When I started working from home, I thought I’m excused from window shopping and impulse purchases. Turns out, this is untrue especially as I spend most of my time online. Instagram and Facebook are no help at all to curb impulse buys either. Overall though, I am happy with most of my online buys. Here are just a few:

One thing I love about having an iPhone is the uber cute and diverse cases available in the market. And I could not pass up this Chanel-inspired matryoshka case from Crowned Velvet. While I don’t normally like stuff with screaming logos, I just had to make an exception with this matryoshka doll. Price is not bad and I think it’s even cheaper than some cases from Greenhills.

Turkish evil eye and morse code chained bracelets from Heart and Bolt. I’ve been using these bracelets ever since I got them. The morse code chained bracelet can be personalized and of course, mine says “Rui.” Unfortunately, while I loved the design, I don’t know if what I got was a fluke as the bracelet just fell off my wrist one day – broken, boo. I have yet to ask the seller about it, but the good news is, the evil eye bracelet is still alive and well.

Unfortunately, not all of my online shopping turned out to be a success. As evidenced below:

That above is the advertised item. While this below is the actual item I received:

Err what happened right? Although I’m not sure if this can be considered an online shopping fail as this was not procured directly from an online seller. I got this from a group buy. For those who don’t know what a group buy is, here are a few quick points (take note, I’m also a newbie but here’s what I learned):

•  There’s a closed Facebook group dedicated to group buy. In a group buy, accredited purchasers post item photos and interested buyers will post “slots.” Buyers will then pay up and the purchasers will then order the items straight from the supplier.
• Why participate in a group buy? The items generally come out cheaper as they are purchased directly from the supplier in bulk. One downside though is the long waiting time as most items have to be shipped (via air or sea), and like in this group buy, the items were really delayed as some participants failed to deposit their payments within the allotted time. Hence, late deposit of payments resulted to late shipping of items.

Needless to say I was very much surprised with how the items turned out, as both the design and quality are very much different from the one advertised. Another disappointing fact is that the purchasers failed to inform the buyers of the items that the actual items’ quality and design are way below what anyone expected. Safe to say that this group buy thing is just not for me at all.