Bargain Hunting

I am hoping to finish my Christmas shopping early this year and I started by getting the gift for close friends and my boyfriend's parents. I bought 6 sets of these postcards and I am going to get nice frames to frame them.

I am really not buying many expensive items online, however I do like purchasing smaller items (3-5 dollars) that catch my eye. My most expensive purchase lately was my wallet. I have been looking for a wallet for two months, so when I saw the perfect one I went for it.

I am waiting on the following things:

i) An Alice in Wonderland pencil, in purple my favourite colour.

ii) An Alice in Wonderland pencil case from eBay, which I have been eying for a while. Shaped as a shoe, with white canvas and silhouettes done in black and white of Alice and many other things from the story.

iii) Kawaiijapanshop order, two sticker sacks

iv) Xmas postcards, 6 sets

v) Charm to make a key chain for my school bag.

I have to stop myself from buying the last set from the Fairy Tale World stickers that I need as they are on sale. But, I have a budget I need to stick to. Anyways all those items were under 5 dollars except the postcards (16 dollars for 18 postcards) and the pencil case (9 dollars).

I was bidding on a game on eBay for my boyfriend. I actually forgot about it when I was out that night. Before I left for the night I raised my maximum bid to what I was absolutely willing to pay. I was outbid and I am completely fine with that. Someone else was willing to pay more then me and the total they had to pay was quite high. One day I'll find it for a good price. I always say when I loose an opportunity to buy something at a cheap price I eventually find a good deal on something else I am looking for.

Summer is here!

I really am not spending all that much this summer but it doesn't seem to phase me. I have really figured out what I want sticker wise, I love fairy tale stickers and food with faces, all others are on a case by case basis. I currently am waiting for five things in the mail, an Alice Wonderland bag from a seller on Etsy, two packs of a newly released fairy tale sticker sack from one of my favourite kawaii sellers, a package from a seller on Etsy of two packs of dress up doll stickers + a small bag with chibis on it, the things to make hair clips and possibly magnets for presents, and another package containing stickers I have been wanting for three months, as well as an Alice sticker set that reminds of Victorian times. Most of these I did not pay much at all for them, most were under five dollaers, the only thing that cost more then 10 was the bag. The bag I purchased I have checked and checked to see if it was there, I finally had the funds and could afford to purchase. I think it will be my one big purchase this summer.

I am really buying much as shipping at times does not make it worth it for me. The stores I used to frequent I rarely shop at due to the amount I have to spend to buy something there. If I am spending 15 dollars to get three things of stickers there is something wrong. Most of the items I have bought recently did not have high shipping and they were not expensive. Stores like, Janetstore I would love to buy from but when I total everything up in my cart it just doesn't seem worth it in the end just to get a few items.

What I have been doing differently is creating a wantlist on my favourites on Etsy, whenever I see something I want under 'supplies' I favourite it, that way I have a reference so I can look on different web stores for it at a cheaper price. I even have found stuff on eBay cheaper. I have two sellers I swear by on eBay. One is from Japan (Glenns-something or other...) and has a great deal of the new items out there, his prices are about the same as most sticker sellers, his shipping can get quite high but he often has stuff I can only find there. I found him orginally as he had some icecream stickers that I did not purchase and he had some. I have done numerous purchases with him. The other seller is in Hong Kong (funnycastle88), she has a large variety of older stickers but gets in new items at times. The first item I bought from her was the Alice and Friends sticker sheet. After that I have bought many stickers from her, she has great prices and shipping.

Etsy, it is a different story. I really try to look around at different sellers but usually I default to Japankawaiiya as they have the variety of stickers I am looking for. Just a few months ago I found out about Kawaii Japan Shop, they have great prices on newly released stickers and are super nice to deal with. They also have great shipping prices, which are cheaper then most Japanese sellers I deal with.

I really love all the sellers I buy from <3. I am happy I am getting some stickers I have wanted a while.

What would you do?

A couple weeks ago I asked one of my favourite web stores if they could get some stickers back in stock. I didn't hear anything about it for a few weeks until this past friday when I got an e-mail saying the stickers were in stock. I really had to hesitate as at that moment I did not have the funds to purchase these items. If it hadn't been for my boyfriend who gave me the money I would have e-mailed the store owner asking if a hold could be placed. I really had to make a choice between the stickers and these dice I really like. I bought the stickers along with some fabric as this person had gone out looking for these for me. Besides, I hadn't really seen them else where. I loved the personal aspect of this store, the fact that I got an e-mail really touched me. I know I will continue to buy there even though there is a minimum order.

My list got smaller...

I found some stickers I wanted to buy on one of my favourite online stores. I only wanted to buy so much as I had a little to spend, I put the things I wanted into the cart, sign in and get a message saying that there is a minimum order of $10.00. My order did not qualify as it was just 8 something.

Only two out of the six orders I have made with this particular site have been over 10.00 most have been under 10.

I'm kind of sad as I liked the convince of being able to make a small order of one thing rather then waiting to make a bigger order, as usually there is only thing I want from the site. If there is a bunch of stuff I'd like I don't like to wait as sometimes items don't stay there long.

With this new regulation I don't think I'll be ordering there even though I wanted those stickers. They were even cheaper then where I usually buy my stickers from.