Dudebabe Dress 9053

Recently, the competition among sellers on Gmarket is heating up as market saturation occurs. Or is it that Gmarket is getting monopolised by a few large giants who are manipulating the system? Whatever it is, I don't really care as long as I get my shopping fix. With the introduction of $7.90 deals, I've been purchasing a few here and there and this is one of it. Reviews on this dress seems okay, so I decided to see how it was like.

On the whole, the light pink dress looks presentable, and zipping is a smooth affair. However, if you look further, there are some disturbing defects e.g. messy sewing, discoloured buttons, frayed ends. If only these were not there, I would have loved to give it a 4.5/5.

Source: Gmarket

Price: $7.80 + $1.50 shipping
Item Rating: 3/5

Processing time: 1 day (s)
Delivery time: 3 day (s)

World of Ice Stickers

Stickers are just not my thing, but why do I like to purchase them? No idea, you impulsive shopper. =x Or maybe the youth in me beckons to me. When I was young I had a couple of sticker books which I fiercely guarded, and I enjoyed bartering with my brother the precious gems of mine to increase my collection. When I was a teen I was hooked to handmade cards and pretty baked gifts, adorning them with stick-on smiley faces. Nowadays stickers are getting more sophisticated and their charms are simply hard to resist. Step into the world of 3D and frame stickers:

Okay I shall sound less like a frog in a well. Anyway, the 3D stickers were I would say of inferior quality as they seemed to be too thin and flimsy. The back area was faintly yellowed, and some where not cut properly. The frame stickers, on the other hand, was of thick quality material which was able to support polaroid films comfortably. Each triangle had a pocket to slot in the edge of one photo, and thereby framing the photo nicely. Excellent for book scraping!

Source: Gmarket

Price: $1.30 for 3D sticker / $1.80 for Frame Sticker + $0.30 shipping
Item Rating: 4/5

Processing time: 2 day (s)
Delivery time: 2 day (s)

Sesalo Nail Polish (Laquer Glitter Moon, Top Coat, Glitter Powder)

Gotten in a craze into nail polish, I bought some Korean ones from Gmarket without knowing their compositions. Ever heard about the "3 Free nail polish"? I'm not very sure if these are free from formaldehyde, toluene and DBP. I guess glittery stuff blinds me.

Laquer Glitter Moon ($4.40, 3/5)

This nail polish looks astonishing on the listing, but on my nails, it looks astonishingly sickly. To achieve stunning effects, more coats would have been used. One coat or two (middle finger and forefinger respectively) doesn't make the cut.

Topcoat ($4.90, 3/5)

Decent quality, doesn't dry very quickly and not very shiny. Smudges my nail polish too. A few layers will do the trick. 

Glitter ($9.80, 4/5)

Being hologram, these exceeded my expectations as I had thought that they would be just shimmery in one shade. Only complaint I have is that they could be cheaper since they are made in China. Larger sparkles would be good too! 

Source: Gmarket

Price: As above + $4.00 shipping
Item Rating: As above

Processing time: 1 day (s)
Delivery time: 7 day (s)

Dudebabe Apparel (9062, 9020)

9062 ($7.90, 3/5)

Dudebabe recently revised their prices of their apparel to make them cheaper, of course the quality did not take a hit - remained pretty much you-get-what-you-pay for. This violet chiffon dress costing less than $10 has been on my wishlist for some time but I hesitating making the purchase as it costed at least $3 more. At this price, it seems that the dress seems rather worth it on first view. 

On further scrutiny, I found some small details which can be improved on, such as the weird fish threads at the bottom frills and sloppy neckline:

Nevertheless, I found this dress (albeit old as portrayed from its yellowed label) a decent buy.

9020 ($7.90, 2/5)

After I have acquired a garment steamer, I found myself purchasing more chiffon material apparel, such as this top:

Compared to the violet dress on top, this peach-coloured blouse paled in comparison in terms of quality. It is very sheer, requiring an innerwear, and had pretty poor sewing. The shoulder tags were not sewn in line with each other, the back parts had frays and were not evenly-sewn, and one of the golden buttons came off so I had to conduct emergency repair.

Source: Gmarket

Price: As above + $1.50 shipping
Item Rating: As above

Processing time: 6 day (s)
Delivery time: 3 day (s)

Doraemon Cookie Cutter

A few days back a listing on Gmarket caught my attention - a Doraemon/Dorami cookie cuter selling at $7.50. It sort of reminded me that I have been neglecting my old past time for too long a time. (Un)fortunately, the item has been out of stock for some time so I turned to Ebay, finding the exact same thing at half the price.

Delivery was expected to be longer since it was an overseas one (surprisingly, there are local ones which are longer). The items had a burnt smell, but after a quick rinse with soapy water, they were good to go.

I made orange cranberry cookies with them, and I simply love the appearance and taste. Owing to this great buy at reasonable pricing, my passion for baking has been reignited!  

