Alex P.

If you like retro swimsuits, especially sailor-themed then you will love the ones featured here. There are also vintage inspired dresses and clothing which are all very cute. It's a bit pricey depending (average $100 for a swimsuit) on how much you're willing to shell out for a swimsuit but I think the unique designs are definitely worth it.
I live right across the country from CA, but my order was shipped same day I paid and arrived in 3 days. It was nicely packaged and although the fit isn't perfect and was a final sale item (no return), the price was good. For regular items or sale items that are returnable, I think you have to pay return shipping so like everything that requires good fit and one orders online - pay close attention to the charts given. If you have to, email Barrie - she answers quickly and is very friendly. I might just pick up another swimsuit!

If you've played video games to any capacity and remember the music, then you'll appreciate OCR. It's a community of mostly fan submitted remixes of video game music with a tight selection process so that the remixes are actually decent at the worst and very, very good at the best.

It's also always very interesting to hear a particular theme or sequence remixed in a different style. In fact, video game music remixes could be considered a whole sub-genre of its own thanks to OCR. It's free to download remixes and it's always interesting reading the judges' comments on a new addition.

To avoid being censored too many much, I can only comment this one is to be experienced for yourself. If you have a smart phone and have typed meningitis, catboats and Quetzalcoatl without meaning to then you will find this site hilarious.

I also encourage people to send in their own screenshots.

This site is exactly as self explanatory as you imagine. It's for people who love colours! An infinitely helpful site with commercial and user generated colour palettes, patterns and colours for download. It's useful if you need to redo wallpaper, if you're a webdesigner and want to see certain colours, if you're an artist or any general purpose that requires the need for palettes.

One would be surprised at the amount of time spent on there if not careful...

I've always had a crush on Tesla. Who hasn't? Anyway, this site features some pretty serious bangable dudes in history (and chicks). Suggestions accepted too, so go submit your secret crush on Emily $#*!inson and the like!

(To perpetuate SJ filter hilarity)

This is actually the central Interweave Press site, which publishes crafts related books, magazines and e-media. I used to subscribe to Stringing Magazine and Interweave Knits which are published quarterly. I've never missed an issue from them and they have a free issue deal if you're a new subscriber.

Interweave Knits is a very "audience friendly" magazine featuring models in various sizes and ethnicities with a focus on garments that will fit the average woman. Unlike Vogue Knitting's at times ridiculous designs that both waste yarn and time, almost every pattern in each issue is casual enough for daily wear and yet has its own handknit charm. That being said, over the past 2 years I've noticed a change in the editorial direction in the sorts of styles that they feature which don't appeal to me - probably because of their subscribers in the older generation that have complained about too trendy designs in the past. Ah well...

Stringing Magazine is always a pleasure to look through, they have a great layout, even more improved photographs and the projects never feel old. Interweave also publishes drawing, quilting and other subjects for example so it's definitely worth a look for the crafting enthusiast! Now they've started publishing their older Interweave Knits on CDs at 4 issues per CD with relatively frequent sales, no more anxious eBay bidding for backissues!

Glad to see SiteJabber sharing in the meta-experience of it all.

A review of a site that's about reviewing sites!

If you're in the market of buying used purses (chanel, LV) or Louboutin shoes AND/OR selling mentioned items, this is a great resource for learning about shady buyers and shady sellers. It's sort of like a SiteJabber expressly for designer handbags (and shoes). They also have volunteer threads for you to post links to eBay and other auctions to seek authentication of a certain brand. There's a banned buyers list for eBay which is useful as the forum users have banded together to compile a huge list.

This is probably my favourite site for findings and czech beads. You can choose however many crimp beads or jump rings you want! No longer obligated to buy 20 if you only want to try out 4 or 8! They actually have a decent inspiration projects gallery - with projects you might want to make with listings of the products that goes into the project. They offer free shipping with NO minimum order! And it's legit, I've ordered twice from them... they even give you some freebies your first order :)

ESK has a wonderful collection of kettle/hand-dyed yarn, most of it at sock weight and in gorgeous colour schemes. They carry a ton of Malabrigo, the sought after Madeleine Tosh and other brands. Some colour ways may be out of stock depending on when you order and their backorders can take time as each batch needs to be dyed and sent to them, but it's understandable and I think alternate colours should suffice for those of us that aren't picky. They also have a nice yarnathon program depending on how many total yards you buy that you accumulate gifts at different stages, which is a great customer bringing back strategy :)

If you're an eBay seller or buyer this is a must! As a buyer it's obvious, you want to know if the seller ships items after payment, if the items are in described condition, etc. Usually feedback is comprehensive for sellers but as a seller on eBay, I've become aware of how it's important to screen out buyers.

