale and artisan village can be a little daunting, it's worth taking the time to at least select a one-of-a-kind item if you have neither the time nor skill to make it yourself.

Perpetual Kid:

Though there's a lot of fun stuff for kids on this vibrant novelty site -- including a mold for a cake that looks like a

giant sandwich

($19.99), the 4-pound

World's Largest Gummi Bear

($29.95) and

giant ice cream cone lamps

($39.99) -- some of the more fun offerings definitely skew a bit older. A mold for

shot glasses made of ice

($6.99),

plunger-shaped Apple iPhone stands

($5.99) and a

knife block shaped like your ex

($69.99) seem to have bigger kids in mind.

Noisebot:

If you or someone on your list's love of

pop culture

and

overall geekery

is matched only by your desire to display that love in the most public way possible, this is the T-shirt depository for you. For roughly $23 a pop, your shirts can tell those around you that you still can't shake Mandy Patinkin's attempt at a Spanish accent in

The Princess Bride

out of your head 23 years later, that

IT is your job and not your hobby

or that your

college days aren't quite in the rearview

.

Uncommon Goods:

While big on the handmade gifts, Uncommon Goods' least common offerings are usually cool recycled knick-knacks such as coasters made from

vinyl records

($17.50) and Quincy, Ill., elementary school

chalkboard slate coasters

($35), goblets made from

old windshields

($35) and

wallets made of unused bicycle tubes

($35). Sure, there are still fun first-run products such as

high-heel cake servers

($15) and cold, no-melt

whiskey stones

($19.50 to $58), but recycled

pool-ball bottle stoppers

($30) and bottle openers made from the floors and Plexiglas hockey boards of

Madison Square Garden and Boston Garden

($65 to $75) are a much tougher find.

The Tech Museum:

The first of two museum shops on our list, the Silicon Valley-based Tech Museum mixes in

educational toys

and

books

with genuine geek fun, such as shirts mourning

Pluto's demotion from planet status

($20) and gadgets including

a robotic T-Rex that can climb windows, mirrors and filing cabinets

($14.99). Though the Tech Museum's store is a great complement to its exhibits, its slow and outdated website could pose as one. Please be patient.

Despair.com:

Want to counter the human resources head who hangs motivational posters of dangling cats, flowing rivers and large, meaningful words in big, colorful type around the office? Put up some of Despair's "Demotivators" near your cubicle and see if he catches that your sign blaring the all-caps word

"ADVERSITY"

($15.95) at your co-workers also tells them "That which does not kill me just postpones the inevitable." Despair also makes

full calendars

of its posters for $13 to $30, as well as mugs, laptop skins and mouse pads. If the next person on your list is a little too young to be ground under the heel of corporate culture, why not spring for a

Lose Your Own Adventure

book that's just like the choose-your-own-adventure volumes of your youth, but with much greater potential for epic failure. If the little ones are ever going to climb their way to the middle, they'll have to start early.

Ugly Sweater Shoppe:

From Bill Cosby's

Cosby Show

attire of choice to what your aunt believes is passable holiday formalwear, the ugly sweater is as ingrained in the American holiday fabric as spilled egg nog or greasy latke drippings. The folks at Ugly Sweater Shoppe realize this and, while advocating for seasonal ugly sweater parties, offer consumers such cringeworthy winter garments as the nautical-themed

Red Neck Yacht Club

sweater ($12.69), the

Aztec Ugliness

cardigan and the

I Got Your Tackle Box Right Here

turtleneck ($12.69). It's all thrift-store finds, and it's all as ugly as a holiday spirit-fueled religious debate, but if tacky ties and questionable vests are what it takes to get through the next month, then let the aesthetically abhorrent party in America begin.

Moma Store:

Our list's second museum shop is less about exhibits and artifacts and more about the cool design elements visitors long for. Think of this as Target for art and design students. Among the more popular offerings are ceramic version of New York's famed

Anthora coffee cup

($14),

an umbrella

with a Monet-like skyscape underneath ($48), a tray set that makes

perfect ice spheres

($16) and a transparent

Louis XVI-style armchair

($410).

Whoopass Enterprises:

If it works for minor league baseball teams and Dwight Schrute on NBC's

The Office

, a bobblehead doll should easily fit the bill for even the most difficult soul on your holiday shopping list. Fortunately, this is all Whoopass Enterprises does. Its entire existence wobbles atop a base of sport-, work-, vehicle-, kid-, sports-, wedding-, graduation- and even pet-themed custom bobblehead dolls. For $75 to upward of $250, consumers can submit photos of themselves or their bobblehead's recipient, change hair and eye color and clothing, with upgrades such as tattoos, glasses and digital voice recordings available for $3 to $20 more.

-- Written by Jason Notte in Boston.

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.

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Jason Notte is a reporter for TheStreet.com. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Huffington Post, Esquire.com, Time Out New York, the Boston Herald, The Boston Phoenix, Metro newspaper and the Colorado Springs Independent.

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