More cartoon cookie cutters' on the way!

Source: Ebay

Price: USD$2.65 + Free shipping
Item Rating: 4.5/5

Processing time: 1 day (s)
Delivery time: 12 day (s)

Chips&Tech Samsung microSDHC 32GB Class 10

With a 20% discount and double-discount coupons, I find it hard to resist spending on something. This time around, I got a 32gb Class 10 microSD card and an adapter. The card only has 29.2Gb for use, instead of the 32Gb as expected. 

Just out of curiosity to see if my purchase was justified, I did a comparison on the read-write speed, against my Sandisk 4gb Class 4 microSD card with Crystal Mark, SD Tools (running on Samsung GS2) and SD Card Tester (running on Samsung GS2). Here's the results:

Maybe a summary might be easier to read:

It is quite odd for the SD Card Tester to report that the read/write speed is worse off for the Samsung card than the Sandisk card. I'm clueless about such technology. It just appears to me that save for the capacity, the read/write speed of this Class 10 card doesn't really make much sense for me to purchase without coupons.

Source: Gmarket

Price: $26.94 (+ $1.50 for Adapter) + Free shipping
(after $17.96 discount)

Item Rating: 4/5
Processing time: 2 day (s)
Delivery time: 5 day (s)

Caishen Apparel (544_D5A08_A9073 _black)

I made a mistake of ordering the wrong colour (wanted to order the gray one), and even asked the seller for exchange. That's pretty embarrassing. The seller was kind to send my order, a single piece of item with a $7.90 price tag, via registered mail. And me, being so muddle-headed, actually accused them for my mistake. I'm so ashamed of myself *shake head* Sorry Caishen! =(

For the item, this is a striped skater dress made with cotton. Upon putting it on, I felt like a prisoner who had escaped from jail. The gray-striped one which I had initially wanted to order might not caused such a "mistaken identity". 

I didn't particularly like the lacey shoulders, and would probably remove them when I have the time. Also, the stripes are not very even along the waist seam. Nevertheless, the material and sewing are reasonably good for the price. 

Source: Gmarket

Price: $7.90 + $1.50 shipping

Item Rating: 3/5
Processing time: 2 day (s)
Delivery time: 11 day (s)

G-tronics Universal Charger, USB Universal Charger

Universal Charger ($3.60)

I've been in and out of Home-Fix store, stuck in a dilemma whether to purchase a international travel adapter or to save that 10 bucks or so. Somehow, the latter always seem to triumph. Something at the back of my mind tells me that there is definitely a cheaper option somewhere. And this is it! A universal charger at $3.60! Comes with travel pouch and a manual.

The ability to multi-task effectively is highly sought-after in the current society, and this charger certainly meets the standards of our needs with its versatility. At the top and bottom regions, there are one lock each. The upper (un)lock launches the twin blade pins which are freely rotatable (especially useful for Australia), while the bottom (un)lock dispatches the twin rectangular pins. As for the twin round pins and the all-too familiar mono rectangular pin shown in the 3rd picture below, those have to be pried out manually.

USB Universal Charger ($7.60)

In our world where there are more USB-powered devices than power plugs (no I don't have any statistics to prove this), having a charger with a USB port somewhat seems logically useful. A top-up of $4 gives additional functions to the basic charger above.

Unlike the basic charger, this one sports a USB port and has two detachable parts via a release button. The twin blade pins are rotatable too. Something that I didn't expect is that there is an extra fuse (red tube like thing) packed in this devious device.

Here's a size comparison of both chargers:

Source: Gmarket

Price: As above + $0.50 shipping

Item Rating: 4/5
Processing time: 11 day (s)
Delivery time: 4 day (s)

Tiny-shop Pregnancy Test Kits

These are cheap kits to calm frantic people done after they accidentally had too much fun. However, I would double-confirm with a store-bought kit or with the doctor. FDA wouldn't give much thought to such diagnostic kits (i.e. they do not "clear" such products), so take the results of these kits with a pinch of salt.

Source: Gmarket

Price: $0.90 each + Free shipping

Item Rating: NA
Processing time: 0 day (s)
Delivery time: 5 day (s)

Iphonex Premium Pink DIY (Cable + Adapter)

Nowadays, the creativeness of the sellers to cross-sell their items is very admirable. I wish I could do the same for mine, but my conscience screams at me if I were to promote additional things to other people. It's not very nice to be pushing things which people might not need. Seems like I'm not cut out for business.

Back to the main topic, the seller for this item has deviously packed in a smiley-faces-stickers for customisation of a charging plug for Iphone. Initially I only wanted to get the plug head, but in the end I got the cable as well... for the stickers. I'm such a bummer.

I'm not very sure about the charging speed, but from the looks of the item, there were certainly areas to improve on. There were some strands of plastic (glue?) on the charger head. Additionally, the recipient of this product mentioned to me that she tried on the Ipod and the connection was "very tight" and "hard to connect". Maybe it would be better for Iphone? I have no idea.

