Japonica Market review + recent purchases

Last month, I used an auction service for the first time to buy a little birthday present for myself.  I'm pleased to say that it went very well.  I really have no experience writing reviews, but I'll try my best to explain the process.

I looked up some otome brands including Emily Temple Cute on Yahoo Japan using this handy guide: http://frozen-yjapan.livejournal.com/567.html#cutid1 and came across something that had been on my wishlist, ETC's umbrella print skirt in mint <3

The auction started at only 3,000 yen.  I emailed Japonica about this item, using the form provided on their site (auction url, maximum bid, paypal, address, etc).  I listed my max bid at 6,000 yen and they sent me an invoice for that amount + paypal fee.  However, someone else bid 5,000 with a few days still left, so I figured I should up my max bid to keep up.  They raised my bid without asking for another deposit - I just paid the extra along with shipping and commission at the end.  I ended up winning the auction at a little under 9,000 yen, which is not exactly cheap, but also not bad for a rare print like this.

The commission fee was very low since Japonica is doing a special offer of 50% off their regular rate.  The offer runs through the end of August, just fyi :)  My total with shipping, commission, paypal fees was 11,103 yen or $139.  All in all, it was well worth it.

My package arrived only a few days after I made the final payment.  I'm sure it helps that I'm on the west coast, but it was still pretty fast.

I also recently ordered from ModCloth.  They seem to have a lot of cute blouses, so I thought I'd order one and see what the quality was like.  They offer free shipping on orders over $50, so I bought a necklace too to bring up my total.  They threw in two hair pins as an extra.

The blouse was a lot wider than I expected it, based on the stock photos.  It really doesn't look that great with skirts, so I figured I'd wear it under dresses instead.  That's exactly what I did today <3

The Emily Temple Cute dress is a recent purchase from egl_comm_sales, the purse is Angelic Pretty, the pearl headband is from Claire's and the shoes are from Payless.  I guess I do go a bit cheap on the accessories sometimes.

I'll try to post a coord with the umbrella print skirt very soon!