As we don’t have a car, so it’s very hard to get to a mall and downtown has nothing for us. I moved to the US since the beginning of March this year, since we don’t have a car. Apart from grocery shopping, we bought everything else from the internet, usually through Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/). I had about 15-16 orders since March 2013 and every time i took advantage of Free Shipping programme (on order over 25 USD). I had so much spare time, so i shopped around for toys! During the past 7 months, i completed nearly 30 transactions through Paypal. Most of them are eBay auctions (http://www.ebay.com/). I once bought from Etsy (http://www.etsy.com/). Shopping on Etsy is very nice but the prices are a bit expensive.
I got a lot of cool collectable toys from eBay. I have to bit for it and that’s the fun part. Before bidding for anything, i always set a maximum limit. So, i will stop bidding once the price is getting beyond that. This way i won’t going crazy and end up spent too much money. eBay is a fun website that is pretty safe to shop using Paypal. I had a problem with eBay and Paypal once, as my Paypal account registered in Thailand and connects with my credit card from Thai bank. Sometime eBay won’t allow to ship goods outside of the US and i have to write the seller to remove that condition in order to make transaction. It was a pain in the neck but so far so good i guess. Here is an example of toys i got from eBay, the Shark in jail uniform by Kidrobot!
As for books, i think Amazon is the best place to look and prices are usually cheaper than else where if you don’t mind waiting a bit for them to arrive by mail. I sometime buy second-hand books from Amazon and get good condition books with affordable prices. Every time i’m in Barnes & Nobles and saw a book i like to buy, i would use Amazon app on my iPhone to check the price first before making a decision. During the past 6 months, i also bought stationery, craft tools, shoes, bags, pillows, a pan and even coffee from Amazon. This retail website usually carries everything i need! Given how many orders i make recently, UPS and FedEx must be sick of me at this point. Here is my Amazon.co.jp Danbo or Cardboard Box brought from Amazon.com. Isn’t he cute? 🙂
I did shopped at online specialty stores sometime for a very spacial item. I bought some office supplies from Jet Pens (http://www.jetpens.com) and tea from The Republic of Tea (http://www.republicoftea.com). I rarely buy clothes online because i can’t try them on or touch the materials. I prefer to go to H&M to buy them in person but i think 6PM (http://www.6pm.com) and ASOS (http://www.asos.com) are pretty good. I found that “Retail Therapy” is a great thing! I love to look around for things i like, especially toys and books. When i’m stress, i just like to do “window” shopping! In Bangkok, there are department stores everywhere within our BTS Skytrain system. After work, i used to walk around in Kinokuniya Bookstore (http://www.kinokuniya.com/) or Loft Bangkok (http://www.loftbangkok.com/). Here in Denver, the closest mall to our apartment is about 45 minutes walk each ways. If i have to walk there and back again, i prefer to stay home and surf the internet instead. I have to say that the whole “Online Retail Therapy” experience can be very addictive! So, be careful! 😛
Ps. These are what i received today!
Kaiju Goose 