me, I'm an unrepentant pedalgeek. When the night drags on, I tend to click around (bandwidth permitting), and can spend a bit of time checking out video demos of pedals... which is a decent way of figuring out not just which pedals you're interested in (a good service) but also which gear you're just not interested in (absolutely invaluable). ToneFactor provides a lot of these videos and they sell a lot of these pedals, so their site can offer a lot of perspective on the kind of gear you can't find and test out at the local shops.
For example-- I got one of my favorite pedals from them:
That box is both the synth break in disrepair and the grinding dissonant lead in cyclocosmia (which will be online soon... it's being mixed). Neat, eh?