Shopping Services

New blog

2009-12-26T10:21:00.001-08:00

new blog =)
click here

this one will remain but rather as a shopping service review page.
if anyone feels like sharing different opinions/reviews pls contact me and i will post them right here.
would welcome gmarket shop reviews the most =)
i also have 3 shop reviews to come.

thanks!
merry x-mas to everyone^^

Hm. Blogs.

2009-12-14T11:28:00.001-08:00

hm. my blog needs a new layout huh?
its just about material stuff whereas i want to post more about life & events . i am not an addict or something. actually I really do hate shopping and ending up selling most of the stuff i get. i get bored of clothes & other things pretty quickly & easily . i think i will spend the money rather on travelling.
travelling to japan....england...canada.
would also help to improve my english a bit i believe xD''

so basically i don't think that would really fit in here, so i'm just going to create a new one and leave this one for "material acquisitions".
i think this blog might be useful for everyone who wants to know how to shop from china, korea(& japan?).

hope wordpress will be nice to me :D

oh i did win a gmarket gift certificate by the way.
THANK YOU GMARKET!
posted on AJ what i ordered^^ click

Gmarket - again

2009-11-25T05:03:00.000-08:00

lol...I did another haul with reina, so i thought i could make another review.
bought overall 7 items, 2 pieces from jcoolstory again and the rest from 2 different sellers.
Only making a review on those shops I have not ordered from so far.

Store
Name: ?????
Link: Click!
National feedback: Power seller status & almost 100% feedback
Products: mainly clothingI got 2 blouses from this seller.

This seller DOES NOT ship outside Korea, so you will need a shopping service for that(see Reina).

Pro

Quality:
100% cotton, very soft & comfortable to wear.
The material is very thin so be careful; they are not meant to be worn during very cold seasons without a cardigan.

Price:
Very cheap. I paid perhaps 6-8€ for one of them.

Measurements
Accurate.
The second one is babdydoll-style so it was quite big.

Order
No complaint.

Con

Smell. They clothes stank(some kind of factory smell) when I first opened the packages.
After washing though they smelled perfectly normal =)

Store
Name: Migunlink?
Link: Migunlink
National feedback: Power seller status & almost 100% feedback
Products: mainly clothingI got 2 blouses from this seller.

Also 2 items from this seller. Migunlink DOES NOT ship outside Korea.

Pro

Quality:
100% cotton, very soft & comfortable to wear.
The material is rather thin but wearable with something beneath. Don't be fooled about the hoodie ; it's far too thin to be worn during very cold seasons. But Migunlink has also fantastic fleece hoodies, so if you need something thicker look for them.

Price:
Cheap. Not super-cheap, but cheap. Around 6-10€ for each.

Measurements
Accurate.

Order
No complaint.

Con

So far no complaint =)

For questions leave commets below.
I might add real pictures later but first I'll need to find my camera....

The layout will be changed soon =)

Gmarket WISHLIST

2009-11-06T11:59:00.000-08:00

So the order I did on my own arrived a few days ago.
I actually purchased more than one item( 2 to be exact) but unfortunately the other one was sold out. But this was some sort of trial-order bcs I was afraid that I would have to fetch my package again from the local customs(which gladly was not the case^^).

Store
Name: Wishlist
Link: Wishlist click!
National feedback: Power seller status & almost 100% feedback
Products: mainly clothing

I bought a high-waist skirt in black. It was quite cheap(16 bucks?) + shipping.
The crazy thing was that the seller estimated its weight only 600gr and when gmarket weighted it it turned out to be almost 900gr! So gmarket doesn't always overestimate.
It came with the waist-belt.

This is how it looks on me

I ordered size S and it fits perfectly(sorry I need to iron it xD....looks a little wrinkled).

Pro

Quality:
100% cotton, very soft & comfortable to wear.
The material is thicker than you would expect but therefore perfect for the cold weather.

Price:
Very cheap. H&M is retailing almost the same style of skirt with cheaper material and charges over 30bucks.

Measurements
Very accurate.
I mainly looked at the waist sizing for S(68cm) and ordered it. As it is high-waist style you can also go one or two sizes up in case you are not sure.

Order
Very fast shipped to gmarket. Reached my place within 5 days. Absoloutely no complaint.

Con
So far nothing.

Questions?

Leave comments below.

