Really, this is a milestone for me. The first time I heard about Taobao was during the heydays of EGL on Live Journal, but anyone involved in the EGL community during that time could tell you how challenging it was to order something from Taobao. The idea of making spreadsheets still gives me a mini panic attack to this day because of all of the requirements and steps involved with ordering from Taobao in the past. But this is the future. And now it's so much easier to purchase items listed on Taobao!
There have been many things I've wanted to buy from Taobao over the years, but because I was so afraid of how inexperienced I was with ordering, I missed out on a lot of amazing items. I guess this time I got feed up with not being able to obtain all of the interesting accessories I would always see and gave into the idea of trying a Taobao shopping service one more time. However, this time, I went with the website SpreeNow. I didn't know very much about the website at the time, but one of my friends swore by it, saying that it was the easiest website for shopping on Taobao he has ever used. So, with some initial guidance from him, like how long I should wait for a response after I put my order in and how and when I was expected to pay, I decided that SpreeNow was reliable and easy enough for me to navigate through.
I ended up picking the cross feature for the front of the purse, but I kinda wish I hadn't. Besides the fact that I don't really like the color red or wear the color often, how the cross was applied makes the purse look a bit cheap. And, up close, you can see areas where the application is a little splotchy. But those are nitpicks, at best. I can always just turn the purse around to its backside where there isn't a cross.
After choosing to buy the coffin purse, I decided to see what else the seller had to offer, which led me to my second item, a beautiful black turtleneck with a heart cutout and spiderweb mesh panel. This item is still listed in the seller's store, and can be purchased here.
There's only one size, but the material of the turtleneck is stretchy and would be able to accommodate some larger sizes, to a degree. I only ended up paying about $10 for this turtleneck, but it's construction is very nice. Although stretchy, the material is soft and the turtleneck's assembly isn't shoddy. All of the seams are serged, there are no holes, and the position of the cutout is centered where it ought to be.
I purchased both of these items at the end of January, and they came just in time for me to wear my heart cutout turtleneck for Valentine's Day! (I know you're like, "Wow, you had this since February? What took you so long to write a blog post on this?" *sigh* I know, I know.)
Well, these were my first Taobao purchases. Hopefully, I will be able to find some more great items for me to buy. Though, I doubt that would be a hard task, hahaha~
But before I went about picking which shopping service to use, I decided to get through the easy part first, which was knowing what I wanted to get! So what kind of item made me want to confront my fears and take another shot at using a Taobao shopping service? Well, because I'm such a loser Goth, what caught my eye may hardly comes as a surprise. It was a lovely coffin purse.
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| Please excuse my ugly curtains in the background. |
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| I only paid about $30 for this purse! |
Unfortunately, the shop doesn't sell it anymore (which is why if you see something on Taobao, you shouldn't wait too long to get it), and since the listing is gone, I couldn't post some of the original product photos here on this blog post. But believe me, it's very well made and sturdy. It was sold as a purse, but its structure is more of a case or trunk. I have every intention of using this purse as a bag, but I do wish I would've had a chance to buy one or two more as carrying cases for my dolls. It's just that nice.
The cool thing about this purse is that I can wear it two ways. There's an adjustable shoulder strap that's detachable, so I can choose to wear it as a shoulder or hand purse. Oh, and the purse itself is so HUGE! It easily takes up the length of my thigh!
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| Hey, look! A picture of me in "normal" clothes. |
I ended up picking the cross feature for the front of the purse, but I kinda wish I hadn't. Besides the fact that I don't really like the color red or wear the color often, how the cross was applied makes the purse look a bit cheap. And, up close, you can see areas where the application is a little splotchy. But those are nitpicks, at best. I can always just turn the purse around to its backside where there isn't a cross.
After choosing to buy the coffin purse, I decided to see what else the seller had to offer, which led me to my second item, a beautiful black turtleneck with a heart cutout and spiderweb mesh panel. This item is still listed in the seller's store, and can be purchased here.
There's only one size, but the material of the turtleneck is stretchy and would be able to accommodate some larger sizes, to a degree. I only ended up paying about $10 for this turtleneck, but it's construction is very nice. Although stretchy, the material is soft and the turtleneck's assembly isn't shoddy. All of the seams are serged, there are no holes, and the position of the cutout is centered where it ought to be.
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| Too cute, right! |
I purchased both of these items at the end of January, and they came just in time for me to wear my heart cutout turtleneck for Valentine's Day! (I know you're like, "Wow, you had this since February? What took you so long to write a blog post on this?" *sigh* I know, I know.)
Well, these were my first Taobao purchases. Hopefully, I will be able to find some more great items for me to buy. Though, I doubt that would be a hard task, hahaha~
°˖✧ 'Till next time
