#all the aliexpress listings are down

[mayakern]

Hey I’m about to send a really long message, but I’d really appreciate getting a quick, honest response.

I’m in law school and in a few weeks I’m presenting to a law firm about how they need to take artists and their legal rights more seriously, and I’d also like to mention how they need to support smaller creators in more niche groups.

Specifically, I want to pitch to them that it would be financially viable for them to start working with smaller artists who sell their own art as merchandise. In my opinion, people shouldn’t be able to steal art from other creators, but I’m aware that most lawyers only see creators as “starving artists” and aren’t willing to go through the process of helping artists learn their rights. On the other hand, artists think that the legal process will be too expensive and time consuming, so it’s not worth it to pursue the art thieves beyond asking for help from fans.

I’d love to hear your experiences with art theft or anything about how small creators can/can’t thrive in the market today. Just any opinions you may have. Also if you know any other digital artists or small business owners who might have experiences even remotely related to anything I’ve touched on, I’d love to talk to them too.

oh i’ve experienced tons of theft and i think most artists who make merch have as well. one of the more common thefts is enamel pins — factories will sell off lower quality versions that they can’t send directly to the maker, or an old pin mold, or factories will just take pics of existing enamel pins and run them through live trace to make knockoffs. if you haven’t already, you should look into tuesday bassen and the other artists who had their pin designs stolen by zara. they were ultimately able to prove damages because their names/logos were on the backside of the pin and zara removed those identifiers. it’s why i always recommend that anyone who wants to make enamel pins should put their artist name/logo on the back.

currently, my most stolen pin designs are these elemental girls:

they constantly turn up as knock offs on aliexpress, wish, and similar places, but the quality isn’t nearly as good and they always exclude the earth pin because it’s too difficult to replicate (there are a lot of small fills in this design, which is difficult and, as the maker/buyer, expensive). they’re stolen so commonly that if you google “elemental girl enamel pin” you can find not only my originals, but tons of knockoffs, and every time i get one listing taken down, five more pop up elsewhere.

knockoffs like these are disheartening both because my work is being stolen, but also because it is being done so poorly. it really makes my art look like shit. i’m lucky in that i am no longer struggling as an artist so knockoffs like these, while annoying, are not that damaging to me. when i was younger and extremely broke, it was a different story, especially when the work being ripped off was much more… personal.

i used to make short hashtag relatable comics about myself/my life and this one in particular became very popular and was constantly ripped off/stolen — i’ve seen it on bags, water bottles, shirts, and all manner of other products. i’ve seen it used to promote other people’s projects and social media presences (all without credit or permission). and ofc it’s been copied, referenced, and edited to hell and back. i don’t usually super mind people using my work as reference as long as they credit me. but with this particular comic, it is extremely grating to, time and again, see people take a comic about my relationship with my fat body and change it to be fitspo or midsize positive or whatever else — and ofc none of them give credit until prompted by ppl who recognize my work as the skeleton.

anyway this is as much brain power as i can muster off the cuff and quickly (what you wanted). if you have more specific questions feel free to email me at mayagkern@ gmail.com

[custom-emojis]

genq do you ever wonder if it’s like. worth it. bc if i were y’all id have deleted my entire social media presence 12x over by now

Oh every fucking day. Y’all have no idea 😂 like I don’t wanna complain or seem all woe is me. But i have considered burning this blog to the ground multiple times and especially lately it really does kinda take a toll on me. Here’s a list of various things I deal with due to this blog AND it’s associated discord;

I cannot talk about any of my interests or opinions lest be ripped apart and have my income demolished

People purposely going out of their way to trigger me? For some reason

Blatant transphobia and misgendering ? For some reason?

Death threats????? For some reason???????

Directly being told I deserved and likely enjoyed my abuse

Having my content stolen, reuploaded and edited near constantly

Having said stolen content made into stickers and sold on websites like Aliexpress where I can’t get them taken down

People making literal hate videos about me because I… expressed my sexuality?

This is lesser but. A lot of people just fucking demand content straight up? No thanks, no please. Not even context. I get a lot of asks that are just ‘x emoji’ or just a single word of what they want with no explanation.

People coming into my DMs and just venting and traumadumping to me COMPLETELY unprompted when I’d never talked to them in my life because I’m ‘popular’ and I guess that’s just acceptable to them?

People entirely only interacting with me with the intentions of boosting their own shit / getting stuff out of it ?? Which like idk I don’t mind helping people out but I would prefer if ppl also like. Interacted outside of that

People going out of their way to just straight up ask my discourse opinions? Or just straight up telling me theirs! No matter how many times I say it’s a trigger and that I want no part in it. Similarly, people just fucking assigning a discourse opinion to me that they feel fits best and spreading that as if it’s fact when I’ve not said anything about it.

People just. Straight up thinking I’m their best friend? Or even being actively affectionate or even romantic towards me when we’ve never interacted before?

A whole slew of the weird and absolutely absurd shit ppl send to me on anon. If you’ve followed me for any amount of time you’ve surely seen some

People like. Obsessing and idolizing my relationships? Like it gets really creepy sometimes how much ppl get rly into my dating life. ^^;

And like. That’s just what I thought up on the fly with my husband. And sure to an extent some of this is just tumblr being tumblr. Or people being shitty. But the fact all this happens and revolves around an emoji blog is a little wild. Don’t get me wrong- I love running this blog. And I will continue to. I definitely think the pros outweigh the cons. But I also think a lot of ppl don’t quite realize how much comes from it bc I really don’t post as much abt the bad as I used to. Ppl… complained abt it lol ppl complained abt me answering anon hate and complained that I posted negative content at all, so I just stopped unless I feel it’s

Important

Funny or I can make fun of them

Something I need to set a hard boundary on.

Anyways I didn’t rly expect to go on such a rant. I’ve just been super burnt out and thinking abt this a lot lately. I don’t plan to stop doing it anytime soon but I’ve been trying to kinda. Be a bit more stern on shit and hold my ground a bit more. Thanks for the ask honestly, gave me a reason to sit down and explain some of this.

[tattooapprenticethings]

Before you apply for an apprenticeship!

There's lot you need to consider before going for a tattoo apprenticeship, you have to plan ahead before diving head first into one

Money

You will likely not get paid! It's as simple as that. Alot of tattoo apprenticeships will not pay you to come into the studio no matter how much work you're doing. Its a hard pill to swallow but if you want it you'll find a way to do it!

If your going to go into an apprenticeship then you need to plan for at least a year down the line. Some advice I'd give is get an apprenticeship a year after you decide that's what your going to do. Work a full time job and save every bit of money you can. This is going to help cover some expenses. Tattoo apprenticeships usually last around 2-4 years so you need to be able to support yourself through it. Also during this year try and get a few side hustles going in order for you to make money both in this year and later on. There's a few things you can do here In terms of side hustles

Sell your artwork as commisions- This should be a good way to make money before and during your apprenticeship! Not only will it bring you in some income, it'll also help you by making you practice drawings and building up a social media presence in the meantime which Is essential for when your a tattoo artist to reach your desired clientel.

Sell your artwork on prints! This one is alot more passive than selling commisions but you'll need a bit more of an online presence. You can get this through posting your art, doing commisions ect in order to build up an audience before you do this (I'll talk about social media later) use a print on demand service in the begibibg that way your not keeping inventory on things that your testing the water on. Keep in mind though when looking for a print on demand service that you look at the fees as this may affect your income also list then on places like etsy where the seo is done for you and you can really mark up the price for your products!