Gmarket JCOOLSTORY

2009-10-31T03:11:00.000-07:00

So here is my review of the jcoolstory shop on gmarket.
I am not sure wether I will create an extra forum or page for this because I believe it will be quite useful posting reviews for customers who cannot read korean.
This is only part one so make sure you follow my posts =)

Store
Name: Jcoolstory
Link: Jcoolstory click!
National feedback: Power seller status & almost 100% feedback
Products: mainly clothing

My first order with gmarket was with Reina.
I ordered a few tees mainly so I have no review about jeans or skirts.

I do unfortunately not have original comparison pictures for the items in the middle part.
They often change the links to the items so I will try to find them.

Pro

Quality:
100% cotton, very soft & comfortable to wear.
Also very sturdy no ripped off parts or whatsoever.

Price:
Price is 4,40€ for each of those above. Of course prices may vary if you for example buy a hoodie but where the hell do you plan to find a high quality tee with amazing prints for only 4,40€???!
AMAZING prices.

Con

Measurements
The only contra for me was the sizing. Some of my tees(though not the ones I have showed here) were kind of big in comparison to the size chart but not significantly. Perhaps a few cm?
Anyway, not a very big criteria. Just be prepared not to expect too skinny/fitting style from jcoolstory bcs everything is one-sized and not very sexily fitting(which would not fit to jcoolstorie's style at all anyway).

Order
As Jcoolstory has tons of customers your order may be a little mixed up sometimes.
When Reina ordered my stuff she recieved one wrong colored item.
This does not apply for jcoolstory only ,I believe it is the same for all power sellers.
But of course you can return the items in this case and get refund ,so no big deal.

Questions?

Leave comments below.

Gmarket - another review

2009-10-31T02:49:00.001-07:00

I am back - with new reviews =)
Now, even better than www.taobao.com, ruten.com.tw and so forth is gmarket.
I will of course explain why =) but first off, we better answer a few main questions:

(my pics are small so pls click on them to view them in original size!)

What is gmarket?
Gmarket is considered as the korean ebay. However, you buy things with the "buy now" options
which means that there are 0% auctions.
As the prices are incredibly low this doesn"t really bother anyone =)

German
Was ist gmarket?
Gmarket wird als das "koreanische Ebay" angesehen. Ein wichtiger Unterschied ist allerdings,
dass es keine Auktionen in dem Sinne gibt. Alle Artikel werden per Sofort-Kauf erstanden,
was allerdings wiederrum durch die niedrigen Preise kompensiert wird!

Can I order from gmarket?
Yes, of course you can.
Here is a short tutorial:

Kann ich bei gmarket bestellen?
Im Moment weitet sich das Angebot für internationale Kunden immer weiter aus, deshalb folge dem unteren Tutorial wenn du bestellen möchtest =)

1. The first thing you need to do is signing up!
Make sure you fill out the form correct. Also make sure using the browser gmarket
recommends(IE)!
I have experienced some problems when using Firefox so if you don"t want to waste time
follow this advice.

Experienced problem: No reaction when clicking on "submit" & warning "please check your id" appears in a pop-up. You will have to re-load the popup(F5) so you can view + click on the "ok" button and proceed with the registration. For any further problems/complications leave comments.

2. So now after you signed up you can log-in(very easy).

1. + 2. Registrieren & Einloggen
Das Registrieren ist weitgehend einfach. Auf der Hauptseite könnt ihr sofort "Sign up" anklicken und euch registrieren. Hierfür müsst ihr eure ID überprüfen lassen, ob der gewählte Benutzername nicht bereits im Gebrauch ist.
Es erscheint ein Pop-up, wo ihr mit OK schließlich euren Benutzernamen bestätigt und ganz zum Schluss auf "Submit" klickt.

3. Pick out products from different categories(for example clothing).
From left to right:

3. Produkte auswählen
Von links nach rechts

Item description: very often in korean only, so it is rather hard to search with keywords
when you do not know korean.
Yahoo babel is a great help here.
But as the items are listed from "most popular" to least popular you will definitely able to
find something to suit your taste!

Produktbeschreibung:
Meistens auf Koreanisch daher nicht besonders hilfreich.
Hier muss man sich durch die Bilder orientieren.

Item fee
In korean WON as well in US $

Preis
Angegeben in koreanischer WON oder US$

Shipping cost(from seller to gmarket): Either it is
a) 100% free, not depending on item value
b) only free when a condition is met(for example if item value is over 75000WON)
c) not free. mostly it is only about 2.500WON

Versandkosten von einzelnen Käufern zu Gmarket
Da eure Bestellungen an einer zentralen Stelle von gmarket zusammengepackt werden, müsst ihr beachten ob die einzelnen Verkäufer kostenlosen Versand zu anbieten oder nicht.
3 Möglichkeiten
a) 100% kostenloser Versand
b) kostenlos ab einem bestimmten Warenwert
c) nicht kostenlos. Das wären so 2.500WON

Optional options:
Wether the seller for instance offers discount or sends free gifts etc.

