As my friend told me what she was making, I realized that it was something I wanted too. I went to ebay, found it and bought. Total time was 10 minutes. My friend (who saved money by making her own) spent many hours sewing to get the same thing. Ebay is my lifeline.... the only way I can manage to get the things I want and need (with three children, the oldest aged 3 in the house) is to buy online.
Please don't misunderstand.... you can buy practically everything you need here in Israel. But you actually have to leave the house to do that! Your baby may be kvetchy that day. The weather might be bad. You might also have to search several stores to find what you're looking for... and even then, the thing you want may be expensive or junky (or both!). The worst thing happens if you've been shlepping around all day with small children... you may just buy the junky or pricey thing so you can get home and be done with it.
This is my top time-saving *and* money-saving *and* effort-saving tip. If you have a little patience about things and are willing to take a little risk, then Ebay shopping will make your life as a mom easier. How much easier? Sooooo much easier.
The really obvious advantage is that the internet never closes - you can shop late at night or early in the morning or whenever the kids aren't bothering you. You don't have to put on clean clothes or travel anywhere or crowd yourself into a mall where sick people are sneezing and coughing near your stroller. Even if you never save a penny doing internet shopping, you've saved yourself some serious aggravation.
Ebay has everything. Some things are not cheap or easy to ship, but they have practically everything..... and most of it can be shipped to Israel at a reasonable cost. When I say 'reasonable' I'm talking about the post office's costs for regular shipping. There's no *CHEAP* way to ship a quadruple stroller to Israel.... if there was, I would have done it already. But if you really need something and you can't find it for sale in Israel, then it's perfectly reasonable to pay the 'real' USPS shipping costs. I can just imagine the look on the post office manager's face if such a huge and heavy parcel arrived for me.
Why Ebay specifically? Amazon will ship books to Israel at a reasonable cost, but most of the vendors selling their other stuff (baby things, electronics..etc) just won't ship here. Some big retailers ship to Israel off their websites (like Old Navy) but they are protecting themselves by using the fanciest and most expensive shipping options available... all then tracking and signatures and insurance costs... but maybe you want to pay $60 to ship three shirts? A lot of Ebay sellers are small operations, so the shipping is done by a real person going to the post office, so they will use cheaper shipping methods if you ask and oftentimes even if a seller says that they only ship within the US, you can email them and ask nicely and they may ship to you in Israel.
There are also parcel-forwarding services where you buy stuff online and have it sent to them and they send it to you.... try not to laugh when you see these guys' outrageous prices. Unless you're using them to run drugs or something, it's sooo not worth it. Just like Old Navy, they are protecting themselves by using super-secure (expensive!) fast shipping. Israel has a decent postal system, so you really don't need to pay extra for tracking and insurance and such. Besides, Ebay only allows you to pay with paypal... and paypal will refund you if your item never arrives.
Once upon a time, Ebay had a flea market feel to it, but not anymore. Most items sold nowadays are new condition, brand-name merchandise. Israel makes wonderful cottage cheese, but many Israeli brand products are poor quality and on the expensive side. Import taxes make anything from America extra-extra expensive in Israel. Ebay gives you access to the good, reliable American brand name stuff for a decent price.
You can buy almost anything at the shuk, but why not buy Hanes undershirts for your husband, Carter's onesies for the baby and Neutrogena lotion for yourself? New, brand name items don't sell for bargain-basement prices on Ebay, so expect to pay close to what you would pay in American stores. Buuuuut (big but!) wouldn't you rather have baby onesies that won't shrink to half their size the first time you wash them??? And if you're one of those skittish types who's afraid of internet shopping because you can't touch and feel and try out the stuff you're buying, then you can assuage your fears by buying stuff from companies whose stuff you already own. I throw caution to the wind and buy shoes, bras and all sorts of clothing on Ebay and most of the time, the stuff works out just fine. But also, I'm not picky-picky like some people are.
Another fabulous thing about Ebay is the opportunity to buy nice used stuff. American soccer moms (who don't plan on having Mea Shearim-sized families) will sell their fancy maternity clothes after they're done with them. A few months after they sell the maternity stuff, the same mom will be selling the first box of those trendy baby clothes that her child outgrew. This is where you can get some great bargains, if you're ok with buying used stuff. If you ever see my kids wearing Polo Ralph Lauren shirts, please realize that I bought them used. Again, this comes down to quality.... the pre-worn pants I bought for my son from Ebay lasted better than the new pants I bought at Bazaar Strauss. I'm not lying!!!