Learn to fix phone screens. I know what your thinking this has nothing to do with tattooing but hear me out! You can watch YouTube tutorials on fixing things like iphones and it's actually easier than you think! You can buy the parts and the tools dirt cheap on ebay and aliexpress and then fix them for a decent profit! It's a good way to make money through friends and family and word of mouth but it also means if things you need for your apprenticeship break like your phone or ipad you won't have to pay nearly as much to fix it! Which if your clumsy like me then you can save alot of money!

There's alot you can do in the year before you go for an apprenticeship! You just have to think back to ehen you were a teenager saving up for the latest thing you wanted and finding random jobs to help get pocket money! It might sound all a bit much but you have to set yourself up financially before you go for an apprenticeship. I wish someone told me some of this before I went and got one as before I started piercing at the studio (nearly a year in) I was broke as shit.

Research

You need to do your research before you apply to any studio! It's not like you can throw a dart on a map and see where it lands! Go on their social media platforms, look at their stories (this is a big indicator of what the studio has produced throughout the day! See if its busy or not).

Have a look through the artists work! If you wouldn't want that quality or standard of work on your body don't apply! Also have a look at the styles the artists use, this isn't exactly essential but it can help you if you want to specialise in a specific area! If an artist uses mostly black and grey and tattoos animals then it's a bonus if that's what you want to do to! If not this isn't the end of the world as you cam learn alot and you won't be made to go into that specific style! The best thing to look for is a varied style! An artist or studio that does all different things so you can learn how to become a more well rounded artists as if you can do bits of everything then your going to get more clients. Remember "Jack of all trades a master of none, often times better than a master of one"

Artwork

It comes as no surprise but you have to understand at least the basics of how to draw and how to apply different media. This year is a perfect opportunity to polish up and refine your art skills and creating your portfolio! I'll touch on art skills and portfolio work in a another post!!

Feel free to add your own advice in the comments!

Look after yourselves~ ❤

[elecmon]

hey so... you might wanna add Aliexpress to that list? i dunno if you can report it or not. but i ordered some digimon stickers off of there, I saw your post today just before the stickers finally got here... and i noticed that "this rika, ken, and yolei kigu sticker sure looks like a familiar art style- wait a minute."

ALI EXPRESS TOO??

They're all in that big sticker bundle freakin hooray😭

Not sure if I can report it like, Technically it is my art, but they're not legally my characters

Same with the Amazon or wish ones, at that point what's stopping them from being taken down from r/dbubble (the Daisuke one specifically kept getting taken down as a solo, so he's only available in the set)

It is a huge shame and I do hope the other artists in this bundle know about it 😩

[cheesyakumas]

first of all, congrats on the amazing posters they’re all so good!!! 🤩

secondly, how long will they be available on your redbubble for? payday is a while away yet but i will definitely be buying a few if they’re still up by then!

Thank you so much!!!

As long as ZAG doesn’t take ‘em down, they’ll stay!! I did go very Aliexpress-listing with the names so to not alarm them, but you never know with the Miraculous police lmao :))

[si3art]

I saw a piece of your art being sold on aliexpress, the sticky fingers arrivederci... (item ID no 1005002079518686)

Ah, hey... Yeah, that arrivederci Bruno has been circling all kinds of webshops for almost a year now, especially aliexpress, and being printed as canvas artprints/t-shirts/mobile cases etc.... Have reported some of those, but the sites don’t take them down and new listings keep popping up... idk if more than one person reports it, would the websites do something about it then...

If you come across an online shop with obviously stolen copy-paste fanart being printed as merch, if you can- report it, or at the very least please don’t support such sellers and don’t buy anything from them.

I know it’s cheap, I know original artists often don’t even offer that type of products, but that’s literally the reason this type of shops still exist- people buy stuff from them. Every time I see a jojo cosplayer post mirror selfies with their fanart knockoff phone covers showing in the reflection... it just breaks my heart to know they also support these... vultures. Do you really need to own a blurry pixelated stolen fanart on a cheap piece of plastic...or fabric....?

Just... Don’t buy from them.

[poketriodrawsstuff]

Hi hi! Sorry to bother you, but- I'm pretty sure your artwork has been stolen by a seller on AliExpress. I was looking for some stickers and I noticed a bundle of mix and match, but in the pictures I saw some of your Danganronpa cuddling Shaymin pieces. Unfortunately I can't include a link.

Ah yeah, I've been notified of this issue by a good handful of people, and I thank you all for bringing it to my attention! I just simply don't know how to approach this problem and take the listings down. It bothers me a little, but it doesn't cause a big enough issue in my life or pockets to be extremely impacted by it.

That doesn't change the fact that it's blatant theft of several artists' work and making their own profit on it, however! And I feel for the other artists that get their pieces taken as well.

[dollsorwhatever]

TDP Hair

So I got a hank of TDP’s ‘’High Temp Nylon Silk’’ hair (in the shade ‘Rini’ which is ironic bc I hate the DIC Dub of Sailor Moon) for testing since @sadiesdolls​ helped me realize I probably should handle a hair type before making an adamant guess about what it is lol

My initial thoughts upon deboxing and handling/heat styling some of it is that it’s either the same fiber, or from the same family of fibers used on most of the ‘heat resisting fiber’ BJD wigs I’ve handled, which are mostly PE-based fibers or PET I believe- I personally guessed PET because that’s what Danny Choo said his wigs are made of, though admittedly that’s kind of shaky proof bc as we know, even doll hair dealers get the fibers wrong due to miscommunication/misinformation from their distributors. Danny uses the same/similar hair as Leeke World (and Cotin Doll I believe) which is why I assumed they were all PET and thus so was TDP.  It does feel a bit finer than some of my heat-resisting BJD wigs but I’m not sure if that’s based on the color rather than a defining feature of the hair as a whole, since it’s common for texture and fine-ness to vary between different colors of the same hair type; for example my white Monique wigs feel finer/weaker than my other colors despite all being the same fiber (doll grade kanekalon).  It could also be that the hair is ‘virgin’ aka has never been heated or styled unlike the wigs I have, which were ofc styled and heated by the wig maker in some capacity and then washed and styled by me.  It reacts to heat in the exact same way as my Heat Resisting fiber wigs and my Volks DD wigs- the fiber of which I’m not 100% sure about. Volks does have wigs that feel largely the same as Smart Doll/Leeke wigs but they usually label when a wig is Heat Resisting and none of my Sailor Moon DDs are advertised as having that (maybe they don’t label between fibers on character wigs?) Here is Licca who so kindly offered her head as a prop:

The left was done with my flat iron on 170 and the right was done with 200.  While this hair can technically handle higher temperatures without melting or burning, in my experience it works better at a lower temperature; it doesn’t cool down fast enough to hold a curl at higher temperatures without restraint (such as holding it in your hand, twisting it around your finger or in rollers) but at a lower temperature, the heat will usually dissipate before the curl falls entirely.  ETA: I thought I’d note that this method of curling with a flat iron (see timestamped example here for the method I’m talking about) is only something I can do with kanekalon/modacrylic hair, doll grade kanekalon, “Heat Resisting” and similar hair types along with natural hair- this is not something I’ve ever been able to do with Polypropylene and Nylon hair.  So my personal educated guess, at this point, is that this hair is in the least from the same family as PET or PE-based fibers, or perhaps a finer version of PET. This is of course operating under the assumption that the few people to ‘confirm’ this is a type of nylon or nylon blend are mistaken (and that I’m not mistaken about Smart Doll/Leeke wigs being PET or from that same group) lol I think I’ll order some pink hair from two of those ‘Milk Silk’ aliexpress listings because the color looks the same but the sheen and texture look a little different, I’d be curious to see how that reacts to heat and styling as well.  @firespirited​

[dippedanddripped]

In the first few moments of a YouTube video titled “Admitting I Own Fakes In-Front of My Fashion Class…”, Quentin Caruso, better known as Tripping, does just that. “I’m a sophomore in college and I’m taking a class about fashion, and in that class (we) were talking about fakes and replicas,” he explains, adding that he can “throw up some pictures so you guys know I’m not bullshitting”. Asked by his teacher if he knowingly owns any counterfeit pieces, the 19-year-old confirms the sneakers he’s wearing at that very moment – the highly coveted Travis Scott Jordan 1 Lows – are in fact fake. “And how do you feel about that,” she prompts. “I’m fine with it,” he wryly confirms.

Caruso is part of a growing community of fashion-savvy shoppers searching for ways to look runway ready on a high street budget – and, unlike many die-hard hypebeasts, they’re willing to own up to the fact their luxury garms aren’t exactly legitimate. In fact, many take pride in their ability to score a bargain, taking to subreddit FashionReps to discuss new releases, fawn over faux Yeezys, and ask each other for advice on where to pick up the best knock-off Off-White and Supreme styles.

The forum is a democratised, judgement-free zone in which people share a love of high quality replicas or ‘reps’, where members are friendly and even supportive. They help one another to find the best sellers and sites to buy from, while discussing discrepancies between retail items and their counterfeit counterparts – from stitching and logos, to details and finishes. Most users admit they can’t afford head-to-toe designer looks, and at times they even share budgeting tips. "I got into reps cause I didn’t have much money and wanted a few nice pieces," redditor godsip2 shared in August. "Now I have no money at all 'cause I'm addicted to buying reps and can't stop myself."  

While a lack of funds and a taste for luxury streetwear is a driving factor for many, for others it isn’t about the money at all. “Not to brag, but if I want a Dior coat, I can get it retail,” Dennis, 19, tells us. “For the same (amount of) money I can get four reps.” Dennis admitted his breaking point came after a shocking moment browsing resale markets where he saw his ‘grail shoes’ – a pair of Off-White Air Jordan 1s – show up for €3000. “I thought ‘Fuck this, I’m never gonna pay that for shoes that originally retailed for €150.”

It’s been almost three years since he came across the FashionReps subreddit, which he was initially skeptical of. However, since joining he hasn’t just sworn off resale products and full-price retail items, but also introduced his friends to reps. “A €500 sweater wasn’t in their price range,” says Dennis. “When I showed them my reps (compared to) my retail Yeezys, they were instantly sold.”

Historically, counterfeit designer items conjure thoughts of poorly imitated handbags on AliExpress, labels that read, ‘Fashing BALISG’ instead of Balenciaga, and stalls in alleyways, but FashionReps members know where the quality replicas are sold and claim that many knock-offs actually tend to be better made.  “The quality is the same, even better,” Netherlands-based 23-year-old Camiel admits. “I’ve heard of some Yeezys being better and a lot of high-end Louis Vuitton reps being way better than retail.” He believes that “retail Louis Vuitton quality is not so great…”

FashionReps members buy in bulk, spending hundreds of dollars on ‘hauls’ that they break up into smaller packages in hopes of evading customs checks. The risk is part of the thrill, and while some are unlucky and have their packages seized, others rejoice when packages filled with thousands of dollars of ‘drip’ arrive in the mail.

Camiel cites his favourite find to be a Palace red slub-neck, “which you can't tell apart from a real one – which I have one of,” he adds. “The quality is amazing and it's super comfortable to wear, it's my favourite (item) I have gotten so far.” But Camiel hasn’t always gotten away with his thrifty finds.

“In the beginning, I wouldn't wear an item if it had the tiniest flaw. Later on, I noticed that people know (very) little about brands and which items even exist,” he explains. While most people who recognise a rep are likely to ask for the seller or pass on a compliment, Camiel concedes he’s been called out before. “Some high schoolers were at the gym and I was wearing my Nike tech fleece joggers, which have some noticeable flaws, like the black stripe being too short and the cords being too short as well. They called me out on the logo, which I know is perfect. Bunch of clowns.”

For all the people excited about reps, their quality, and believability, there are just as many people out there looking to spot a fake. YeezyBusta, who recently gained prominence for spotting fakes on civilians and celebrities has over 760,000 followers on Instagram. He’s busted the likes of Lil Tjay, Blac Chyna, and Soulja Boy for donning fake Supreme and Yeezys, although his faux-detector has been known to malfunction.

"I got into reps cause I didn’t have much money and wanted a few nice pieces. Now I have no money at all 'cause I'm addicted to buying reps and can't stop myself" – godsip2, FashionReps member

In an episode of Complex’s Full Size Run, hosts tasked the Instagram detective with discerning the difference between fake pairs of shoes from the real thing. After being handed a pair of bone-white Yeezy 500s, YeezyBusta exclaims, “Oh these are real!” Closely inspecting the shoe, he notices “The suede is right…even down to the stitching, the label inside the shoe looks right to me and the insole is right too.” The host, who finds it hard to hide his amusement, blurts out “They’re fake.” Behind his signature black surgical mask, used to hide his identity, YeezyBusta turns bright red.

“I can’t take him seriously,” Tripping admits. In a reaction video to a VICE documentary on YeezyBusta, the fashion student protests his motivation for hunting down counterfeit items so publicly. “It isn’t funny. Does anyone find that funny? To ridicule people online? That isn’t something you should be gloating about.”

Some counterfeit items are so believable that they’ve also slipped past trusted authenticators. The RealReal, one of the world's leading luxury consignment stores, claims that "every item we sell is 100% authenticated by an expert.” However, just last year, Forbes contributor, Richard Kentenbaum claimed the retail giant had sold him a fake Toile de Jouy Dior Book Tote bag for $3,600. What followed was a swift investigation by CNBC, who, after speaking with a dozen former employees and unsatisfied customers, and obtaining internal company documents, revealed that “many of the items on the site were being authenticated by copywriters with limited training.” and those who are doing this work are finding it increasingly difficult to spot counterfeits. Out of 1,400 reviews online for The RealReal, the top complaints are fake items.

It may come as a surprise to learn that this is something FashionReps also stands firmly against. In December, the group came together after Depopuser James’s Closet was spotted selling counterfeit items. Within a day, the subreddit had made efforts to liaise with Depop directly and reported the fake pieces resulting in all the listings being taken down. And this isn’t the only time the forum has rallied against people selling fake items moonlighting as cheap authentic ‘steals’. “People who willingly sell replicas as authentic items are the worst,” Tripping insists. “Knowing that a replica looks so close to retail and not selling it for a lot of profit is challenging for some people.”