Optionale Angaben
Z.b. ob der Verkäufer Geschenke mitschickt oder Rabatte.

Name & Status of seller:
very obvious I think

Feedback for the seller:
The more golden bars the better is the feedback for this seller(just like on ebay).

Feedback
Je mehr Balken, desto besseres Feedback.

Questions?
Leave comment below.

4. How to pick an item and transfer it to your shopping chart

This is kind of difficult sometimes.
When you shop overseas you should first make sure the seller ships overseas(extra option for that avialable).
And then the difficult part starts:
about 70% of the items are named in korean. Some sellers however have considered this an
disadvantage and numbered the items(found only 1 or 2).
My tip: - Save the links to your single items since there are multiply listed in one page(you can click on them).
- Take a sheet of paper and copy the exact korean letters for the items you want. You cannot copy the letters from the images so that would be the only option.
- Scroll up to the part where you select the items.
- Compare both writing and checkbox & you will either find your desired items sold out or avialable to put in your chart.

This is the best method so far bcs when you write the letters you get a better feeling for
it!I also recommend zooming a little bcs the fonts in the pictures for the items are a lot
more different than from the computer typed stuff at the top.
This works quite well though a little time consuming if you can"t read your handwriting :D
Add your desired items to your chart first before clicking on buy now.
I think that might lead to single small orders/packages so better doing this at the end.

5. How to make payment with paypal

Thats super easy. Go to your shopping chart and click on buy now.
You will figure out on your own how to pay bcs you are immidiatly re-directed to the paypal
page. PAyment takes less than 1 min of your time.

6. When will my order arrive?
The single sellers you purchased stuff from will proceed by shipping your stuff to gmarket.
There is a "central" place where gmarket puts your order together in ONE package + ships it.
There are no other shipping options than EMS which is actually quite safe & fast.
BUT as the packages are HUGE you may have to pay a visit to your local customs to fetch it
bcs either the item value is over the custom duty free line or they are suspicious of its
content.

If you are residing in the EU:

- Custom duty free is up to 150€
- Import sales tax varies from country to country however if your package is over 22€ you
may have to pay Import salex tax. This is a different type of tax and has nothing to do with
the normal custom duty. From 150€ & upward they will however charge you custom duty.

For the other countries pls check yourself.
I would say that the EU is quite strict about this so be careful & prepared.
This will be your responsibility, not gmarkets.
If you do not fetch your package within 3 weeks your order will be returned & you might
either get reimbursement in form of store credit or full paypal refund(not sure about that
in this case though).

Once your order is shipped you will recieve a tracking number.
Go to => my gmarket => recent order
If your item is shipped it will look like this(click on tracking to track your order):

As soon as you recieve your package or fetch it yourself from your customs the order is
being completed and you can leave feedback.

Questions?
Need german translation? Leave comments please =)

Afraid to order on your own?
If you need a shopping assistant to assist & help you I recommend Reina s shopping service.
Her service fees are a little high but quite appropriate to what she offers(very good
feedback).
Go here and check for yourself!

Credits
Lots of thanks to Lauras amazing tutorial on asiajam! I would have been lost without it.

Gmarket - Summary

Pro

+ Prices are incredibly cheap
+ Item quality ranges from good to very good. Nothing ripping off or falling apart
+ Lots and lots of products to choose from!
+ Tracking & order form very easily accessible & viewable
+ On request gmarket also answers you in English, so if you have problems there is always
someone to help you
+ Very fast, mostly you will recieve your stuff within one week
+ Unique items you can not get here!

Con

- I do not like that gmarket doesn"t refund your overestimated shipping fees back to your
paypal account. This is a clever strategy because people will be always reminded like"Oh
there is still money in my gaccount. I do not want it to be wasted so I should order again."
You can re-use the money but there will be ALWAYS money left on your gaccount which will
keep you coming back.
Good for gmarket, bad for customer"s wallet/purse.

My suggestion to gmarket: Let the sellers weight their stuff & give exact weight!

BUT as a conclusion:
I like gmarket the most so far. Price, quality, items, service is very very good.
You can find imported stuff from gmarket on taobao as well but it will be almost double es
expensive & not worth buying from there.
And no agent fee =) whatsoever + faster.

