Ask MetaFilter questions in the shopping category

No socks and jocks this year.

Emilyisnow — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 03:56:55 -0800

Where can I find a nodding dog with brake light eyes? My dad is ridiculously hard to buy for, but has always (oddly) wanted one of those nodding dogs with brake light eyes for his car. I'd like to get him one for Christmas if possible; does anyone know where I can get one? Anywhere that will ship to Australia?

Etsy Alchemy Returns

Anonymous — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 13:31:44 -0800

Etsy Alchemy buyer's remorse - what to do? I posted a listing on alchemy for a gift for a very close friend. I only got a couple of responses and only one that could come close to providing what I wanted. The price was nearly 4x the 'ideal price' I put down and was certainly more than I really wanted to pay but I decided it was worth it for a great, unique gift for this friend.

The seller posted some pictures when he was finished and it was OK - not knock your socks off awesome but not bad considering how difficult a request it was.

A month later it finally arrives (international shipping and clearing customs etc) and I'm not happy. The build quality feels very cheap and the construction is poor (the lid doesn't fit properly and comes off way too easily). For the price I paid (nearly $200 including shipping and charges) I expected top notch quality and this feels very amateur. (to put it in perspective, without giving away what the item is - to buy a top quality one in a shop, without the customisations I wanted, would cost around $50, based on the pictures and information he sent me about the materials he used, I estimate they cost around $30-$40. I paid $150 ex shipping and charges for the item)

I contacted the seller about my concerns and his response was pretty much along the lines "I'm sorry you feel that way", I don't think he even understands what the problem is and now he's not responding to my conversations. So what now?

I looked at Etsy's policies and they just say to contact the seller if there is a problem, well I did that and he wont talk to me now. How long should I give them to get back to me before filing a paypal dispute (its only been 24 hours so far but previously he had been responding within the hour). Do I even have a chance of getting my money back through paypal? How would they handle the dispute? He did ship the item and it arrived, it is the item I purchased but on arrival I have found that it doesn't meet my expectations based on the price charged.

I more annoyed at myself than the seller (for spending so much money on something I hadn't seen in person and forgetting about the import tax) and I would have liked to have come to an amicable compromise but if he wont communicate what recourse do I have? Even if I get a full refund I'm out nearly $40 (import tax) - even more if I have to pay to ship it back to the seller.

What do I do, how do I resolve this if the seller wont communicate?

Where do I find a Nepalese hat in Oregon?

dorey_oh — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:16:15 -0800

I'm looking for a local store that carries Nepalese hats (the kind with ear flaps and a tassle). Found lots on line, but I'd prefer to shop in person for this so I can try a bunch on before picking the pattern. REI appears to carry them, I'd prefer something along the smallish import store style. (Can one really shop local for an import item?) Location - I'm in Oregon, between Salem and Eugene, so recommendations in either city would be fine.

Journal Of Tanzanian Meat Sciences

benzenedream — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:49:06 -0800

I'm looking for strange magazines to give as gift subscriptions. Ideas? Ideally these magazines would be moderately-priced and worth reading as an insight into other fields, even if the reader has no deep interest in the topic. Trade journals and academic publications are fine. I'm not interested in magazines that are trying to be outrageous in and of themselves.

Help me design a new home entertainment system.

ColdChef — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:08:04 -0800

My old tube television has died a terrible sputtering death. Help me get over my sense of loss by assisting me in replacing it with a new HD television and entertainment system. Here are my needs: I'm working with a budget of around $2000. I want a HD LCD television set that's between 46-52 inches. I currently have an old-style Tivo box, a decent DVD collection, a Playstation 2, a Nintendo Wii, a DVD/VCR combo, an iMac, and a Netflix account.

I'm not interested in converting all of my DVDs to BlueRay, so I want a player that has a good conversion system for old DVDs. I'm fighting the urge to get a Playstation 3, because I have a tendency to spend too much time playing games--but I could probably justify it with my wife if it's the best option.

Here's what I'd like to be able to do: have 2 or three game systems hooked up simultaneously, stream Netflix, YouTube, and Hulu from my iMac.

Should I upgrade my Tivo to the Tivo HD/XL? Would that keep me from having to get the PS3?

Also: my home is very Mac friendly, but I've never really looked at the AppleTV. Should I?

So here's what I'm looking at:
HD LCD Television
BlueRay Player
New Tivo?
Whatever will allow me to stream Netflix, YouTube, and Hulu

Thanks in advance.

Help!

