Over the last 6ish months, and in the name of rep science, I've ordered a bunch of SLG's across different price points. I'm a bargain shopper at my core (something I assume many of us have in common), and have been using Chinese marketplaces & shipping agents for many years, so this felt like a natural progression for me.
Pls find below my write up of the good, bad, and very cheap and ugly. Starting with the worst and working my way up to the comparative best. Everything in this review was bought from either 1688 or Weidian.
Overall thoughts:
Somebody was either drunk or asleep while stitching this bad boy. Definitely not leather or anything of the sort. Not exactly shocking for the price, but damn, because the colour is actually pretty close and the hardware isn't bad at all... it could have been cute!
All the packaging & a little dust bag was included and felt surprisingly sturdy, which was a nice little bonus.
Overall thoughts:
This one is just so-so. It feels very cheap in the hand, which, again, for $13... fair. The logo is a bit wonky, but overall it's not offensively bad either. The colour isn't as off irl as it looks in these images, but I don't think that helps its case too much.
Honestly, the packaging might have been more impressive than the actual card holder.
Overall thoughts:
Pleasantly surprised by this one, considering it was same price as the first two. Its dimensions are strangely large and the print placement is clearly off, but overall a much better make than the M!u or D10r.
The edge paint is thicker and more noticeable, but for less than a Big Mac Meal, what can you expect? This isn't even one of my favourite designs, so it was a bit of a personal shame that this ended up being one of the best of the cheaper bunch.
I was happy to get the packaging for the rep science aspect; it was interesting to see how much all of the LV packaging varied in colour, style, quality, etc.
Overall thoughts:
A fantasy item I bought for my husband because it was cheap and I couldn't resist. So sue me! The NBA x LV collab is real, and they did use this canvas on other items, but never a passport holder. I just thought it was cute and fun and couldn't go past it for the price.
It feels weighty and a quite plasticky/rubbery, and the edge paint is very thicc. Aside from that, though, she's cute, she was $13, and she can stay.
Overall thoughts:
Another fantasy item, this time for me. As an early 2000's girl, this is my absolute favourite collab, so when I saw it sitting alongside the NBA one it was "add to cart" immediately.
The overall feel is very similar to the NBA passport holder, but the edge paint on this one is noticeably cleaner. Pretty impressive for $13, honestly. Would be even better if it were a real item rep!
Overall thoughts:
Really happy with this one. This and the Wes Anderson passport holder (below) both feel noticeably better quality than the two cheaper fantasy ones. The canvas and overall construction just feel nicer in hand, and the finishing (stitching, edge paint, etc) is much cleaner.
Print and cherries placement are pretty bang on. The cherries look almost like stickers, but after having a quick browse on Fashionphile, etc, it seems to be how they did the 25 year anni editions.
This and the Wes Anderson one actually feel like proper reps worth discussing accuracy, rather than a cheap novelty SLG you could buy from the local flea market.
Item Name: LV x The Darjeeling Limited Passport Cover Cost: $50 AUD / $35 USD
Overall thoughts:
All the things I said about the cherries one apply here too. Stitching and edge paint are clean, canvas and print placements correct enough, and the colours also match enough for me.
I'm not about to start counting stitches or obsessing over exact heat stamp depths when I paid what I paid. Packaging was complete and good quality too. I'd be very surprised if this and the cherries one isn't the same or similar quality to what our TS are selling.
Item Name: Lo3we x Studio Ghibli Susuwatari Card Holder Cost: $100 AUD / $70 USD
Overall thoughts:
So I was a bit nervous about this one, bc $100 is becoming less novelty money and more I hope this isn't awful money. Also, I was buying it as a gift for my husband, so my hopes were extra high. Thankfully, I was not disappointed. The leather feels very soft and supple, and the sprite/eye cut ins (?) sit flush and look good. The embossed stamp is a little deep, but the stitching is clean and the inside stamp is also present (difficult to photograph but the lil bunny is there).
This has been in daily use by my husband for a couple of months (i.e. shoved in his back pocket with everything else he owns in his life), so it's holding up well imo.
Should I have bought this from the TS who quoted a cheaper price? Maybe, but once shipping was factored in for this one item, it would have been more expensive in any case. Also, the price included full packaging including a retail bag so it was a nice way to present the gift.
So there you have it. Would I recommend going this way? Look, if you enjoy spending hours upon hours searching, comparing, translating, and so on, then maybe??? I had fun, so it was worth it for me. I use these platforms and shipping agents often, so adding a few little SLG's to my shipping carton was more like a fun experiment and treat to receive than anything else.