Conversely, enjoying replicas as they are comes with its own baggage. Reports indicate that counterfeit fashion is a trillion-dollar industry. "One of the worst stories I read was where they had raided an illegal factory and the children were actually handcuffed to the sewing machines," Ariele Elia, an assistant curator at the Museum at FIT explained in a Complex documentary about the flourishing bootleg industry.

Fashion Revolution, a not-for-profit global movement campaigning for the systemic reform of the fashion industry, notes that there’s an “urgent lack of transparency.” Policy Director at Fashion Revolution, Sarah Ditty, told us that counterfeiting doesn’t usually come hand in hand with good rights and wages for workers. “Factories making counterfeit items are doing so illegally so it’s in their interest to operate completely under the radar and in doing so means we have no idea who the workers are making these products, what they are being paid, what conditions they’re working in, and what sort of poor environmental practices are most likely happening in these factories.”

To them, the moral standpoint is clear: “We would definitely encourage people not to buy fake luxury goods or any other counterfeit items because you’re almost guaranteed to be contributing to human exploitation and environmental degradation.” This is an issue that goes beyond fakes: when you look beyond the manufacturing level at the places where fabrics are made, yarns are spun and fibres are grown, even legitimate brands are guilty of obscuring working conditions.

But Tripping insists it's a media smoke-screen. “adidas and Nike were called out for their treatment of workers in the 90s and early 2000s, so now every factory in Asia is associated with bad conditions and child labour.” Tripping also claims that sellers are in fact increasingly transparent about working conditions, their treatment of employees and factories. “They show what their shop looks like, I’ve even asked sellers to show their shops,” he remarked in one of his videos. “And they’ve posted videos on the (subreddit).” One video posted shows a “top quality Yeezy” factory filled with workers. “Actually looks very clean and cool compared to all of the bad warehouse jobs I used to do here in the US,” Redditor highnnmighty comments.

“That’s like asking if I’ll ever go back to my ex, it was a fun time but in the end, you just feel shitted on” – Dennis, on whether or not he will stop buying fakes

Central to what makes FashionReps a great community isn’t the collective middle-finger to resale culture and hypebeasts or the internet-savvy tips, but the irreverent charm and supportive nature of young people who ultimately just want to look cool, and don’t want money to be the reason that they miss out. It’s rare, if not impossible, to find fashion spaces that aren’t hierarchical, based on wealth, social standing, and nepotism, but FashionReps manages to do all of that, and more. Camiel tells me that recently, the subreddit even banded together to target sellers who began taking higher cuts from sales. “I love how we sometimes work together to get something we want.”

Confronted with the fact that buying reps are taking sales away from workers, brands, and designers, Tripping is unfazed. “Once a limited shoe is released, and sold out in seconds, the company has made its profit. The average cost of manufacturing an Air Jordan 1 is $15-$16. The mark up of that shoe is more than 100 per cent. Nike has no problem with this. If you are wearing a replica of that overpriced shoe (on the resell market), you are basically advertising the brand. The culture side of sneakers is bland and fraudulent, replicas are there to stir things up.”

When asked if he’d ever give up replicas and return to buying retail, Dennis scoffed before saying: “That’s like asking if I’ll ever go back to my ex, it was a fun time but in the end, you just feel shitted on.”

[purenguyening]

Rules: Answer the questions and tag 9 people you want to know better/catch up with.

Tagged by @dee--eer

Tagging: It’s a free for all, go ahead if you want. :)​

Three ships:

- Kaishinshi (Kuroba Kaito/Kudou Shinichi/Miyano Shiho) from Detective Conan/Magic Kaito

- futojiko (Mononobe no Futo/Soga no Tojiko) from Touhou Project

- ThaiViet (Thailand/Vietnam) from Axis Power Hetalia/Hetalia World Stars

Last song:

LES PETITS PAPIERS by Omar&Nodey

[I was watching the stop motion and got interested in the full song.]

Fun fact, it’s the song I was listening to on loop for my most recent piece. 

Last movie:

Detective Conan: The Fourteenth Target

I watched it with a friend while getting them into DCMK, lmao.

Currently watching:

Not really watching a series, but I’ve been into watching a handful of art Youtubers. 

I really like listening to Drawingwiffwaffles. It’s kind of fun to have a “drawing buddy” while I sketch myself.. 

Here’s a list of videos from SuperRaeDizzle who kind of inspired me to both dive into using my old colored pencils art supplies and try to sketch more using a brown/grey background and made me want to play around with Paint Tool Sai’s copic marker brush settings:

Big Win?! Trying Dollar General's Ridiculously CHEAP Art Supplies...

Easy Art Hacks!

DRAWING WITH ONLY SCHOOL SUPPLIES

A TOTAL MESS...TESTING $1 DOLLAR TREE PAINT

USING ONLY $1 DOLLAR STORE DRAWING SUPPLIES

TESTING EVERYDAY PRODUCTS TO BLEND COLORED PENCILS

ART TIPS FOR BROKE ARTISTS

A BIG OOF... Trying AliExpress Art Supplies

My general impression with these sort of videos is basically more inexpensive supplies will require a bit more work but in general spending more time improving your skill will making using the tools easier. I digress...

I’m still a little too anxious to traditional media, but replicating some of it on a digital medium might be a stepping stone for me. 

Currently reading:

There’s a backlog of things I’ve started reading but haven’t really gotten around to finishing....

Currently craving:

The passage of time to slow down, honestly...

[firespirited]

I havn’t had time for creating lately so here are a few bits and bobs of doll related information to share.

Amaya bald & eyeless head from aliexpress for $8 at aliexpress.com/item/4001246939241.html - she arrived within 10 days which was surprising. I like my dolls to have a same-friend if that makes any sense and was going to purchase a Poppy or a Sunny but the prices on amazon and ebay have gone through the roof ($43 on amazon, I’ve got an ebay alert out for when people start keeping clothes and selling off the dolls). As you can see, a 12mm iris is way too big, 8mm pink cabochons too small. So she’s waiting for eyes (16*23mm that I’ll cut down to size). The black makeup around her eyes becomes very fragile when heated but it’s easy to repaint. As for hair inspiration i’m stumped, she’s hard to ‘bond’ with at this point. They’re very odd looking without hair and eyes. Information: 10mm irises are just right, 16mm eye size (as seen on Danni’s dolls) leaves too much space at the side so get 18mm sand down slightly and cut the top down to 15mm.

Azul the rainbow surprise on wonder woman 18″ is still destaining but not surprising as it was deep into the vinyl. I think i’m going to have to handmake her clothes as her measurements don’t match your usual 1/4th BJD. I’ll share if I make any patterns but it’ll be stretch fabric hand stitched clothes in the simplest forms. I didn’t keep her suit, not even for pattern making, it was shedding stainy bits of blue and red pleather. Information: check your pleather wearing dolls, especially jakks pacific. Benzoyl peroxide takes at least a week on blue stains without sun exposure.