SneakyArab — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 09:53:48 -0800

Help me find a necklace my girlfriend lost. My girlfriend had a necklace that she got from the gift shop at Mt. Rushmore, and she recently lost it. It had a leather cord, blue beads, and a copper (I think) heart that said Love inside of it in a kind of wiry design.

I looked online, and have not been able to find it. I also called the gift shop and they said that the necklace is out of stock and will not be back in until Spring! That doesn't really work, because I want to get her the necklace for Christmas.

If anyone has any idea where I can find one of these, it would be great!

i need to buy some hemp material

aisleofview — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 07:42:19 -0800

Does anyone know where to buy Hemp linen material at a good price and reliable supplier. I have a project coming up and need about 20 yards by next week. Light weight natural linen is what i am looking for.

3G SIM Card for 1 Month Trip to India?

Kerim — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 18:06:36 -0800

How to get a 3G SIM card for a 1 month trip to India w/out signing a 1 or 2 year contract? I have an unlocked iPhone, and my experience with internet cafes in India has been spotty. I would really like to have 3G access on my phone for a trip that will take me to at least 4 or 5 states across North and Central India. I have relatives in India who could help - but I'd like to avoid having to sign a year long or multi-year contract.

Am I safe from a paypal bill? Can they find me?

UMDirector — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 12:43:19 -0800

Am I safe from a paypal bill? Can they find me? Long story short - I sold an iPhone on eBay. Paypal held the money while it verified the transactions. They released the money to me and I shipped the item. 4-5 months later some dude disputes the transaction on his credit card. When I look closer at the transaction it is clear it was fraud - none of the email addresses match ANYTHING on the ebay account, there are about 3 different names. None the less eBay and Paypal processed the transaction. Now they have hit me with the bill, however, since I had zero money in my paypal account I have a negative balance that they expect me to pay. I will not do this as it is CLEARLY something they should have caught. I disputed the transaction with them and they basically ignored me.

So I DO NOT have a linked bank account and am not "verified" on Paypal. Can I just ignore the money I owe them? Is there any way they can track me me down and hit my credit report?

I certainly don't want to be sent to collections, but my only thought is MAYBE they can find me through my eBay account, but I don't know legally how that would work.

Also any other ideas how I could dispute this?

Thanks!

Kids don't like eating at school...

Nathanial Hörnblowér — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 09:50:35 -0800

Where can I find a Remains of the Day lunchbox? I've tried Ebay, Etsy, Cafe Press, Zazzle and asked teh Google. Any other leads or suggestions would be appreciated. I did find a site where I could order a blank lunchbox and could probably make it myself, but I want it to look professional.

e-cart ala carte?

tilde — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:07:33 -0800

Can anyone recommend a scalable shopping cart solution? I'm setting up a website for a friend using the latest Drupal install. It took me about two weeks of on and off reading to wrap my head around it as a CMS and get it going, but it works.

I'm in the plan and recommend stages of the shopping cart part. While I prefer to code once and implement once, I also realize this is the real world.

So what I need to figure out is what to use for a shopping cart - either a self-installed solution, such as Drupal's ecommerce or Ubercart (e-commerce is not quite released, Uber might be more than I need?) or a "someone else does the lifting" for-fee site, such as yahoo or amazon.

We're still working out the details, but for now, we'd need, likely:

1. The ability to support multiple vendors. That is, they can see the items that they are selling through the site, be notified when a cart completes that requires them to ship one or more items (without seeing credit card info) and potentially be able to mark something as "accepted to ship" and "shipped".

2. The ability to support a customer service end and inquiry workflow (Marcia calls and says she never got a widget, CS rep can look at the order and then contact the vendor for that item, and generate a re-ship if needed).

3. Return Authorization System - either per vendor or for the overall shopping site.

4. Ability to purchase w/o making an account, maybe.

5. Ability to sell mixed carts of "in house" and drop shipped items.

6. (WISHFUL) Ability to plug into sites like Lulu to have one cart for all purchases; customer buys through us, we pass through order to Lulu for that portion of the order.

I'm wavering between Uber-cartting or other solution, as "cheaper" in the short run, but wondering if Yahoo or Amazon or others have a hosted-like solution for this sort of thing. Everything I've read so far seems to indicate that hosted solutions would have to bottleneck through "us", with a lot of manual work on our end, sending out emails to the vendors who are 'dropshipping' with us.

We'll be starting out with one or two vendors, but eventually expanding (hopefully!) into a couple hundred - at which point we might want to integrate into a grown-up ERP (I can dream) like Jesta or other accounting/inventory/etc solution ... though at that volume we could hire in a consultant to move all the info over ...

