More Useful Spots on the Web--Plus Goofy Sites Maine

I'm not done giving you a tour of some of the cool sites I recently discovered. This seek I've got a spot for you to bid on unclaimed stolen items, a place to compare shipping rates, a few new ways to communicate, and more than enough goofy sites you can use while ignoring your upcoming deadlines.

When I was a teenager, I'd go to police auctions, looking for bicycles that I could use for spare parts. I haven't been to one in years... and wouldn't you know, I can now do it online.

PropertyRoom.com is an auction site specializing in items that were stolen and never claimed. Bid on jewelry, electronics, bikes, tools, and a host of other stolen property. The site, run by a former detective, cops its inventory from police property rooms across the country.

Are you going to get a bargain? It's hard to say; just as with eBay, you have to do your due diligence and pay attention to bidding. For example, when I looked, a portable stove, the kind you take on a camping trip, had a current bid of $24. I saw the same stove at Harbor Freight on sale for $20.

Do you need a thesaurus that's sure to impress your Luddite friends? Try Visuwords, a weird but accurate and useful online word-finding tool. The word you've filled into the field appears and other, related words spring up from out of nowhere.