Edit
Follow my posts for the single sellers I already ordered from and posted reviews about!

Thank you

Selling my Cher ❤ bags

2009-08-24T00:31:00.000-07:00

So if anyone is interested pls check!
I have three colors you can choose from^^
Prices range from 10-12€.
Leave a comment if you are interested^^

Cher & Japanese スクールバッグ

2009-08-18T07:46:00.000-07:00

Here are a few updates xD'''

The first thing would be that Cher has finally released the new Winter catalogue.
It contains 2 Cher bags; 1x medium sized cher bag with blue/pink/white print and a small one with the simple cher logo. Slightly more expensive than the last catalogue but I believe that's quite reasonable for 2 bags and a huge catalogue^^
Already sold out on amazon.co.jp T.T
I tried to bid on one on ebay but I decided to wait until taobao.com gets the bags as well xD
I love blue!

Last week I came across Japanese schoolgirl bags when I failed to find a nice & cheap backpack for college. It was really frustrating T.T
But these look good, don't they? Haha even Converse produces them!

Found these on rakuten. The selection on taobao.com is rather bad....
Oh well * sigh

Taobao Agent

2009-08-18T07:19:00.000-07:00

So, this is my second experience with shopping (chinese) agents.
I'm refering to the service www.yoybuy.com offers.

Pro

+ Agent is very friendly/helpful, reply within one day
+ Shipping options are registered airmail & Ems = SAFE and CHEAP
+ Agent fee is 10%, for orders below 350CNY it's only 35CNY(3,50€)
+ Nice order form, calculation is made properly
+ Payment can be made through paypal
+ Incredribly FAST, recieved Items within 14 days(1st payment, 2cn payment, arrival of goods, shipping to my place). Fastest agent I know.
+ Very convenient for taobao.com orders; office is located in Beijing so local shipping is quite cheap.

Con

- Shipping is expensive; although EMS is 50% off it's still pricey. Airmail is slightly cheaper but I have to admit shipping from taiwan is a lot cheaper. Paid 25€ shipping from Taiwan for 3kg, with the yoybuy agent I would have paid 10-15€ more.

So when comparing both agents I have to say that both charge about the same amount of shipping + agent fee (EzStar charges more agent fee but compensates with low shipping; yoybuy.com offers cheaper agent fee but high shipping ~~ same result).
Right now I would tend to order from yoybuy.com because www.taobao.com has all the goods you can find in taiwanese shops as well. Mostly even cheaper!

For more basic information
www.yoybuy.com

Same procedure for ordering as mentioned for EzStar agent. Take a look below.
For Questions leave a comment.

EzStar Taiwan Agent

2009-06-23T09:09:00.000-07:00

Since people on asiajam(and elsewhere) keep bombing me with pm's I thought it would be good to post this.
First off , the taiwanese shopping agent I use is called "EzStar Purchasing Service".
I'm on my third order but I was absoloutely satisfied with the service so far:
+ Agent is very friendly/helpful, reply within one day
+ Shipping options are registered airmail & Ems = SAFE and CHEAP
+ Agent fee is 15%, for orders below 2000NT(Taiwanese Dollar) it's 300NT
+ Nice order form, calculation is made properly.
+ Payment can be made through paypal
- Be patient!Items will take at least one week to arrive to agent's office. This has nothing to do with the agent but with the shops. If you order from Taobao or Yahoo Taiwan Shops, waiting time will take even longer.
Waiting time Taobao: appr. 2 Weeks(to agent's office)
Waiting time Yahoo Taiwan: 3-4 Weeks(to agent's office)
Please appreciate that the Agent is often busy, so don't bomb the agent every second day with mails like: "when will my order arrive??". You can be sure that you will get your email for 2cnd payment.

For more basic information
http://taiwanagent.webs.com/buyerorderpayment.htm

Steps you need to take to order

1. register @ http://purchasingagent.freeforums.org/index.php
2. email “purchasingservice@hotmail.com” for the order form, don’t forget to register first and tell them your name!
3. fill in order form and send it to the email mentioned above
4. you’ll get a reply within one day
5. note that you have to do - 2 payments:

payment item price + agent fee(15%)
and when the item arrives they tell you exact weight and shipping to your place

For shipping fees to your country(airmail) take a look at this .