Getting another copy of the receipt

GleepGlop — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:10:34 -0800

My PS3 died out of warranty, but still under the extended purchase protection of my credit card. Only problem is to make the claim I need the receipt which I lost. I called the store where I bought it (EB Games in Canada) asking if they could print me a new receipt and they said that they would but the credit card purchase log only goes back a couple months at their store. Is there any law about being able to get another copy of the receipt? Maybe if I called their corporate HQ armed with such information?

How much is that [blank] in the window?

ericc — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:32:24 -0800

In this photo of the Microsoft store in Mission Viejo, there are two islands of product immediately as you enter the store. On the left is various versions of Windows 7. What is the product on the island on the right? Bonus for anyone who can identify what product might be on the other three sides of the display.

What suitcase should I get?

jacquilynne — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:26:13 -0800

Is luggage one of those things where spending more money buys real quality? And if so, what should I spend it on? I have owned a series of basic, mid-sized (22-25 inches) suitcases that I've use for almost all of my trips, but almost invariably after I've used one 3 or 4 times, the whole frame ends up cracked and misshapen. It'll still be vaguely usable, but it doesn't look like it's providing any protection anymore. These tend to be pretty basic suitcases of the nearly-always-on-sale-at-Bentley's type, where the individual suitcase is in the $60-80 range when it is on sale.

My question is, if I move up the line and buy more expensive luggage, does the quality improve to the point where I can count on it lasting for many more trips? If so, what price point or specific brands or bags should I be looking at? Hard or soft?

This isn't a 'money is no object' situation. If the price point of 'luggage that lasts' is too high, I'll just keep going with replacing my bag every year and a half, but if it's under $300 or so, then I'll consider moving up.

Where to find a bag to ship in?

R a c h e l — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:22:08 -0800

Where can I get one of those durable bags that clothes and such are sometimes shipped in? You know the ones I'm talking about? Grey, opaque? I've gotten several shipments of clothes and things in them. I'm mailing someone a number of tote bags, and I think it would make more sense to ship in one of those than a box or something. I'm not sure if they'd fit, though. Is there anywhere local (Fedex, UPS, post office) where these might be available? I've got to get these in the mail this weekend, so I'd rather not order online - I /can/ use a box.

In search of a NOLA floral rockstar

mostlymartha — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:02:09 -0800

Do you have any recommendations for an awesome (but not crazy expensive) florist in New Orleans? We're getting married there in April 2010 and planning the wedding from San Francisco, so it's hard to know where to start. This is the second installment of Beg Askme for Help with Our NOLA Wedding. The first was regarding the venue; we ended up choosing the Dauphine Orleans. Now I'm thinking about flowers. It's a small wedding (28 people) with a small wedding party. It's going to be held in a really pretty outdoor courtyard, so we won't need just heaps of flowers for decoration.

Our tastes in floral design (there's a phrase I never thought I'd write) are sort of contemporary and nontraditional. I want my bouquet to be orange, for example. Our budget is smallish but reasonable for the size of the affair. Any suggestions for a rockstar florist?

Where can I go smell some shaving soap?

burnfirewalls — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:16:00 -0800

Where can I purchase shaving soaps in the Chicago metro area? I'm switching to shaving with a brush & safety razor and I have been eagerly reading the assorted AskMes and forums dedicated to the topic. I've got my razor, my brush and other accoutrement all picked out, but I'm not sure what shaving soap to select. I'm interested in the whole soap & mug bit, after remembering that I had a plastic set when I was a toddler. I'm ordering the rest of the equipment online but Mrs. Burnfirewalls is very sensitive to smells. I'd like to take her to a store and let her select some shaving soaps for me to use. Where can I do that in the Chicago metro area?

Bonus points for recommendations of soaps that don't smell like the Proraso that comes in the green metal tube, or sandalwood.

What's a good sub-$500 digital camera for general use and macro work?

hjo3 — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 19:43:22 -0800

What's a good digital camera for someone that wants to do long exposures, macro photography, and has roughly $500 to spend? Okay, so I want to get a new digital camera. Right now I have a Casio EX-Z50 and I hate it. Budget is ~$500. There are three things I especially want in a new camera:

The ability to do long exposures (>5 seconds).

The lowest noise I can afford.

Something that's good for, but not only for, macro photography.

Another cool feature would be the ability to take a picture every x minutes, but I don't even know if that exists. And an easy UI (like the one on Sony Cybershots) would be nice, but not critically important.

Can you recommend something for me? Or can you point me to a site or something that lets me compare lots of camera stats for various models at once?

Ideas for Seattle, WA and Richmond, VA-specific gifts?