Source: Gmarket

Price: $7.50 + Free shipping

Item Rating: 2/5
Processing time: 3 day (s)
Delivery time: 2 day (s)

Dudebabe Dress (Exchange item 8822_Blue)

This is an exchange item done with dress 8796. The material feels like cotton, and the sewing isn't really top-notch. Place the item flat on the floor and there is an obvious uneven bottom frame. The white collar and sleeves are made from different fabric, but got slightly stained with blue dye from the bulk fabric after washing. 

It's a pity that this dress has a glaring sewing defect that renders it "unwearable", and yes it is super obvious as it is found at the beige lace area:

 To salvage the dress, I decided to take a risk by removing the lace area - what if the collar is secured to the dress together with the lace? One wrong move and there goes the whole dress. no venture no gain right? It's a risk I'm willing to take. 

Outcome? 

 Much better.

Source: Gmarket

Price: $9.45 + $1.50 shipping

Item Rating: 3/5
Processing time: NA
Delivery time: NA

Budgetmktg Travel Fragrance Perfume Atomizer Spray (Red, Pink)

This is one of the most useful items that I have purchased. Throw away those glass funnels and eliminate spilled perfume, this travel fragrance perfume atomizer will save the day! 

This palm-sized atomizer has a one-way input valve at the bottom, which is a receptacle to the hose nozzle of your luxurious perfume bottle. Just attach the bottom of the atomizer to that nozzle and pump hard a few times, and there you have it, 5ml of perfume on the go!

To check if there are any leakages, I filled the atomizer with some perfume and indicated the level with a sticker. I will report if there are any drops in perfume levels after some time to see if the atomizer is really a one-way valve.

One problem with this is that it is not very suitable to use for multiple fragrances, as the interior cannot be washed. Probably would have to "rinse" with a small amount of new perfume and spray out before filling with the new perfume. Unless one doesn't mind the concoction of two perfumes. Who knows, a new fragrance might be born!

Note: The shipping took really long as the seller did not have stock for the items. In the end they "compensated" with two face masks, which I simply have no issues with.

Source: Gmarket

Price: $6.40 + Free shipping

Item Rating: 4.5/5
Processing time: 11 day (s)
Delivery time: 6 day (s)

Pinglejia-home Iphone Transparent Slim Hard Case

For a fraction of the price you can find from shopping malls, you can get a quality slim 0.5mm transparent case for your precious Iphone delivered straight to your house. Need I say more?

Source: ebay

Price: USD 2.25 + Free shipping

Item Rating: 4.5/5
Processing time: 0 day (s)
Delivery time: 11day (s)

Explanation of the Rating Scale, Processing Time, Delivery Time and others

Rating 

Review based on the product itself, not taking into consideration other factors like seller's attitude, delivery time etc. With effect from 2012.

0) Please don't consider at all 

1) Mediocre with glaring defects

2) Good with some drawbacks

3) Great with minor issues

4) Excellent and highly recommended

5) Perfect like good pasta

Processing Time

Time period between the order and shipping date. 

e.g. I ordered the item on 24/3, and the seller dispatched the item on 26/3. Processing time will thus be 2 days. Technically, it should be 3 days, but for convenience and fair adjustment, it is just 26-24 = 2 days.

Delivery Time

Time period between the shipping date and delivery date.

e.g. After the seller had dispatched the item on 26/3, I received the item on 29/3. Therefore, the delivery time will be 3 days. Technically, it should be 4 days, but for convenience and fair adjustment, it is just 29-26 = 3 days.

Caishen Dresses (A6839_pink, A9094, A9805_gray, A655_green)

PROMO_114B_C3_A6839_pink ($7.85, Rating: 2/5)

• Rose pink shiny but thin material
• No inner lining
• Non-centralised ribbon 
• Sewn-down top bow edges of ribbon, while bottom edges are not
• Unequal widths of left and right shoulder parts
• Improvements made: Removed ribbon

116_D5A08_A9094 ($11.87, Rating: 3/5)

• Dull beige colour for bottom part of dress
• Presentable white lacey area
• Uneven frills
• Inner lining present 

1028_22A_A9805_gray ($8.87, Rating: 3.5/5)

• Batik-style grey soft cottony material
• Way too short to be a dress (for 1.57cm pax)
• Best of this lot

105_C3_A655_green ($11.87, Rating: 1.5/5)

• Shiny but thin material
• Pastel blue-green fabric for middle portion, pure white fabric for top and bottom area
• No inner lining
• Poorly-sewn underside of waist band
• Improvements made: Added a button to lift neckline

Source: Gmarket

Price: As above + Free registered shipping (if above $29)
Item Rating: As above 
Processing time: 1 day (s)
Delivery time: 6 day (s)