For many kids LEGO is the most coveted gift but it is not cheap. These little building blocks are not only fun to build and play with but are also extremely educational and help develop such useful skills as persistence, creativity, fine motor skills, cooperative play and more. Children can spend hours playing with LEGO sets, and with so many themes and styles available each parent is sure to find the toy a child will be happy to get. So if you are looking for LEGO this holiday season you should know the 7 hacks that will help you save big on LEGO items.
If you are lucky enough to live not far from a LEGO store and your kid is new to collecting LEGO, we recommend checking their in-store Pick & Build wall offers. There you will find a variety of sizes, shapes, and colors of LEGO bricks offered for sale at bulk prices. Customers can purchase a large cup-full for $15.99 or a small cup-full for $8.99.
Tip: To get the most value for your money when you buy your Pick-a-Brick cup consider filling the small rim at the bottom of the cup with the smallest pieces, then place the larger pieces on top and add smaller pieces again. This way you will get more LEGO pieces for the fixed price. If there is some place left you can even add the tiniest LEGO pieces on top and shake the cup a little so they fill the crevices and you get as many pieces as possible.
Local LEGO stores regularly run different events for children and each VIP customer participating in the event receives a free Monthly Mini Model Build. Signing up is absolutely free, but if you plan on attending the particular event make sure you sign up or register your VIP card minimum several days before the event.
If you often purchase LEGO construction sets you might want to join a Free LEGO VIP Loyalty Program. It is a great opportunity to earn rewards for every dollar spent in LEGO store. Members of the Free LEGO VIP Loyalty Program earn 1 VIP point for every $1 spent. When you accumulate 100 VIP points you get a $5 VIP reward, plus members will enjoy access to exclusive gifts and special offers, member-only LEGO Store events, and more!
If your child is a real fan of LEGO he will be happy to receive LEGO Magazine. Subscribing to LEGO Magazine is free and the parent can even get free subscriptions for each child (age 5-9 years) in the family. The magazine is released 6 times a year and each issue comes with comic adventures, games, puzzles, and more. Sometimes the magazines may feature coupons that can be used in local LEGO stores.
From time to time you may find great deals on LEGO items at Walmart.com, Amazon and eBay. During the holidays these online store typically offer big discounts on LEGO buckets, bulk pieces and sets.
Also, we recommend checking Clearance section for LEGO deals at your local Walmart store! Another store to check for clearance toys, including LEGO items is Barnes and Noble. Last year during Red Dot Clearance Event you could find select LEGO Creator sets and LEGO Chima sets for only $2 each! Target is also known for their great Black Friday sale on toys as well as in-store Toy Clearance Events held in January and July.
It is the time to look for awesome bargains on LEGO sets, and more. In addition, the store may occasionally allow customers to stack rare LEGO Target Cartwheel offers with store coupons to maximize the amount of savings. By the way, Target is believed to reduce the price on their toys on Thursdays.
If you’ve seen a promotion that Target or Walmart are offering some LEGO Clearance items make sure you check whether your local store has these items available before heading to the store. You will save your time and a great deal of disappointment for your kids if you first check the inventory at your local store.
Your local thrift store and yard sales are excellent places to look for cheap secondhand sets and miscellaneous LEGO pieces. If you decide to buy some pre-owned LEGO pieces or sets, consider sanitizing the pieces before giving them to your child to play with. All you need to do is just put the pieces into a sink with hot, soapy water.
In case you just need to replace several missing pieces from different LEGO sets purchased before, you can purchase individual LEGO bricks, elements or minifigure pieces at LEGO.com
First of all, what is AliExpress? This online retailer is an international branch of Chinese ecommerce giant AliBaba, which is kind of like an Asian version of Amazon and eBay. While not all of us might have heard this name, even smaller number of people in the US knows anything about its operations and safety. Before shopping there, read this article and you might find some answers.
Alibaba is now a multi-billion corporation, but it started as B2B selling and buying platform. It now does B2C and C2C operations, cloud computing, and payment services. To understand how big this company really is, imagine this – it sold $25 billion worth of goods on Single’s Day in November of 2017. Amazon has nothing on this company in terms of volume and reach.