Rainbow reroots in saran are not possible right now as I’m very low on red and will have to wait for a retrodolls restock as shipping from the US is bonkers. I got this gorgeous shimmery scarlet kiwi but it’s both too orange for the rainbow and for my Star Darling red custom. That’s two projects on hold (6 pale blonde dolls who were going to get front and parting rainbows and Leona in blood red- though I can always save up and get her nylon instead), not that I don’t have a ton of other projects LOL!  If you’re in europe and have blood red/torch auburn or fire red saran hit me up. Will trade hair and/or customs but not to the USA as parcels are vanishing and it would cost you a lot more than it would cost me. Information: check the pictures for how shiny the kiwi scarlet is and how it compares to fire red, orange soda and torch auburn

In personal news: our fridge died, we tried to fix it but this summer’s been a rough one, I got the new one out of my savings and uhh inflation is painful *eye twitches*. Anyway mum’s just realized she let the delivery guy leave with all our wierd fridge magnets, memos and the shopping lists still attached to the old one hahahaha. Sis is still going through a rough time but is seeing a neurologist via video chat later this month. I’ll ask her permission before sharing any more information, privacy matters greatly to her, I don’t want to overstep. The carers have been either off sick or on holiday so it’s been chaotic. The Tour de France came through my town yesterday so all the roads were shut down and there were helicopters half the day but holy macaroni did they get some gorgeous aerial shots, the lighting was perfect as it rained a few days ago, made this dusty little farm town look amazing. Olive groves shimmer as the leaves are reflective to conserve moisture, up close and from afar it’s stunning. Everyone who turned out followed strict social distancing and wore masks, not just because the region will be locked down if we go over x cases but because the tour will be cancelled if anyone tests positive: cyclists or crew. Felt well proud watching everyone keeping distance in their masks on TV.

[dollsonmain]

Hey, could i get your advice on getting a first larger doll? I have a lot of 1/6th stuff like barbies but i'm looking to get something 1/4th or 1/3rd scale. I don't wanna buy something fake though, and would like some torso jointing... Where do u suggest i look and what search terms do you suggest i use? Any brand reccomendations?

Oh boy......

Well, unfortunately, I have been out of resin BJD for the most part for a LONG time. I don’t know most of the companies that are out there anymore, and I don’t know which dolls do and don’t have torso joints.

As for vinyl and ABS dolls, we’re still figuring out who is and isn’t selling legitimate products on sites like eBay and AliExpress. SOME AliExpress sellers are legit, but the vast majority are fakes.

It does get easier to narrow it down, though, if you know what materials and aesthetic you’re looking for.

volksusa.com has Dollfie Dream in various sizes, and those are plastic and vinyl. That’s also where you would go to get Super Dollfie brand resin BJD specifically. Can’t say which do and don’t have the torso joint.

If you want to pay a whole lot more for basically the same thing, there’s Smart Doll.

The Junky Spot is a multi-brand retailer and a good shop to look at. All legits there as far as I know, but I’ve never ordered through them.

Same goes for Denver Doll Emporium. AFAIK, 100% legit. And they claim to be the sole authorized US dealer for Fairyland dolls, which do tend to have that torso joint and are GORGEOUS.

If you want Fairyland dolls and want to go straight to the origin company, that’s dollfairyland.com.

You can get Obitsu at Junky Spot, or from their Japan-based online shop Parabox. Obitsu from both sites are legit, and Obitsu dolls range in size from like...3 inches tall to small-human-child size. They tend to be relatively affordable, too.

The marketplace on Den of Angels is a good place to look, though it does move slow and tend toe pricier for used goods, AND you have to happen to be a member in good standing for a certain amount of time to gain access to the marketplace so that can be daunting for someone just starting out.

eBay is kind of tricky but a good place to look for used dolls. Some people selling fakes are up front about it, and some aren’t. You can always ask the doll owners here on Tumblr for input.

Be careful searching Google for places to buy because BJD-Shop is all recasts/counterfeits, AND the most prominent search result.

Do NOT buy from BJD-Shop if you want legits. Also avoid Doris Doll/Ucanaan/any other brand you find selling the same dolls, EVA BJD, and DBS/Dream Fairy. Basically any brand that sells through Amazon right now.

So... I hope that helps you get started, but obviously I can’t say where exactly to look since I don’t know what you’re looking for nor your price range. You already know about 5StarDoll (I have a Ji and she’s pretty nice for a less expensive resin doll, though I am thinking of finding her a new home). Resinsoul and Bobobie are two other lower-cost companies that have some nice looking dolls in their shops, if you need or want to keep your spending down.

And I’m sure more than one of my friends will have more advice, and add it on.

You’re also welcome to ask me about specific sites, dolls, and listings and if I can’t give you an answer, I can ask the frens. We usually get stuff figured out.

[rigelmejo]

Some useful I found recently for reading cnovels, that work as Readers that provide translations, or Parallel Texts:

zhenhunxiaoshuo.com - A chinese site. has a ton of priest novels, a lot of other danmei novels as well including modaozushi, sleuth of ming dynasty, love is more than a word, etc. I adore this site. I found it by chance when someone recommended it for reading the sleuth of ming dynasty. I deeply appreciate whoever made this site. This site is visually simple and easy to look at, and if you know the titles of the novels you want to read then it is exceptionally easy to locate the correct one. (In addition, if you like any of these novels, please consider buying a copy of the official novels either on the sites they were initially sold on like jjwxc, or their print editions - this is a link to jjwxc, Priest’s Guardian page. jjwxc also has MXTX’s works on it, Meatbun’s 2ha on it, etc). 

This is a google doc guide by @anonflail on twitter about how to make an account on jjwxc and purchase the official novels: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ikGyfFiI4SQe2NmrNsJ3sgV71Iv6e5tGqN9i8SZbuSA/edit . If you happen to be reading any cnovel translations, most translation’s include a link in their intro page to the original official cnovel.

In addition, sometimes if the novels are published you can find print copies of them on YesAsia.com. If you find it this way, often they are traditional character book versions so check in the description. Also look up books by chinese title or pinyin, if the english title does not give you results. I got the mo dao zu shi books from this site, and The Untamed Drama OST. You can also find print novels on amazon, ebay, and aliexpress. Forewarning though I really... have no idea if the ones on these sites are official published copies or not. I got Zhen Hun off Aliexpress months ago, having no idea about anywhere else to find it at the time. The book is in simplified characters, and contains most of the novel but I think is missing all of the extra chapters, and my version has an intro featuring Kunlun that doesn’t exist in the jjwxc online version. Again, if you buy a book, check if the characters are traditional or simplified before purchasing. Be aware that often cnovels are more than 1 volume - don’t buy 1 and think you have the entire novel, actually check how many volumes it is... (Like Mo Du by Priest is 3 volumes?) I’ve found YesAsia to have the most genuine looking books...