Maarika — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 07:34:51 -0800

Looking for info/tips/leads on local gifts for my Seattle- and Richmond, VA-residing brothers My two younger brothers moved to opposite sides of the country: Seattle, WA, and Richmond, VA. For Christmas I want to give them "experience" gifts like gift certificates, tickets, etc. to cool stuff in their respective cities. Cool stuff includes but is not limited to: restaurants, bars, interesting stores, awesome museums, etc -- anything that gets them out and about and experiencing their new cities in a fun way. I'm located in the Midwest, so I will need to order stuff online or over the phone. I would LOVE your suggestions and leads here!

Some basic info on the brothers (who are in their early/mid-20s):

Seattle brother:
* grad student
* likes the outdoors and offbeat sports
* loves weird restaurants/bars - the weirder, the better

Richmond brother:
* "young professional"
* more standard, conventional interests (i.e. no dive bars, weird clothing stores)
* has a very classy girlfriend who will likely also partake in the chosen experience
* hidden nerd-tendencies

Á mis hermanos: apologies in advance if you somehow find this and thus have your Christmas surprise ruined

Wii might get a Wii.

BlahLaLa — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:46:06 -0800

What do I need to know, nowadays, about buying a Wii? I've seen several other threads on this topic, including this one, but it's almost six months old, and I know these things can change rapidly.

I pretty much hate video games, but my 6.5-year-old son and 50-something husband both love them. Son wants a Wii, a DS, and a Playstation, but that's never gonna happen. I'm thinking the Wii, since it doesn't leave him hunched over just focused on his own thing (DS) or staring at a TV screen moving only his thumbs (Playstation). (Forgive me if I'm being too mean about video games. I just don't get 'em.)

So Santa may be bringing a Wii this holiday. What do I need to know about buying one now? What accessories are must-haves? Are there different console versions? Game suggestions? Do I need to worry about game ratings for the Wii - - any games that are too adult for a kid, or are they all kid-centric?

We're a slightly luddite family -- no cable, no satellite -- but someone did gift us a fancy big TV. I'm thinking that's all you need to hook it to, right?

Please advise this slightly surly, anti-gaming Mama.

Cat went fiddle-i-fee

sagwalla — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:11:19 -0800

My secret santa giftee is an in-law who I have never met. 50-something, craftsman (violin-maker). Budget is £25 (ca. $40). My hope: something sock-knocking in the classical or folk vein; preferably on the new side.

Online or local (NYC) sources for solid oak Mission-style home-office furniture?

merejane — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:25:50 -0800

I am looking to buy a desk and two-drawer lateral file cabinet in solid oak, Mission or Amish style. I have seen some nice furniture online (for example, at barnfurnituremart.com and missionliving.com), but have no idea if these are reliable sources. Does anyone have experience ordering this kind of furniture online, or alternatively, are there good stores in NYC?

What to do with a Wal-mart gift card?

nbergus — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 20:40:49 -0800

My daughter, for her fourth birthday, was given a $10 Wal-mart gift card by a girl with whom she goes to daycare. We have not shopped at Wal-mart for more than a decade and would like to keep it that way, and my daughter doesn't seem to care about spending the money. But I really don't want Wal-mart to end up with what would essentially be a $10 if the card isn't used. What should we do?

Help me fulfill my penguin dreams!

youcancallmeal — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 16:45:39 -0800

Help me feed my penguin addiction! I love all things penguin. I have two pairs of penguin pajama pants, a couple of pairs of penguin socks, a pair of penguin boots from Doc Marten and a penguin beanie baby. What else should I have? Cool > cutesy. For the sake of this question, let's say that price is no object.

Clothes, art, stickers, shoes, food all acceptable. What have I not thought of?

This is what consumerism does!

lhude sing cuccu — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 12:20:03 -0800

Where can I find these $10 shoes I found in Chicago, when I don't live there anymore? I bought some shoes from Ragstock in Chicago, back in oh, I'll say April. They were only $10 and are now falling apart. I don't live there anymore, so I can't go into a store and buy some. I used to work there, and I was fired/quit right before I was going to buy a second pair.
They don't sell them on their website, they might not sell them anymore at all, and I know if I call the store they'll never want to specially ship something to me. (I was one of those people who would never help a customer with such a thing).

This is what they look like. Mind you, I bought them without the black laces or all the marker all over them.

I've looked in walmart (your source for cheaply produced things), but even theirs are too fancy-looking. They're not reeboks either (which I've also seen, reeboks look like mom shoes these days).
Mine weren't made for comfort. They weren't made for durability. They have no brand name; no markings but "Made in China" on the inside. But I love them! Where can I find something similar??