PROS
1) You can get anything you can imagine at the best existing price;
2) It's a great cure for boredom and a conduit for procrastination;
3) Knowing something is coming in the mail gives you something to look forward to.
CONS
1) ending up with a bunch of shit you don't really want, need, or have the space for;
(example: $50 on sheets from Overstock.com)
2) 70% of the time, the thing I buy fails to meet my hyped-up expectations;
(example: $25 on PS2 game from Half.com)
3) shipping charges are an absolute scam;
4) I'm almost broke.
Here's an unbelievably poignant example of a piece of absolute garbage on which I threw away my money:
5-Day Weather Forecaster from Brookstone
With the unbelievable after-Christmas price of $35, who could resist! Anyone who had ever seen one in person, that's who. This thing fucking sucks. I say this in all complete sincerity--I could open the window and tell you the temperature outside and my guess would be 10-15 degrees more accurate. Again, I'm really not kidding. On most days, the temperature never even comes within the "hi / lo" range displayed on the screen.It tells you it's thunderstorming outside when there's not a cloud to be found, and vice-versa.
Lesson: I could have spent 8 bucks on a window thermometer at Target and gotten what I was looking for.