Category: Uncategorized

I love to read. Every year I read over 100 books and keep a list on my iPhone. This year I decided to try to share my list with you all and give you my quick take on the book. Let’s see how many I get to this year!

1. The Queens of Animation– Nathalia Holt (324). Great read for anyone who loves Disney and wants to know the full story behind the animated movies.
2. Over the Top: A Raw Journey is Self Love– Jonathan Van Ness (263). Great biography if you want to know more about the queen on Queer Eye. A hard read to see all he has gone though but inspiring and great gymnast references!
3. There, There– Tommy Orange (290). Very interestingly woven story told from different point of views of “urban” native Americans. Also a cool read if you know Oakland well and can identify the streets and places they talk about.

Heist Society– Ally Carter (287). Great easy read as it’s a teen book. Book one of three.

Uncommon Criminals– Ally Carter (298). I mean I loved the first so clearly I had to read the second! A modern day female Robin Hood.

Perfect Scoundrels– Ally Carter (328). The third book was definitely the best. But we still never learned what the the Ws in Hale’s name stood for and I believe this is the last book.

I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You– Ally Carter (284). Another day, another series by Ally Carter. This book was very cute and another easy read because it’s a teen book.

Let me start by saying I love a bargain, deal, discount, steal- whatever word you want to say- I love the thrill of savings. But I also love luxury and those two things seem at odds with each other. But really they aren’t if you know where to shop, how to find the deals and how to be smart about it. Below are the tips and tricks I use to deal hunting on eBay– including my favorite sellers.

1- Many searches but just one item.

One eBay every seller gets to create their own listing title so that often means that the piece you might be looking for might be listed under a variety of things. For example when I was looking for my Lady Dior Medium Lambskin bag in black with gold hardware I had the following saved searches:

• Lady dior
• Dior lady Dior
• Dior canage bag
• Dior lambskin bag

The key is to try to capture keywords in your searches that might bring up the bag. I normally start with a basic search like ” lady Dior” and see what other words are used in the title on the listing that come up. Also I always create saved searches so that I get email updates every day. (You can also get text message updated but I prefer the emails.)

2- Check out the seller.

One of the best things to do when looking at an item is check the sellers rating and how many items they have sold. With luxury goods you have sellers of all sizes so rating is important to me. I also see if the positive reviews are for buying or selling. In general I normally prefer to buy from the bigger sellers but I have also bought luxury pieces from individual sellers as well.

3- Ask questions.

If you have any questions about an item your looking at ask! Sellers all have various response times but I have found that most sellers are friendly and happy to answer your question. If they are not then probably not the item for you. Some questions I have asked before are

• Does the item come with the dustbag, box, care card, and/ or some other accessory? I know a lot of people ask about receipts but that is not as much of a worry to me since I like to use eBay verified authentic sellers and I always authenticate my bags through Real Authenticate who has a partnership with eBay.
• Where did you purchase the item?
• When did you purchase the item?
• Could you send me a better picture of x? The picture question I ask a lot as sellers are limited on the number of pictures they can post. I normally am asking for detail shots to see wear.
• Are you open to offers? Sometimes people are and why not save a few dollars?

4- Sometimes it’s all about the long game.

A lot of times I have to wait for my perfect bag in the condition and price range I want to come along. To me this is just part of the hunt for a deal and to enable myself to get the best deal I make sure to great saves searches that allow me to stay up to date on what new pieces are coming in.

5- Pay attentions to promotions and coupons- especially eBay bucks!

This is one of my favorite ways to save a little money on my luxury pieces. You can save up to $150 on a luxury piece with their 5-20% off coupons. You can also get money off by earning eBay bucks during a quarter. Once you register for eBay bucks almost every purchase you make qualifies you for a certain percentage back in eBay bucks. As part of eBays’ promotions they do days where you can get 8-10% back in eBay bucks (up to $100). So you can easily earn yourself a couple $100 to spend off of your next luxury purchase just by buying other goods on eBay!

Bonus– My favorite eBay sellers for luxury goods!

1- G Rare– this verified sellers is one of my favorite sellers for finding hard to get pieces at reasonable resale prices.

2- Brand off– this verified sellers has both newer models and more vintage luxury pieces. I really want to go to one of their stores!

3- Purpose.jpn– this verified seller is one of my favorites for Hermes. Reasonable prices and the pieces are normally in good condition.

*this post was kindly sponsored by eBay. All opinions are my own.

I am sure many of you have heard from a variety of sources (me included) that if you are going to buy a luxury item new you should buy it in Europe. You can get the same exact good for cheaper in the boutique. And if you were like me the first time I heard this you are wondering how exactly this works- so let me explain it to you.

How To Save Money

1- When you go to purchase the item make sure that you have your passport and ask for the sales associate to help you with the VAT back process. The name on the passport must match the name on the credit card if you are paying with card. [Note there are certain places where you must not have a passport from that country but if you are a US citizen traveling in Europe you should have no issues!]

2- The sales associate will fill out the paperwork and have you sign it in certain places. You will then take the paperwork he or she gives you and NOT loose it. If you loose the paperwork there is nothing they can do for you.

3- Take both the goods and the paperwork to the customs office before you leave the country or the EU depending on where your leaving from. For example Switzerland is not part of the EU so if you are traveling from Zurich to London you need to make sure to stamp the paperwork in Zurich at the customs office. If you are traveling from Spain, to Italy, to France, you would get all your paperwork stamped in France. You must also have the goods with you and in unused condition. I have seen many many a person loose their refund because they put their goods in their luggage which they checked before going to customs. To get around this problem I simply carry on all my luxury goods.

4- Get the paperwork scanned or stamped. In Zurich you must get the paperwork scanned and then take it to the Global Blue office to get it back on your credit card or in cash. In Paris you just have to scan the paperwork and get the green check mark. If something goes wrong with your paperwork you can be required to mail that in but it’s free.

5- That is it. It’s really that simple and you get a fresh from the boutique good!

Bargain Hunting Blonde Tip: Always get your VAT back on your credit card. It takes anywhere from 2 days to a month but you get more money back in the long run and I have never had problems with it.

Example

I bought a Chanel 19B (so this is the prefall collection that is just out right now) mini rectangular flap in blue/ grey lambskin with silver hardware at the rue Cambon store. That means I bought my bag at the most famous Chanel boutique in the world and saving money still holds true.

The bag cost €2,850. When my credit card converted that I paid $3,166.78. [Note that I do not pay foreign transaction fees on top of the conversion. So card will charge an extra 3-5% on top of the conversion from Euros to Dollars.] I then received back from scanning my VAT form at the airport customs $384.28 directly back on my credit card in less than two weeks. That means the bag cost me $2,782.50. If I went into the Chanel by me in Palo Alto the exact same bag (without the Rue Cambon experience and the famous white packaging) would cost me $3,500 plus tax of $323.75 bringing my grand total if I bought it in the US to $3,823.75.

That means by purchasing my mini rectangular flap in Paris I saved $1,041.25.

Moral of the story- If you are traveling to Europe (specifically the EU) save up those dollars because there are a lot of savings to be had!