TAOBAO
Currency: YUAN

Note that not every seller on TAOBAO ships to the agent's office(to taiwan).
Note that you CANNOT order any fake designer items from louis vuitton etc.
Note that the shipping from China to Taiwan will cost you extra.
Note that not every seller on Taobao is reliable and may screw up orders just like on those wholesale pages. Search for sellers with 100% feedback.
Note that cheap synthethic bags & shoes may have bad quality and chemical odors so stay away from everything that is being sold for too cheap! From my experience it's just not worth it.

TAIWAN YAHOO
Currency: TAIWANESE DOLLAR

For Yahoo Taiwan auctions I recommend these shops which guarantee good/high quality + good customer service. I would always prefer ordering from these than from taobao.

Star MIMI

UDI

So these both are my fav.

FAQ

How do you know what cloth designs they have available to choose?

I use yahoo babel for translating.

Take look at the pic below for the parts you need to translate/which are relevant for you.

Item description: If you don't know which item is being sold translate this part.

Colors&sizes: For avialable colors/sizes translate this part(yes you can copy it no fixed buttons!)

Measurements: Copy for bust/shoulder etc sizes.

The orange number shows you the item price.

Is there a minimum amount you need to purchase from them?

No, there is only a minimum agent fee for orders below 2000NT(300NT agent fee).

What about payment wise?

Paypal, PayEasy, Creditcard

How do you go about paying them?

I use paypal. They have created a " pay now" page which is very neatly arranged, you just type in the amount you have to pay + log in data. Superfast & no confusion.

Can they be trusted?

YES. I recieved my package from 1st order and take a look on the forum, there are a lot of people who buy from there =)

For more questions pls leave comments!

If you cannot order by yourself you can ask me to place an order for you.

cher♥

2009-02-24T09:25:00.000-08:00

Cher♥ has now released summer Catalog 2009 including a medium sized cher♥ bag as a gift. The color is pretty unusual and IMHO the worst of all the cher bags that have been released so far...
In fact you can get used to it when you own one I guess.
My favorite is the classic cher bag though and I like the blue one as well(although looking pretty cheap xD).
Sadly I don't even own one of them haha...But I guess I'll keep that in mind for my Japantrip next year ;)

By the way, it was Ayakas Birthday(my penpal) this month....

So H a p p y B i r t h d a y Ayaka ^.^

Tirol Choco

2009-02-02T09:36:00.000-08:00

This post is about Tirol Choco from Japan which I got from my penpal.

http://www.tirol-choco.com/

It's typical Japanese cocolate which you can get everywhere in Japan^^

It's pretty cheap(like 10YEN for one square chocolate) but it's tasty and the design is supercute^^Also this chocolate seems to have history. Just google "Tirol Choco" and you'll find information about the company and how long they've been producing Tirol Choco.

So far I have tried these two: Sakura Mochi and Milk.

Sakura Mochi is my favorite though because of the Mochi part in the middle.
The chocolate itself definitely doesn't contain as much sugar as german chocolate does ,so no need to worry about the calories :)

Give it a try!

First Post

2009-02-02T01:34:00.000-08:00

So this is basically supposed to be a review on the Twilight series....xD' As my first post.
After having finished the last page of "Breaking Dawn" I must admit that I don't like the series as much as I did at the beginning.
All the characters change so abruptly that I had difficulties to follow the story line nearing the end;
it was a happy ending though(yeah somehow like the last book of Harry Potter).

I think the best book is still the first one; the second one is quite average because Edward disappears(lol), the third one slowly gets boring and she starts bitching around and the fourth one is just shocking, confusing and totally out of place.
So quality of story is zero to me.
It's like eating junk food; u wanna eat it so bad first and afterwards you leave totally unsatisfied because the content lacks of nutrition.

Actually there were lots of good first beginnings and ideas but the author just didn't focuse that much on the story. I always have compare Twilight to Vampire Knight(a manga by Hino Matsuri).
Vampire Knight has a really good story but the development is a little slow and it's lacking of romance.
I think if both authors worked together they would create a masterpiece because they would be able to complement each other.

I think the only thing that is fascinating to me is the kind of relationship they have because this is something (naive^^)girls dream about I guess, meeting their ONE and ONLY PRINCE with charming manner and an attractive outward appeareance which is near to perfection.
Haha. I don't believe that many people like the narrator^^; people are just crazy after the charming Prince Edward.

And yeah it's unnecessary to mention that the audience is composed of 99% female readers.
This story definitely doesn't appeal to the male audience.
I watched the movie, too and I liked it. If you don't have many expectations it's worth watching.
They made the best of it and I prefer the actors and actresses in the movie than in the book^^
The Bella in the movie is definitely more likeable than in the book.