Also, if I’m going to get nitpicky... if you want to guarantee you are reading a version of the cnovel with all the extra chapters - the official release is your only guarantee. I personally like to have some notepad copies of the txt to edit and look at, and often unofficial txt downloads will be missing chapters, be the older unedited and therefore less finished versions of chapters, and will be missing later chapters and sections. So if you really enjoy a story, you might as well enjoy the full thing by supporting the author, and getting their most complete official versions of the novels. 

daomubiji.org - If you’re a fan of The Lost Tomb series (the books or the multitude of dramas), this website seems to have most or all of the novels. Its absolutely huge. Like the last site mentioned, you can read them on here. If you’ve never read daomubiji, here’s a quick intro: its real well known sort of like Harry Potter. It’s very Lara Croft/Tomb Raider/Indiana Jones/Uncharted/The Mummy kind of stuff - with the fantasy elements being generally similar to other chinese-tomb-raider genre stories. So think adventurous tomb exploring plus some horror fantasy. It has a ton of drama adaptations you could check out if you wanted a visual introduction to daomubiji - some adaptations are better or worse than others. A fun fact - the two male main leads are probably the biggest ship/CP in the fandom, as far as I can tell. Despite them not being explicitly canonically romantic - compared to the danmei novels listed on the site above lol. I think its a tragedy tbh... that it is so hard to find daomubji fanfictions in english, given how huge this novel series is and how many adaptations it has, and how huge the chinese fandom is. There are some chinese fics on ao3, but I know there are some epic length well written fanfics for this series somewhere in the chinese internet. (Edit: here is the ao3 daomubiji tag). I just can’t find them lol ToT. Also there are tragically FEW english fanfics for daomubiji, despite how accessible the story is for english speakers (the first 6 novels already have official english translated books, and most of the drama adaptations have easily accessible english subs). If you know what chinese sites I can read daomubiji fanfic on, please let me know! I know some fanfics for this fandom are so HUGE, and well known, they have txt files floating around and are 100+ chapters and were once-upon-a-time recced on baidu (but the links are broken now :c ). Anyway, back to this site. You can use a dictionary/translator to lookup unknown words, use the free Zhongwen chrome extension to hover over words for a definition, or view this site in the Pleco WebReader/Chinese Zero to Hero reader/Idiom app, and click words for definitions as needed. Again, if you like any of the daomubiji novels, the author’s written a ton! Go support them! The Lost Tomb is actually published in english too up to volume 6, under the name The Grave Robber’s Chronicles (if you wanted a print english copy).

mtlnovel.com - useful in general as a way to read novels roughly-translated into english, if no existing translation is already being done. It’s also useful if, for example, the english translation you are reading is unfinished but you’re desperate to read more even if it’s machine translated lol. It has a large number of cnovels on the site. I feel this site’s coolest feature though, is the ability to enable ‘RAW.’ If you do that, at the top of the chapter you’re reading, then you will see the traditional character paragraphs above the english machine translated ones. This allows you to use any novel on the site as a parallel chinese-english reader. Right now you can only enable RAW if you are logged in. An account is free. If you run into unknown chinese words, you can look them up in the dictionary/translator of your choice. Or, if you have the free Zhongwen chrome extension, then you can just hover over unknown words for a definition on the same page. (If you like any of these novels, support the author’s official releases). 

https://dictionary.chinesezerotohero.com/#/reader - I’ve seen the site Chinese Zero to Hero before and its quite helpful. I think there’s paid areas, but this area is free. In the Reader, you can paste in any chinese text and it will provide pinyin above the hanzi, along with dictionary definitions if you hover over a word/phrase. I’m testing it right now, and their translations are pretty good! (This Chinese Zero to Hero Reader, or LanguageTools.io are free alternatives I would suggest instead of LingQ, for a reader). In addition, this site also has a lot of free graded readers with all these same features plus accompanying audio. I read The Monkey King on this site before. This site in general also has a large selection of grammar points, and a nice dictionary that breaks down words/characters by radical, includes links to related words, includes pictures of the word’s meaning (in case you’re a visual learner or are making flashcards), includes mnemonics (which I just realized!) and example sentences. It looks very useful and I should start using their dictionary more... (mnemonics seems to be the big benefit of this that Pleco doesn’t have). 

[marigoldwitch]

~ Tips For Online Shopping ~

I have an online shop, where I sell digital downloads (as well as physical goods) and I wanted to share some tips for those of you shopping online. Some of you may think these are obvious but I think these are important tips to share.

A lot of sellers might be mad at me for sharing these tips. And I just want to say that not ALL sellers are like this. They don’t all purposely overcharge you for shipping. And if you read what you’re purchasing, they aren’t usually trying to trick you or confuse you either. This is just some things I’ve witnessed (and done) as a seller and a buyer.

+ Read Everything

The title, the description, the details like measurement, weight etc. So many times people just see a photo and buy it. They don’t even read what it is, they just click and buy. Don’t do this. Especially in market places like Etsy because chances are that shop has a no refund policy. And leaving a bad review because you didn’t take the time to read anything about what you were purchasing is a sure fire way to make any shop not want to do business with you. I’ve had friends who’ve canceled orders from repeat “bad reviewers” because they were bring down their average reviews. Don’t be one of these people.

+ Free Shipping Isn’t Really Free

It looks nice to see “free shipping” but it’s not really free. The cost of shipping is usually tacked onto the price of the item. And sometimes shops will just tack on the complete cost of shipping that item onto the price. So when you purchase, let’s say, 3 things from a shop you’re probably over paying for shipping. I won’t go into the details of breaking down shipping cost. But just know that free is never really free. And sometimes this could mean you’re overpaying for shipping. 

+ A Picture is NOT Worth A Thousand Words

Never ever ever ever purchase anything online just from a picture. That’s how you end up with something this isn’t the size, color, material, shape etc that you thought it’d be. I have a ton of friends who are guilty of doing this all the time (especially on Wish and Aliexpress). Then when they get it they’re surprised it’s not what they thought it’d be. Once I had a friend accidentally buy a baby sweater from Wish thinking it was an adult sweater because she didn’t bother to read the details about the item, which gave the exact measurements of it. Takes me back to my first tip: Read Everything.

+ Just Paying Shipping Isn’t Cheaper

You ever go on Wish and see an item listed as FREE and all you gotta do is pay shipping? Well I’ve found these items to actually be MORE expensive than if you just pay shipping. The trick is you see the same item in your search. One says “FREE” the other says “$2″. You click the FREE one and it says shipping is $4. So in your head you’re doing the math and thinking - well $4 is better than $6 - which is what you think the $2 one will total to once you add shipping. But if you actually click the $2 one and look at shipping cost it’s only $1. So it actually only totals to $3. You’d actually save a dollar by NOT purchasing the “free” one.

That’s why on Wish you always look at the shipping cost because, even though it’s the same exact item, different shops will charge different fees. And usually the shops listing their products for “free” are overcharging on shipping.

+ Double Check Your Shipping Address

Just do it lol. I’ve been on the sellers and buyers end of a mistyped or wrong address. When I moved to a different apartment number I forgot to change my address on Etsy and was wondering why I wasn’t receiving any of my orders lol. Luckily I had kind neighbors that filled me in on my packages being delivered to them. And I’ve also had buyers message me wondering where their package is and figuring out they put in the wrong address or didn’t update it. So to save yourself and the seller a headache, double check your address lol.

I hope these are helpful. Again, these may seem obvious to you but they aren’t to other people. A lot of people misread easily. Shopping online is great (especially right now with everything going on) but if you’re not careful you’ll end up with a baby sweater delivered to your old apartment LOL.

[3idatascraping]

E-Commerce Website Data Scraping Services

Web Scraping is the process where you can automate the process of data extraction in speed and a better manner. By this, you will come to know about implementing the use of crawlers or robots that automatically scrape a particular page and website and extract the required information. It can help you to extract data that is invisible and you can copy-past also. However, it can also help to take care of saving the extracted data in a better way and readable format. Usually, the extracted data is available in CSV format

3i Data Scraping Services can be useful in extracting product data from E-commerce Website Data Scraping Services doesn’t matter how big data is.