A lot of people who always buy the newest electronic gadget sell their old gadgets on Ebay to recoup some of their money. Same goes for books, sports equipment, video games, designer bags... anything that holds its value. There are also piles of refurbished electronics on Ebay, most of which carry a guarantee of some sort.
Of course, I have to mention that Ebay is also the place to find rare and random things. If you suddenly decide you want a bottle of the Debbie Gibson perfume you wore during the 80's.... you'll find it on Ebay. If you turned over every rock in Israel, you wouldn't be able to find it! The same goes for most books, movies and CDs in English.. you won't find them here no matter how hard you look. Because Ebay is so huge, there's usually more than one of whatever-it-is-you-want... depending on what you're searching for. If you want a specific book, usually 10-20 sellers have a copy. If you need a size 10 denim skirt.... then you have hundreds to choose from. It's like a mall with 1,000 stores that you can browse in a few minutes.
Like I mentioned earlier, some people are afraid of internet shopping. I don't really have a better answer than "get over it!". If you're afraid to buy things without seeing them in real life - then stick to familiar brands. Also, check out the seller's feedback rating. If someone has been selling for years and has good ratings from 99.9% of his customers, it's unlikely that he will sell *YOU* a lemon. It's a huge hassle to return an item, but some sellers do returns... just ask them.
If you're afraid of getting ripped off - then don't buy designer brand-name stuff (Ebay is full of fakes Gucci, LV, Juicy) and avoid Chinese sellers with too-good-to-be-true prices. You really need a little common sense here... if someone is selling nice clothes because they raided the clearance rack at Neiman Marcus, then they'll have a random assortment of stuff. If someone is selling the same Ralph Lauren shirt in every imagineable size and color, there's a 99% likelihood it's a fake and that once it goes through the wash a few times, the only thing it'll be useful for is as a rag for your floor sponja.
And, yes, you pay for shipping. Whenever you look at something on ebay, just think of the price+shipping as one number. A lot of sellers (like from Asia) try to avoid ebay fees by selling something for 99cents with $20 shipping. Soooo.. if you think the widget you are buying is worth $21, then buy it and be happy. The best stuff to buy on Ebay are small, light items... vitamins, toiletries, CDs, electronics.. etc. Even if something is bulky and heavy and expensive to ship, do a quick calculation of how much it would cost here in Israel and how much effort it would take for you to buy it. If you went to the mall, you would have to pay for bus fare or gas or maybe a taxi if you're coming home loaded with shopping bags.
What else??? Ebay only lets you pay with Paypal, who are very quick to return a buyer's money if their Ebay purchase doesn't arrive or if the seller sends you a broken item or a fake. Paypal protection doesn't cover buyer's remorse or the fact that you thought a sweater was one shade of pink because of how you saw it on your computer, but it was a tiny bit different shade of pink in real life. Like I said before.. picky people shouldn't shop online. If you are super-picky, then you will never fully be happy buying in online-land.
The official law is that you can be charged customs tax if what you buy is valued at over $75. I've paid customs a few times, but I don't actually know how much you pay for what. If you want to be safe, buy stuff that costs less than $75. From my experience, I will tell you that the Israeli postal system is overworked and understaffed (and on a permanent coffee break!) and because of this, many parcels come in and pass undetected. It's a risk, that's all I'm saying. I will add one more thing here.... it is against Ebay rules to ask a seller to lie on the customs form about the value of the item they are sending.... so don't ask. Many many Ebay sellers will do this, as a courtesy, automatically. (wink wink!)
I know what your next question is: what about the stuff I can't buy on Ebay? Like cottage cheese or bread or a washing machine?
If you hunt around a little, you can find a lot of stuff within Israel that you can buy online. This is an area of lazyness that I'm still working on.. finding stuff to buy from here. In Amreica-land, almost all businesses are online, but here in Israel, things are slower to catch up to that.
Here are a few Israeli sites I have found... if you live in Jerusalem, City Direct will deliver groceries, shuk stuff, meat, cheese.. from an English website ( http://www.citydirect.co.il ) . Also, Supersal (http://www.shufersal.co.il ) and Mega ( http://www.mega.co.il ) let you grocery shop online if you can manage the Hebrew websites. Zap ( http://www.zap.co.il ) is great for comparing prices and getting appliances delivered to you - also toys and baby stuff. There are also websites that sell random stuff like pregnancy tests (http://www.pregnancytestsisrael.com ) and Jewish books ( http://www.pomeranzbooks.com ) that come to you by mail.
I am hoping that more and more Israel businesses realize that some of us are sitting at home and can't shlep out in the pouring rain with three little children.
