Jiffyprice.com compared the prices of certain items on two major marketplaces and concluded that Amazon.com undercut eBay on the holiday season's most popular consumer items that were available for immediate purchase.

The price difference between Amazon and eBay is most notable for electronic items such as the Wii or Nintendo DS gaming consoles and the games used on these machines - Jiffyprice.com found that prices for these items differed by as much as 26 percent, with a Nintendo DS Lite costing $175 on eBay and just $126 on Amazon, including shipping charges.

Jiffyprice.com is an affiliate of both Amazon and eBay, but said its search results are objective and are not influenced by such affiliation. Jiffyprice.com was established in November 2008 by a team in the US, Spain, France and Australia, led by internet entrepreneur Niall Thewlis.

The results aren't all in favor of Amazon - several categories of items tended to be cheaper on eBay than Amazon when searched on Jiffyprice.com. "Computer users looking for a spare external hard drive will find the Lacie 250 Gb Rugged Drive for just $90.24 on eBay, compared to $107.99 on Amazon, a saving of 16% for eBay shoppers. For games enthusiasts, a Wii Charging Station was $24.99 on Amazon, compared to just $12.95 on eBay, saving a massive 48% for savvy shoppers."

The pricing comparison was conducted by www.jiffyprice.com over 14 days from December 1 - 15, 2008, using search results from Amazon US and eBay US local sites. Jiffyprice only compared items that were available for immediate purchase. In the case of eBay, that included only those items available as a "Buy It Now" option. The company said all relevant shopping charges were added to the search results.