How to use Web Scraping for E-Commerce?

E-commerce data scraping is the best way to take out the better result. Before I should start various benefits of using an E-Commerce Product Scraper, I want to go over how you can use potentially it.

Evaluate Demand:

E-commerce data can be monitor to maintain all the categories, products, price, reviews, listing rates. By this, you can rearrange the entire product sale in various categories depending on various demands.

Better Price Strategy:

In this, you can use product data sets which include product name, categories, type of products, reviews, ratings, and you will get all the information from top e-commerce websites so that you can influence Competitors' pricing strategy and

Competitors’ Price Scraping from the eCommerce Website

Reseller Management:

From this, you can manage all your partners & resellers through E-Commerce Product Data Extraction data from all the different stores. Various types of data processing can be disclosed if there are different terms of MAP violation.

Marketplace Tracking:

You can easily monitor all your ranking which is advised for all the keywords for specific products through 3i Data Scraping Services and you can measure the competitors on how you can optimize

Product Review & ratings scraping

for ranking and you can scrape the data via different tools and we can able to help you to scrape the data for E-Commerce Website Data Scraper Tools.

Identify Frauds:

While using the crawling method which can automatically scrape the product data as well as you will be able to see Ups & Downs in the pricing. By this, you can utilize to discover the authenticity of a seller.

Campaign Monitoring:

There are many famous websites like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube, in which we can scrape the data like comments which is associated with brands as well as the competitor’s brands.

List of Data Fields

At 3i Data Scraping Services, we can scrape or extract the data fields for E-commerce Website Data Scraping Services. The list is given below:

Description

Product Name

Breadcrumbs

Price/Currency

Brand

MPN/GTIN/SKU

Images

Availability

Review Count

Average Rating

URL

Additional Properties

E-Commerce Web Scraping API

Our one of the best E-commerce web Scraping API Services using Python can extract different data from E-commerce sites to provide quick replies within real-time and can scrape E-Commerce Product Reviews within real-time. We do have the ability to automate the business processes using API as well as empower various apps and workflow within data integrations. You can easily use our ready to use customized APIs.

List of E-commerce Product Data Scraping, Web Scraping API

At 3i Data Scraping, we can scrape data fields for any of the web scraping API

Amazon API

BestBuy.com API

AliExpress API

eBay API

HM.com API

Costco.com API

Google Shopping API

Macys.com API

Nordstrom.com API

Target API

Walmart.com API

Tmall API

This is the above data fields for the web scraping API we can scrape or extract the data as per the client’s needs.

How You Can Scrape Product from Different Websites

The another way to scrape product information is you can easily make different API calls using product URL for claiming the product data in real-time. It is just like and close API for all the shopping websites.

Why 3i Data Scraping Services

We are providing the services in such a way that the customer experience should be wonderful. All the clients like to works with us and we are having a 99% customer retention ratio. We do have the team which talks to you within a few minutes and you can ask regarding your requirements.

We provide services that are scalable and capable of crawling that we have the capability to scrape thousands of pages per second as well as scraping data from millions of pages every day. Our wide-range infrastructure makes enormous scale for web scraping becomes easier and trouble-free through many complexes with JavaScript website or Ajax, IP Blocking, and CAPTCHA.

If you are looking for the best E-Commerce Data Scraping Services then contact 3i Data Scraping Services.

[renegade-is-in-my-blood]

Being in the blogging business for around 8 years now I came to learn a lot. Let’s hear from the old bitter blogger about the difference between being an ambassador and being a customer. When you’re investing more than you’re gaining from the collaboration it’s not really a collaboration you’re looking for.

There is a new trend going around social media, especially Instagram. I’ve been getting collaboration offers on a daily basis even pre COVID times but now the amount of pseudo collaborations increased.

Hands down it is an incredible business strategy from the business point of view.

Everyone wants to be an ambassador.

Ambassador became an even more prestigious title than an influencer. Influencer posses some sort of responsibility for their actions whilst ambassador is just being paid for simply being.

Who wouldn’t want that?

Many brands use this knowledge to the fullest and offers these pseudo collaborations.

So what is a pseudo collaboration?

Well, it starts off by being contacted by a brand.

You’ll receive a ctrl+c ctrl+v message from a brand-name-scout. The message contains several cute emojis and addresses you as a gorgeous, pretty, cutie, love, honey, sweety, and if they really want to get you, even by your Instagram name.

It’s usually followed by a bunch of compliments about your fashion style, vibe, Instagram, or whatever. Then there is a lie about following or just generally noticing you for a while without ever seeing your insta story, like any of your posts, or even actually following you.

Now it’s time for an offer beneficial for you.

Usually, it’s free products, a way to earn a commission, or just the sheer option to be able to call yourself an ambassador. Every single brand out there offers a “support” like anyone really knows what’s that supposed to mean. I had several ones even offering me a travel trips, but never elaborated on it after my further questioning.

Now comes the hook with a “do you want to learn more?” question.

If you think I’m exaggeration for the story and I can’t be generalizing all of the collaborations offers into a simple standard form I wish you were right. Here are some of the screenshots of my current Instagram DMs:

You might think: “What’s wrong with that? They’re trying so don’t be mean. Just ignore them.” let me remind you how dumb Instagram algorithm is.

If your account is followed by bots, messaged by bots, liked by bots Instagram assumes you’re one of them or you got hacked by them. Sweet of them for trying to protect you thought, but holy hell did that made everything super complicated for me.

I got several messages from the brand scouts messaging me again because their previous account got deleted.

No shit Sherlock, it’s like you can’t keep creating accounts, following and messaging a bunch of people at once and ask for money anymore.

So now every time my account gets suspicious activity such as too many likes/follows/messages Instagram suspects my account got hacked. Each time they require I change my password and let me tell you I ran out of password ideas months ago.

That’s not the worst part though.

After each time I change my password I’m blocked for 7 days from liking, following, or adding tags to my posts and that sucks. Just to get a better picture of this issue I’m blocked approximately once sometimes twice per month.

The block comes hand in hand with a shadowban that lingers for god knows how long, meaning Instagram is not gonna support you in any way. That’s why I have around 40 likes on a posts with 47K followers most of which are bots anyway.

I loath Instagram app yet I spend hours a day on the hellish site and I’m not only one.

We spend so much time on Instagram anyway so when a chance to earn money form it comes along you’re tempted to take it. Brands know that.

Imagine you’re a small-town girl with around 400 followers on Instagram. You already feel pretty popular right?

Now imagine you get the messages I shared above but you get just one. Someone out there thinks you’re so popular they want you on their team, you are just like the big influencers, you get job offers for being an Instagram star. You’re the next Kardashian.

You can have all of the things they said to you BUT you need to do something for them first. You have to pay for it.

And here is the catch with all of the pseudo collaborations.

What they don’t say to you in their first message is what it’s gonna cost you.

Many offers you free stuff but you need to pay for the one-time shipping. Some brands offer you a unique discount of around 40-60% off so you’ll pay just a part of the price and you can call yourself an ambassador.

I don’t know about you, but I thought that was called the customer. You buy a product, you wear it and occasionally you take photo of it on your social media sites. The new term is an ambassador apparently.

