I was all set to write about Etsy being a favorite site, when I saw Bibilio on the winners' list.
Decisions, decisions. I haven't used Biblio, preferring AbeBooks, but it looks like Biblio's site has been redesigned and is quite appealing now.
Both Etsy and Biblio are sites where independent sellers "gather," like a giant cyberspace marketplace, with the added bonus of not having to schlep from table to table. In both cases, you can browse a single seller's wares, or look through everybody's inventory for something specific.
At Etsy you can plug in all kinds of parameters for your search: blue things, for instance, or things in the category "Geekery." There's even a way to shop by the geographic location of the seller, so you can support your local artists (everything on Etsy is handmade, being sold by the artist.) At Biblio you can search by format, limit to first editions or books with dustjackets, indicate a price range, publication date, or indicate keywords you wish to find in the book descriptions. You can even limit your search for a title to only those booksellers belonging to any of a number of local, national and international associations.
These kinds of collaborative "storefronts" seem to me one of the best aspects of the whole "Web 2.0/Social Networking" concept, keeping alive the mom-and-pop shop and bringing it to an enormous audience.
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