Shopping Adventure: Facing Ninjas

If you are a hoarder or just an impulsive buyer, you would probably relate very much to this article.

But before sharing my thoughts, I would like to express my appreciation to my amazing sponsors.

Since the start of pandemic, most of the shopping is done online. That is the same case with me.

Before the pandemic, I barely use online shopping apps as I am not comfortable with someone calling me to tell me that my parcel has arrived. So I never really had a problem with only shopping addiction before.

It is a new "hobby" for me. Back then, it was impulse buying whenever I go to the mall.

For example, there was one time when I was just going to buy some pencils for sketching, but then I came out of the mall with watercolor, watercolor pad, sketch pad, kneadable eraser, paper stumps, pencils, books and then some food that I was craving.

Yeah, I have little to no self-control. It is not that I do not know how to save because ever since I handled my own money when I was 18 years old, I always have some hidden extra money that I can use when me and my family is in a tight spot.

Anyway, enough about the background of my questionable financial management.

Since the pandemic, most adventures happen in the virtual world. Some explore dating sites and apps, others explore earning sites, and then there are some as well who took great pleasure in buying numerous things online.

I thought that I will be safe from online shopping because I usually like to see the things I want to buy personally before paying for them. However, that kinda changed when I made an account in Shopee and there was this one cute shirt (that has become my favorite) being given as a free gift to new accounts. I only paid for the P40 shipping fee. The shirt is about P150 so it was a good trade in my opinion.

Since then, I learned how to find shops that I can trust with my orders. But I am still not a frequent online buyer.

That changed when Shopee introduced an update regarding loyalty tiers. It reminded me of my first job where the customers we talk to also have some sort of tiers. I remember that we had to pay special attention to make sure gold or platinum members are satisfied with our support.

This is the reason why I have enjoyed online shopping. I like seeing my orders build up to fill up the loyalty bar. I know that it shows no meaning other than being a badge of being an online shopping addict but I enjoy it so I do not mind.

Sure, there were times when I am regretful of what I bought because I ended up not using them or finding them useless. But the times when I had been satisfied and happy with my purchases outweighed the bad experiences I had.

Anyway, all that paragraphs are just me writing excuses so that you will not judge me too much HAHA.

In case you are wondering, I am a gold member in my main account as of now. I imagine that if I do not use my sisters' accounts in ordering some other things, I would have a platinum membership. I used their accounts sometime because they are not gonna order anything and I wanted to use some free shipping vouchers.

8.8 Sale

This August, it is different from the past sales I have experienced. Back then, there was little thrill to what I buy because I can buy them anytime.

But this time, I waited for flash deals in Anekabenang. This shop have frequent sales for branded hooks which made it a famous shop for crocheters.

I have only experienced buying from this shop once. It is when I bought a 4/0-6/0 Tulip sorbet hook during a flash deal. I bought it because I liked the color. The delivery is so slow though, that by the time this hook reached me, I already have 3 branded hooks (Tulip gold) and the excitement of ordering my first branded hook had faded.

Facing ninjas

Since this shop is famous for their flash deals, you can bet that a lot of crocheter would stay up late just to buy hooks as well. This means that there is a lot of competition.

Here is me waiting for 12:00am to hit because I did not want to miss buying what I wanted. Not just these hooks but also some limited stocks yarns that I had in my cart.

As you can see in the picture above, branded hooks are expensive. This is why flash deals are a big deal for a lot of us.

Also if you noticed the other hook in that picture, the P512 original price is for one hook only, not for the set. So if you want to complete the set in its original price you would need around P6,000+ and then you have to pay shipping fee as well. But if you patiently wait for flash deals, you can save as much as P1300+.

However, I am only a student so my goal is to collect the Tulip double ended hooks, both gold and sorbet. For gold double ended hooks, I already have 3 of them. I would buy the other 3 next time. For sorbet, I only have one.

Anyway, the others who want to buy hooks during flash deals have fast hands and fast internet so one needs to be alert and ready when the time for flash deals comes.

In 20 minutes, the stocks for all the hookswould be already near sold out. Most of the available ones will probably be hook sizes that you do not need or you already have.

So being an early bird definitely pays off during a flash deals season in this shop.

As for me, I successfully snagged one hook (I was the first one yey!) but then when I was gonna buy another hook using a new phone and account, the stocks are already sold out except for the one I already have and the one I just bought. It did not even take 5 minutes.

That is how my purchase history looked like when midnight hits. I paid for the items via Shopee Pay as it is less hassle for me when the courier came.

This is when I slept after facing such thrilling experience. As I was off the dreamland, I did not know that a flash deals was happening around 4:00am.

But there was another one

I woke up around 8:00am, and just for fun decided to check the shop again and I was surprised that the hook I wanted is on flash deals again.

It seems that most crocheters are still asleep as there were only 20 minutes left when I saw it but there were still a lot of stocks.

I bought one again but this time, I no longer have a free shipping voucher which is why it reached P121.

Then a bright idea came to me to disturb my sisters so I can use their account HAHA. They were not happy with it but they went along with what I want.

I managed to buy one. Then cancelled the order in my account to order it in my other sister's account since there is a free shipping voucher. But alas, this is where my luck run out.

The account she made me use do not have a verified number, and Shopee was not sending verification code. So I was not able to place an order.

I watched the timer continue going down while feeling regret at my cancelled order.

But I kept my faith and told them that there will be another flash deals so I would need their help again and they agreed to help me. Their willingness to help me complete this limited edition hook set touched me so I decided that I will pay for some of their orders too.

The lucky one

Just as I was starting to come to terms with the fact that I will not be able to order all 4 hooks today, lady luck decided to give me a bit of fortune. There was another flash deals for the hook that I wanted.

In this 3rd flash deals, I managed to buy 2 hooks, using different accounts since my main account has no voucher. When I checked the flash deals 15 minutes later, most stocks are already gone.

So it is with joy that I realized I managed to order the complete set of Tulip sorbet in this sale. And I could not be happier. Not only did I managed to save some momey for shipping fee, I only managed to buy 4 hooks for around the full price of 2 hooks.

The hooks and their prices

This is the first one that I ordered and the only hook that I paid via Shopee pay. I will use it for fine cotton yarns, mercerized cotton and other thin yarns.

I will mostly use it for acrylic yarns and milk cotton yarns.

This will be for bigger weight yarns. I have yet to try yarns that needed this hook size.

Similar with the one above, I have yet to use a yarn that needed this hook size. But I do plan to use bulkier yarns someday.

That is the end

Or is it? HAHA.

Yup, that's the end. Although I was tempted to buy 6 Tulip gold hooks for only P299. But I managed to stop myself somehow. I will probably place an order for it during Payday sale.

Thank you very much for reading this article. If you noticed, I really enjoyed sharing my experience for the 8.8 sale. It is by far the best online sale I have experienced.

If you want someone to talk to about random things, you can find me here:

Telegram: @zehrasky

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