On PurseForum, there have been incidences listed of reverse scams on eBay. I. E., you sell a Chanel bag for $2000 to some buyer. After receiving it, buyer claims it's fake and Paypal/eBay sides with them (if for some reason you can't provide proof of it's authenticity even though it is) and you're forced to refund them. They send back a fake bag: you're out the bag AND money. Other issues include malicious buyers who for some reason leave negative feedback on a rampage or has a history of scamming sellers via different usernames that eBay does not regulate or try to put a stop to.

Toolhaus lets you look up a username's negative feedback, including buyers' that eBay has made invisible now on the main site. This helps you judge on whether or not you're dealing with a fake bag scammer or a malicious buyer.

Also know as "Arcadia Aromatics", they make AMAZING soap. They're not cheap, but they're great as gifts and smell wonderful. I first found them on Etsy, which they no longer operate through. I've gotten a few batches of orders fine, they're wrapped well and the seller refunded for overcharges on shipping. Also gives out coupon codes and announces sales on their facebook page. Highly recommended if you're into gourmet soaps.

I totally love WEBs! They've got a TON of insane deals on very good yarn brands like rowan, debbie bliss, cascade, etc. They've got a TON of choices in general. Their closeout deals are crazy good and I had to ban myself from knitting just so I wouldn't keep buying insane amounts of yarn. They've only made a mistake on one ball of yarn in the several times I've ordered which I kept because I didn't feel like sending back and exchanging (though they offered). Their shipping to me is extremely fast, but I'm one state over ;). I learned some time ago about their warehouse location which I plan to visit, some day...

Knitpicks has their own house brand of yarn, importing directly from mills in South America cutting out the middle distributor. This lets their prices be competitive while retaining the quality other brand name yarn boasts. They're pretty good about keeping up with the current trend - silk blends, eco-wool/cotton, etc but I've never actually ordered or used the yarn. I'm not a fan of their colour palettes for the main weights (worsted, bulky) although they do offer a tantalizing section of sock and lace weight yarn. For me, what I like the best is their array of good quality knitting needles. I've ordered 2 sets, one was delayed because it was around Christmas time (not their fault) and the other one came timely. In general, highly recommended if you're knitting on a budget but don't like acrylic or craft quality yarn.

I absolutely LOVE ravelry. It's the #1 resource for knitters and crocheters, it's got a huge directory of patterns (free and you can even buy online pdfs from designers, books, magazines, etc) and yarns as well. People can review or comment on patterns and yarns which is uber helpful. Patterns and yarns are also organized by color, gauge, type, etc so it's indispensable for finding a variety of items. If I want to find a pattern to knit - say a scarf for males in worsted weight, ravelry is the place to search. They also have a handy way to list yarn for the purposes of trading or selling, which I've found useful in destashing. Destashing groups also help with getting rid of yarn and magazines. Basically, ravelry can do no wrong!

Although Amazon has expanded to being a middleman of sorts selling such things as whole fresh rabbit, shaving oil and hungarian paprika - they're still good for your basics: books and music. I've never received a wrong item from them and have had amazingly good experiences with the merchants selling used books. It can be annoying to browse for certain items, like trying to look for a diary with a day per page but their suggested items are very helpful and I sometimes end up buying more than I wanted, which isn't a bad thing - $25 and free shipping is always great! I think the trick in buying used books is to look at the individual sellers' feedback - it's ebay-esque. Their music downloads sometimes are $1 or $2 cheaper than iTunes and they often have $5 album deals.

