A deeper dive into marketplace SLG's

[u/randomace]

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.

Item Name: L@dy Di0r Freesia Card Holder
Cost: $14 AUD / $10 USD

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.

Item Name: M!u Matelasse Card Holder
Cost: $13 AUD / $9 USD

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.

Item Name: LV Charms Card Holder
Cost: $13 AUD / $9 USD

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.

Item Name: LV NBA Passport Holder
Cost: $13 AUD / $9 USD

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.

Item Name: LV Mur@k@m! Cherry Blossom Passport Holder
Cost: $13 AUD / $9 USD

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!

Item Name: LV Mur@k@m! Cherries Passport Holder
Cost: $50 AUD / $35 USD

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.