AliExpress is a platform, like Amazon, where Chinese retailers sell products directly to consumers. One major difference – AliExpress does not sell anything itself, it’s all done by third party merchants. All those merchants are controlled and approved by AliExpress.
If you visit the website and shop around, you are bound to ask this question. There are a few explanations. First, you might be buying from the manufacturer and thus foregoing third party sellers and resellers, which mark up any product. We all know that production costs are very different in China than they are here, which is why most of our manufacturing is done in China. Electronics will definitely be cheaper from China in part due to relaxed intellectual property laws, in part due to cheap labor.
Second and worse possibility is the chance that the item is fraudulent or counterfeit. Unfortunately, China is also known for that, and AliExpress is not exempt from these problems. Anything can be counterfeit on this platform, from housewares to clothing and electronics. You have to be very careful as many companies will have you pay in advance and never send any items.
You will need some patience when ordering from AliExpress. The estimated time of arrival for most items is 20-60 days. Yes, 60! Most items arrive in a couple of weeks, which is still long in US standards. Amazon has us all spoiled with its 2-day free shipping, doesn’t it?
If you happen to buy something around Chinese Single’s Day on November 11th or during Chinese New Year in February, it will take even longer as those are the biggest shopping holidays in China and entire Asia.
All shipments will have a tracking number, but it might take a week to receive it. Once you get it, you will be able to follow your package’s long and fascinating trip. If you don’t get the tracking number in 10 days, you should contact the seller, but you won’t be able to open a case until the allowed time of delivery has passed. Again, patience! AliExpress is very good about investigating and issuing full refund in case of non-delivery.
Yes, import taxes are charged by all countries for allowing entrance of goods from abroad. The amount of this tax depends on the value of your items and your country. The shipping company, in this case AliExpress, will pay this tax and handling fee and then send you the bill. This is when that really cheap $10 gadget becomes not so cheap after $2 handling fee and $10 customs fee are added.
Many people don’t realize that such import tax will be added and get angry at the company for not informing them. To avoid this anger, many AliExpress sellers ship items as inexpensive “gifts”, which is illegal. Some delivery services won’t even accept such “gifts” from China and rightfully so. All in all, you should always pay your taxes, so expect about $20 extra every time you order something from AliExpress.
Generally speaking, most products are not worse than what you find here. Most things are made in China anyway. Sometimes your expectations might be too high. Don’t assume you will receive a luxurious high quality dress for $10. Demand a refund only when something is really wrong.
If you received the item and it matches the picture, you won’t get a refund. To punish the seller you can leave a bad review. Shipping the item back to China will cost you more than your entire order, so forget it.
AliExpress and Alipay are no less secure than Amazon and eBay. You are in good hands here, but just like with all online content, no company is completely immune to hacking. So yes, your personal information is as secure as everywhere else.
There is one area where you are less protected than on Amazon – it is merchant approval process on AliExpress. We don’t know this process well enough, the only thing we know is that there are enough fraudulent cases for the company to have a section for fraud case studies and tips how to avoid scams. Enough said.
All in all, AliExpress is a safe place to shop. You won’t get the same guarantees and consumer protection as you will get on the US sites, but savings are worth a little risk. It will take a long time to arrive and once in a while you will encounter something shady, but again, we are talking about huge financial benefits, and that comes at a cost.
Shopping online can easily lead you into unsafe territory. For every legitimate company, there are a few looking to get your money and run away.
If you want to protect yourself, don’t rush to give your money away easily. Always research the site you are going to buy from and find out how they protect their buyers, are scams and frauds likely, and how will you get your refund if needed.
Let’s take a look at AliExpress.com and find out if buying gadgets from this Chinese retailer makes sense.
AliExpress is a part of Alibaba Group e-commerce organization. Alibaba has recently surpassed Walmart and became the largest retailer in the world, offering various services for consumers and businesses in China and around the world.
