Amazon.com offers Guaranteed Accelerated Delivery dates on selected items when you choose One - day or Two day Express shipping. This includes thousands of products that you can easily get overnight … if you know what to look for.

In fact, they are so confident that they can deliver your order in time that they guarantee it. When you place a qualifying order, Amazon prioritizes it to ship right away and automatically refunds the shipping costs if they miss the delivery date.

The trick is identifying eligible products. In order to do that, look for the “Want it delivered...” message that displays a delivery date and shipping option. This message lets you know that Guaranteed Accelerated Delivery is available for the item.

In addition to choosing eligible products, Amazon advises taking the following steps to ensure a successful order:
• Choose a shipping speed (one and two day delivery dates appear in green)
• Choose an eligible shipping address
• If your order contains other ineligible items, check the split shipment box
• Place your order before the deadline displayed on the product detail page

One more thing - make sure arrangements are made to take delivery of the package if necessary. If your shipment requires a signature or appointment, for instance, be sure someone is there.

This covers the basics of Amazon’s Guaranteed Accelerated Delivery service. If you have more questions about this feature, check the Amazon help pages for details.

With Accelerated Delivery comes Accelerated Shipping Prices. Amazon is a bit reluctant about showing them, but currently they display your new total price in red at the top of the page. You’d save quite a bit if the order could take a few days to arrive, and Amazon will let you change shipping preferences very easily. But if it can’t wait, their shipping prices are reasonable. And when time is of the essence, getting that order could be well worth the price.

Do you have sports fans on your gift list? Finding gifts for these people can be a challenge. And a last-minute gift can really be an issue, especially if the sports fan lives in a different part of the country.

FansEdge is a website that can make gift-giving much easier. Dedicated to licensed team sports products, they have a huge inventory of gift ideas for nearly any sports fan you can think of.

FansEdge also has a Quickship service. If the item you’re looking at has the QuickShip logo, it’s available to ship out today (M-F) when you order by 5:00 PM Eastern time.

In case you have a few days to spare before the order must arrive, FansEdge has a great 4.99 shipping fee on any size order. But if it can’t wait, express shipping fees are reasonable and well worth the price of having it in your (or their) hands tomorrow.

Here’s a list of the sports FansEdge  covers. And as a service to the Sports-Challenged like myself, I’ve also included what those acronyms mean!

NFL = National Football League
MLB = Major League Baseball
NBA = National Basketball Association
NHL = National Hockey League
NCAA = National College Athletic Association
NASCAR = National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing
AFL = American Football League.

In addition to all the acronyms, FansEdge also covers
Golf, Boxing, Tennis, Soccer, and Minor League Basketball.

What is a place like Office Depot doing in a blog about last minute gifts? Okay, they don’t offer gift twrapping and I wouldn’t shop there for perfume, but things like computers, cameras, and GPSs are very popular gift ideas. And there are many more products, gadgets, and craft supplies that are also suitable for gift-giving.

But the real reason Office Depot appears on the Lastminute-Gifts.com site is the speed feature. They offer free overnight delivery on most of their products. Yes, FREE.

And this free offer covers a lot of territory - much of the continental United States, Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico - wherever an Office Depot retail store is in range.

There is a $50.00 minimum for free delivery and you’ll want to check the fine print to make sure your items are eligible and in stock. Order by 5:00 PM M-F for next business day delivery.

This feature is actually designed for small businesses, but anyone in a “Gift Emergency” can take advantage of it. Next day delivery is expensive — over $30 on average. So if  Office Depot has an item on your gift list, free next-day delivery may be worth going without the gift card and bow. You can wrap it up when it arrives.

And if you’re shipping the item directly to your recipient, you will probably want to notify them that it’s coming. Free email gift announcements are available at Lastminute-Gifts.com .