I get why so many people agree to this kind of collaboration. It’s new for you. It makes you feel good and successful in your friend’s and families eyes. And there is that hopefully undertone of making money from it.

Aren’t the brands unprofitable when they give away discounts and free stuff?

In a theory, yes, but there is one thing all of the brands that messaged me had in common except for the audacity.

Overpriced products.

I got messaged by jewelry stores, fashion stores and gym equipment stores most of the time. I took the time and did my research on every one of them.

When a store sold jewelry, they had the same products as the rest of the jewelry stores I got contacted by. A small variety of around 8 products most of them sold out anyway. And let’s not forget the ridiculously high prices. You can’t charge a cheap Chinese necklace you can get on amazon or aliexpress for under a 1$ for 40$.

So even if you’re paying just around 30$ for your ambassador order they are still making a profit on your wannabe Instagramer need cuz they purchased said items for far less.

Well, I’m being a little miss know it all right?

How can I talk about pseudo collaboration like this when it’s all based on assumptions. Well you know me, I’m curious as hell and I actually went through 3 pseudo collaborations myself just to prove a point.

I literally spend money so I can tell you about it right now so here is how my 3 pseudo collaborations went like.

All of the ones I choose were jewelry based pseudo collaborations. With the corona times, post offices are overwhelmed with parcels. I ordered big parcels in recent times and they arrived with around a month delay. I figured smaller jewelry in an envelope form would be quicker to arrive and I was right.

Pseudo collaboration number one VONACHI:

A simple yet luxurious-looking website with very few decent pieces of jewelry, offered me 3 free pieces to take a photo in and promote. I would also get a 60% discount code and every time my code would be used I would receive 30% of the money amount. Incredibly overpriced amount in the first place.

Here is the list of all of the benefits they offered.

The scout that approached me was very eager. They kept insisting I place my order right away. No time to waste.

To make it clear I got a simple code to apply in a check out that subtracted the price and I got the pieces for free. All I had to do was pay a 20$ shipping fee what seems like nothing but for 3 small necklaces, it is way too much.

Another thing that was odd was that I was required to take a screenshot of my order and send it back to scout. I guess to prove I was legit.

After bunch of further compliments and claims how excited they are to be working with me we ended our conversation.

If you think I was being reckless to give my credit card and home address to such a questionable site don’t be.

Honestly, I trust zero people, sometimes I don’t even trust myself. I used a card I have no to very little money on and I got it shipped to a work address.

My parcel from china arrived in around a month and a half. I got one black box with one necklace and the other 2 necklaces were in small plastic bags. I received a note about welcoming me to the program and asking me to contact vonachi’s official Instagram account for setting up my discount code and that’s exactly what I did. The official page responded after longer time period with just a “this is your code” message. I took a photo, tagged vonachi as a business partner, and shared my code. I did my part and I was never contacted by them again.

My 60% code is VONAMBNAT and as you might have guessed no one used it so far.

Or at least no one told me it was used. If someone were to use my code I would be contacted by vonachi and here is the problem. I’m supposed to trust them with their credibility cuz there is no other way for me to check it for myself. This is what it’s missing from the old Time collaborations of mine. I would get a tracking code, an account login, graphs, statistics, and one on one communication with a brand in my previous collaborations. But you know Golden times for influencers are long gone.

Now I’m left to just simply trust them.

Why would they ever confess someone used my code? If a customer gets 60% off and I’m getting 30% from already discounted item there is just a very little left for vonachi. They don’t say anything and get to keep my 30% share.

They didn’t put much effort into tracking system cuz they are not expecting their ambassadors/customers to make any sales anyway.

The products were not that bad. They came in a bit rusty and tangled but I was excepting much worse.

Hell, I was not expecting them to legitimately arrive.

Pseudo collaboration number 2: ENGELSINN

I initiated this pseudo collaboration myself. Engelsinn paid a significant amount of money to Instagram promoted post and that’s where I found out they are looking for ambassadors.

I filled out an application form.

This one felt more legit cuz they actually asked for followers count and all of the communication occurred via email. Automated emails but still it reminded me of good old days.

I was given a 40% discount code to use on my first order. The shipping was free but it still cost me another 20$ to get the product. Since placing my first order I got a 20% discount code “nat7x20” for my followers to get 20% off their engelsinn order.

When my code is redeemed 2 times I get one jewelry of my choice for free.

Do I even need to mention that I didn’t get any email since?

Well, that’s not exactly true I got 2 more emails each with another discount code I could use for 24 hours and buy more of their stuff. But none about redeemed code.

Engelsinn is a german based brand and living so close I got my parcel in around a week. I got myself a rose gold knot bracelet and I feel like a hypocrite but I actually really love this one and wear it every day. I know I wouldn’t get it if it wasn’t for the research but I’m glad I did.

Btw the ad about engelsinn looking for ambassador is still up there and it still says they have only a few places left. It’s been 2 months.

Pseudo collaboration number 3: CUZETTE

I got messaged by them on my Instagram and their offer was super confusing. They promised it all. 3 free stuff now, free stuff every month, paid trip to several destinations, and even 50$ voucher. The scout called me sweety exactly 9 times during our conversations. It was super annoying.

So I choose another 3 free items and paid another 20$ for shipping. When I asked about the 50$ voucher I was told I would need to refer 5 friends who would also become cuzette ambassador or delegate as they named it, to get the 50$. No info about the travel trips though.

I was told to contact the official page for more info but it took days for them to finally reply with nothing new just more compliments and excitement about the future. It’s been 2 months and I still haven’t received my order just as I was expecting.

Later on, I endorsed in conversation with several other brands asking for more info, looking for something different than standard copy and paste form. Unsuccessful.

Every time I asked how many ambassadors they have in their program the answer was always “around 3000“. Once again, you have 3000 customers and not 3000 ambassadors. If the only people who buy from you are people you ask to buy from you, you’re doing something wrong.

But your business plan is on point.

When I asked about who and where makes their products I was either met with a silence or a sweet talk about a responsible brand.

These brands are providing people with content. You get to take photos of the items you ordered and you get to be as creative as you want. In these COVID times so many brands had to cancel or postpone their collaborations with bloggers or Instagrammers. I saw huge travel/luxurious instagramers switch form hotel and travel collaborations to promoting kitchen wipes. Times are tough and you got to do what you got to do.

Yet these small businesses with hight prices are thriving?

You know it’s not about the product but about the potential.

Profiting on greediness.

So smart.

To prove my point even further I got to confess one more thing. I mentioned before that I manage Instagram accounts for different brands and among them is one fashion store. I was not only at the ambassadors’ side but on the scouting side as well.

All I had to do was search for people who looked like they would be willing to become an ambassador for our store and had decent amount of followers. I had saved message form and all I did was try to guess peoples names so the message seemed more personal. Once they agreed to a discussion I let my boss take the lead.

So yeah, try to really think about the offers you get.

Look at it from all points of view and ask yourself if it’s profitable for anyone else but the brand.

If you want to have offers pouring your way try adding #ad #spon #collab to your next Instagram posts. That’s how they look for their next ambassador.

Everyone wants to be an ambassador. 

Pseudo Collaborations- Everyone wants to be an Ambassador Being in the blogging business for around 8 years now I came to learn a lot. Let's hear from the old bitter blogger about the difference between being an ambassador and being a customer.