There are two websites that are part of one larger company the first one is Lightinthebox.com and the subsidiary is MiniInTheBox.com. LightInTheBox.com does the bigger items like clothing, sports gear and wedding things and MiniInTheBox.com covers things like gadgets and accessories. The stores are based in China but have a very good English site. There are also many other languages on offer; I don't know how good they are but if the English one is any indication, they should be fine.
The great thing for me is that they ship to South Korea, the price for shipping is very reasonable and they often have deals so I actually ended up not having to pay for shipping. I made my order just a bit before Christmas so was able to take advantage of their holiday deals.
Below are the purchases I made, links to the pages on the site and some thoughts on the items:
Swan Shaped Teaspoon Tea Strainer (Random Color)
Price: USD 0.99 , KRW 1,218
A cute swan shaped tea strainer. Ordered for a gift, it was super cheap. Looks nice, I got the white one it also comes in black but you can't choose your color. I was wondering if it might stain but I don't think it really matters at that price.
Price: USD18.99, KRW 23,366
Pink and black full slip case for my iPad Mini. I already have one of these cases that you slip the device inside and it protects it well. I decided I needed an update but they can be hard to find, most are just the half shell inside the case. This is really nice, it looks great and protects the iPad well.
Cat Pattern Glow in the Dark Hard Case for Samsung Galaxy S5
Price: USD 2.99, KRW 3679
A cute plastic case for my phone. It's glow in the dark so I thought it would be good for when my phone is in my bag and I cant' find it. Super cute and very cheap.
Price: USD 8.99, KRW 11,062
Cute cat design case for my phone. This one is the shell inside the flip case. The cat design is like the 'Cheshire Cat' and is really pretty. This is the one I am using on my phone at the moment and it looks great. The only thing I would say about it is the plastic on the shell is not that durable. I have it in my handbag a lot and it gets bumped around. So far it has a couple of cracks in it from just about two months of use.
Hollow Design Pattern Hard Case for Samsung Galaxy S5
Price: USD 3.99, KRW 4,909
Another cute case for my phone, I thought this one was really pretty so I added it to my order. At this price, why not?
Fashion Cherry Strands Necklace
Price: USD 7.99, KRW 9,831
Really pretty necklace, another one that I just ordered to see what it was like. I was very happy with it. It's quite long and the color of the beads is a really nice pink/red.
Price: USD 2.99, KRW 3,679
I ordered this one as another gift like the tea strainer. I thought it looked like a cute gift for my tea drinking relative. The problem was that it's a random color and as you can see I got this boring brown one. On the picture there were lots of colors of lids but none of them were this color and then they all had different colored teapots. One of them had the brown color but I thought that it would be Okay if the lid was a nice blue or green or pink. I mentioned this in my review on the website and the seller must have notified them because I got a email back shortly about 'my complaint'. Which it was not really, just an honest review. Anyway they ended up reimbursing me and asking me to update my review accordingly. I thought that was a bit weird, reviews are supposed to be honest and a refund does not change the product. I did update it, but with an added bit about how the nice customer service people were 'on to it' and sorted out a refund very quickly.
I think I did pretty well on my orders, there was only the one that I was not exactly happy with but it was just a small thing. I really like the website as it is easy to search and navigate. I would recommend them to anyone looking for small gifts and fun items and I will proably buy from them again in the future.
