Some may consider shopping on the World Wide Web a pretty hazardous endeavor. You may be right. I haven't experienced any difficulties until now. Perhaps I was lucky. But I also believe that corporations like CDnow can hardly afford to misplease their customers. The following list gives you some ideas what's possible if you have a credit card and, as with any kind of shopping, you've got enough money to spend. 

If you have doubts whom to trust, check out BizRate, an independent organization monitoring business standards on the web.

• CDnow - USA-based Internet CD shop: the biggest, of course, good service, no complaints so far on my side, on the contrary, I recommend them
• CDEurope - ironically in USA-based (Florida), very good selection of European musicians and bands, but sometimes pretty expensive; their service is a bit slow, but otherwise no complaints
• EMusic - USA-based (in LA), good selection, fair prices, some good deals here and there - I haven't checked it out myself yet
• Entertainment Connection - USA-based, very good selection - I haven't tried it yet
• GEMM (Global Electronic Music Marketplace - USA-based (San Clemente, Calif.), very good selection of new and used CDs and vinyls, exchange bourse, prices seem to be ok, but again, I haven't checked them out yet
• Downloadable Music Site - MPEG Music Archive, free mpeg audio players, online radio, vinyl database, music links, web rings and online T-Shirt gallery
• Rockin' World - specialized on folk and folk-rock, huge catalogue of old material, heaps of European imports; prices are good, I haven't checked them out yet
• TeleCD.com - German Internet CD shop, with German prices - aaargh! - but with some stuff you ain't get anywhere else, thus, sometimes you've gotta pay the price though they should deduct the German VAT if we order from abroad