AliExpress was added to Alibaba platform in 2010. It works just like eBay by letting third parties sell Chinese products on the website. They don’t produce or sell their own merchandise.
The site is very popular in Russia and Latin America. This proves the global point.
Buying online you have to be willing to take more risks than picking an item in the store. First of all, you can’t see it or test quality and features. If you are buying a well-known brand, you can read reviews and go to the store to take a look before ordering.
If you choose to buy from AliExpress because of price, you are on your own. You will have to evaluate the product just based on a short description and a few photos. In this case your best bet is buyer protection program.
AliExpress offers two ways to resolve disputes:
There are instances when resolving disputes and getting money back can take some work. AliExpress has a three-step system for disputes
It is very important to understand how good the seller is. Reviews are very important here, and the more – the better. If thousands of buyers before you were happy, there is a high chance that you will be too.
Always check seller’s feedback page before buying – it’s just a click away. Each seller has a feedback score and positive feedback percentage. All ratings are converted to points: 4-5 star review gives seller 1 point, 3 starts are worth 0, and 1-2 starts deduct 1 point.
The start ratings are divided into item description, communication, and shipping speed. Each of those categories is evaluated in comparison to other sellers’ average.
Finally, there is a section for history of scores and customer comments. This is very helpful when making a decision.
To beat the competition seller might offer some guarantees to give you extra confidence. It’s usually per item, so don’t think that the same seller will have the same guarantees for all their products. Here are some examples of most common guarantees:
You can see those guarantees listed on the product page below the image or in the Buyer protection section.
You should always take some responsibility for your actions. AliExpress lists some suggestions to safeguard your purchasing decisions:
Overall, AliExpress is a safe shopping platform, not any worse than eBay or Amazon. Chinese made products often have a bad reputation and are considered cheap and poor quality, but that is simply not true. After all, most things we buy here, in US are made in China, don’t forget that.
Kiehl’s is a place where many of us go for all our beauty needs and we swear by them. You can find cosmetics, skin care products, and hair care items galore, but one thing you won’t find very often is sales. There are a few each year, so our suggestion is waiting for them, especially for more serious stock-ups. Read on to find when those magical sales times at Kiehl’s are:
May
Kiehl’s is holding its Friends & Family Sale in May and offers 20% off sitewide. The coupon can be used for any amount, so make it big, especially when free shipping applies only to $50 and more orders. If you don’t meet free shipping threshold, you will be charged $7 for that, and who wants to pay it? Orders over $100 will get the biggest savings during this sale.
August
Kiehl’s supports LifeRide and offers 15% off everything code in August. LifeRide is an 11-day motorcycle ride event for raising funds to HIV/AIDS research. If you are one of the riders, you will be treated with freebies, gifts, drinks, food, and hand massages if you stop at any of Kiehl’s locations. Everybody else will get some great deals and part of funds donated to the worthy cause.
November
Kiehl’s wants in on big November sales and offers $20 off $65+ orders. We suggest ordering just a little bit over $65, which then gives you 30% off. This offer is the best you will ever get from Kiehl’s, so definitely take advantage of it.
While this offer is the best all the way before holidays, there have been cases when Kiehl’s added an extra perk right before the end of the coupon, like free gift wrapping. Our recommendation is to use the coupon without cutting it so short because some items might be out of stock if you wait for the last minute just for a freebie.
Free stuff form Kiehl’s
There might be times when you don’t want to wait for a special sale and so you shouldn’t. Kiehl’s always offers free shipping on orders over $50, saving you $7. Every online order of $50+ gets 3 free samples. Extra samples are offered quite often too, especially on larger orders or during specific brand promotions. Always check Kiehl’s Special Offers Page when shopping and you will know what freebies you will be eligible for.
What other savings can be had through the year?
You can find Kiehl’s products at retailers like Nordstrom, Sephora, Macy’s or Rue La La, which have their own sales on various products, including Kiehl’s.
These are excellent opportunities to take advantage of sales like that and buy Kiehl’s at deep discounts, especially during holidays or at the end of seasons.