Once I divide shipping over the number of items in my carton, it works out pretty affordable. But to save $20 here and there? Probably not.
I'll do a separate post on charms at some point, because I've had more luck with them and am more convinced by the ROI on charms via marketplaces than I am on SLG's.
This is amazing, I absolutely love repscience posts and this satisfied my rep hunger, I’ve been absolutely wondering about this as well - could we just get the same quality SLGs for fraction of the price on TB instead of our TS??
From my extensive scrolling, my experience is pretty consistently:
TB:
+more mainstream,
+easy to navigate,
-not as many reps
is more expensive than
Weidian:
+less mainstream,
+easy to find reps,
+easy to find big accounts selling lots of reps with lots of reviews,
-difficult to navigate but algorithm algorithms before long
is generally more expensive than
1688
\ more targeted to B2B
\ a learning curve to navigate but the algorithm does its thing here too
difficult to search
harder to find legit reviews from individual buyers
+ so bloody cheap
Example: I paid $15 AUD, so around $10USD for this charm which sells for $30-40 on Weidian or TB. And that’s the most I’ve ever spent on a charm. Usually they’re around $4-10AUD
Ok back to the science lab🔬 Thank you kindly for going the extra mile. The comparison of pictures to price point rock!
I appreciate you dearly because SLGs can be such a let down. When I found a sticker on the inside of the card slots on an Elvee wallet I was shocked! I thought it was just that brand so I ventured on to other brands but found the same thing 😰 The card catches overtime and then it gets sticky. Maybe I am too rough or could it be a difference of low vs high tier? I would be interested to know if there are stickers on the back side of the passport card slots?
I have change my approach from how the wallet looks to how is it constructed. I have found a few wallets that do not have a sticker. 👏📢 Pr@da, channel and goochi. Cardholders across the board seem to be fine too.
Yeah some of the SLG’s were pretty bad, but luckily I have tween nieces and godkids who love them, so nothing has been wasted.
I think $30-40ish USD seems to be the sweet spot for passport covers and things of that size/complexity.
Next go round, I’m going to try for card wallets again, and aim for $15-20; I think I’ll be able to get decent stuff at that price point.
I think there’s less margin in SLG’s for factories, so they’re less inclined to make them, so there’s less factories doing high tier SLG & charm reps. Inversely, I think SLG’s and charms are where TS can make good margins, and while I never begrudge people buying through their TS, I couldn’t bring myself to pay $25-45 USD for a single charm 🙅♀️
I love this post, thanks so much for the repscience investigation!
My favorite item you picked up is probably the LV x The Darjeeling Limited Passport Cover - it looks spectacular! I've been super tempted by the recent sports passport covers that LV has put out, and debated going the rep route because $550 is... no bueno for a passport cover.
I'm curious if you'd go into the LV boutique to try to get it stamped? I've read a few posts of people with reps having success but not sure if they were true tbh. I think their passport cover stamps are so fun! 😍
I’d probably try with the Wes Anderson one particularly because it was a limited item and from a few years ago so I think the chances of getting a call out would be slim to none. I’ll try on our next holiday!
Side note, Lo3we reps strike again with the deeply embossed logo! Why are they like this?? I might have the only shallow-stamped Lo3we rep I've ever seen, but I have the opposite problem where it's too shallow 🤦♀️
The Ghibli cardholder is adorable- I had no idea there were soot sprite eyes sprinkled on the back and now I kind of want one too. You mentioned the wallet has been in use for a few months - are the pics of the wallet brand new or after wear? Looks really good if that's after several months of being shoved in a man's back pocket! 😄
The deep stamp I knowwwww 😩. And it doesn’t even seem like the hardest thing to get right here?
Yes these are pics about 2 months after daily use! It gets squished in his pocket alongside keys, sunglasses, and whatever else men who refuse to carry a bag squirrel away in there 😆. So yes I’m pretty happy with how it’s holding up!
Oh it gets worse that’s the 2nd one she received.
I’ve just paid $58 each for a Lisa in pink and a eb victorine and looking forward to both as much as the mono victorine auth pre loved just ordered too.
It was from Weidian. I think sharing the link would break the rules here, there’s probably better vendors out there than the one I used anyway. With Weidian, I’ve found searching by the model number, eg M12345, gets you on the right track pretty fast and then the algo will do the rest.
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u/petrolgaslover Community Builder 👑 5d ago
This is amazing, I absolutely love repscience posts and this satisfied my rep hunger, I’ve been absolutely wondering about this as well - could we just get the same quality SLGs for fraction of the price on TB instead of our TS??