Deep Discount Sites Offer New Way to Shop

Bleep. The text messages on my BlackBerry and cell phone begin: $250 Rag & Bone jeans on sale for $118 at Gilt.com, beginning momentarily. At Ideeli.com, Linea Pelle bags will be deeply discounted for the next few hours. Log on to Ideeli's Web site, and a digital clock ticks away the seconds of the sale.

This is luxury discount heaven. Or hell, depending on how you look at it.

In recent months, a number of members-only Web sites have been launched to sell luxury goods at discounts of as much as 70 percent, using the marketing techniques of Internet pioneers like eBay. The timing is fortuitous. Amid a jittery economy, unsold luxury goods are piling up in storerooms.

While the new sites don't have the vast inventory of catalog- style discount sites like Bluefly.com, their limited-time "flash sales" offer a new element, turning online shopping into online gaming. This can be distracting - as I found out by testing several sites. If you enroll in several of them, the day becomes a fast- paced race from the Zac Posen handbag to the Dolce & Gabbana coat.

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