Since Sephora is a conglomerate of various beauty brands ranging from their own brand, Urban Decay to Dior the value and quality range depending. In general their website is easy to use and keeps track of inventory very well! Literally things have gone out of stock 5 mins after I placed them in chart and go to checkout. I find they have random sudden discounts on things that may or may not be advertised to Rouge members but if you have time to troll their website daily you may stumble on some good discounts. They ship via ground UPS which I like better than Surepost, which is free over $50 or only about $5-ish under that - so very reasonable. Things are packaged well, I've never received anything broken or leaky (though others have mentioned that but have gotten replacements). Sephora has a rather generous return policy that I've used sparingly, but you can return in store or by mail. They only accept credit cards however, not PayPal. As a bit of a fragrance snob, I find their product listing lacking compared to some other sites but for mainstream and select niche ones it's good enough and if you wait for their 15% or 20% sale, you can get authentic fragrances at a slight discount (along with any other product - that $40 lipstick you've been eyeing, for example).

*Recently before the time of my review, their website had down time at the time of their 20% coupon sale and black friday due to excessive access - which means if you go to their page, you'll see a "we're down..." blurb and then the instructions tell you not to refresh because they will check every 60 seconds. In essence it's a queue and you'll be let in if you leave the site up. Understandably, retail sites have down time and unexpected traffic - however I've seen reports of customers having their accounts locked for refreshing too much which I find shady. Also, it's frustrating for some who look up products a while in advance in order to make their 20% off sale once a year only to be unable to access, be locked out and later find out everything is sold out they've wanted. Yes, it's not a big deal - it's "only" make-up but there is time invested and it's the responsibility of companies to keep track of this and add more resources at holiday times. I'm sure other online retailers face this, and have found ways to mitigate down time.

I've read too, too many conflicting reviews about fragrancenet, but based on fragantica threads I decided that it's mostly OK but I had my reservations. I ordered two mainstream fragrances (pretty common, on good discount) knowing that they could be older stock or store returns. I think that issues come with ordering niche or rare fragrances where people seem to think those are fakes or really old. It took them about a week to ship to me, granted I live closer to their warehouse than other parts of the countries. International orders seem to have the worst reviews but the fragrances I received were full, one was completely new - the other one may have been opened (aka a very new store return) but both smelled fine. I would say, it's a great site for mainstream fragrances (esp. If your guilty pleasure is hasbeen celeb fragrance) but its split reputation has its reasons, so if you want that Marc Jacobs or Britney fragrance it's probably OK. One of my peeves is when companies say (we ship using FedEx, UPS, USPS, OR DHL but we can't specify which unless you order) so I'll mention that for me it was FedEx Smartpost which is notoriously slow but for a cheaper price, I don't mind the wait.

This is another case where reviewing the site/services vs. products being sold has some discrepancy. Ispy is one of those monthly subscription services (now they have them for dogs, niche perfumes, natural eating, whatever!) for beauty products. It's $10/month including shipping although you can purchase the whole 12 months at a slightly reduced rate (note that I read they do not refund yearly subscriptions so be careful!). When you sign up, there is a wait list and you give them your CC info so that when a spot opens up they charge it and ship your ipsy bag right away. I waited about 1 1/2 months - so that wait list is legit. Based on a quiz you take, they pick 4-5 items to put in a plastic small cosmetic bag (ranging from make up, hair and face products). You can review a product that was picked for you if you really don't like it - I'm not sure if that influences future picks because I've gotten bags where I didn't want half of the products. Note too that some of the products may contain parabens, BHA, or other questionable ingredients (depending on the brand). All in all, it's really not bad for $10 - just beware the useless face wipes!

To be honest, nothing negative happened for my order. I ordered from them because they had a great gift set for a beauty product at a great price. It took a while to ship (despite them charging standard shipping) and that's where I see a lot of the complaints about that HSN charges shipping per item or per set of items your order, not the whole order. So let's say you order a pair of socks, and then a camisole you'd get charged for the full price of shipping for one item and then half price for another item - that can add up if you're ordering a few items! That's silly and outdated shipping practice - it's shady at the worst because big companies have contracts with shipping companies. That being said, they do have free shipping deals for certain things and drastically reduced shipping depending on the promotion (but I don't pay attention). I was very hesitant after placing the order because of the enormous complaints out there and although my order was processed and delivered OK I would not recommend ordering things you intend on returning (a lot of clothes) and electronics.