I have always been one to go to the store and go shopping for holidays and birthdays. I rarely shopped online, but this year we didn't have a car so I started looking cautiously online. While searching for certain items I found Mattel.com and checked out what they had to offer. Figure they are the makers of many of the toys so I would go right to the source this way. They offer great sales around any holiday and they often run a free shipping with an order of $25 or more. Now the free shipping offer is not always available, but each time I happened to order it was. I got my order earlier then expected (by a few days) and I had saved money with their sales! They may not always be cheaper if a local store is running a good sale, but they are an excellent place to purchase from if you are looking for toys online (and they are very reputable.) My experiences with them were great! They do offer shipping to various countries, but I do not know how much it is to ship out of the US.
They are my new favorite place to shop for toys! My girls are really into the Monster High dolls (seriously we have a lot of them!) I got them cheaper through Mattel and using their free shipping saved me more then buying them at a local store which helped a lot. These dolls can get expensive.
Sometimes cutting out the middle man is the way to go. Alhtough I bought something from Mattel a few years ago, and now they won't stop e-mailing me. I've tried to unsubscribe like 5 times.
What I like about online shopping directly from the manufacturer is that they usually ship your order faster and of course the sheer number of choices make you dizzy. You are also assured that the items are exactly what you wanted because the details are complete and they usually have more pictures of the item. It's hard to shop in places like amazon.com nowadays because you buy from vendors who really have an online reputation which is hard to verify. I like the mattel and lego online stores, or rather my kids do.
This looks great! I'm going to have to see at our local stores whether or not the prices would in fact be more expensive than buying directly from Matel, but regardless I'm sure I'll find some good ones that aren't at our stores. I just hope international shipping won't entail too much shipping cost. Anyway thanks for the share!
Local stores are sometimes the same and sometimes it is cheaper at Mattel. They do run good sales around all the holidays too! I do know they ship out of the US but I really do not know how expensive it would be.
Yes, I have heard that there are some great deals on toy on the Mattel website. I guess this has to do with the fact that they are the manufacturer of a large toy line. But you brought up another good point in your post. When you mentioned how you couldn't get to the store to do the Christmas Shopping. Many of us don't stop to think that we can actually shop online when we are in need of a particular item. I learn this years ago when my washing machine went, I couldn't find anyone to take me to get a new one, and then it hit me that I could do the ordering online. Sometimes this can be less of a hassle then going to a store, because you don't have to deal with sales people and you might find a bigger bargain. After all some times going to websites that actually put out the products such as Mattel could be more of a savings in the end.
I'm surprised that you were able to get a good deal buying directly from the manufacturer's website! Usually, they only offer their products at the "suggested retail price", with no discounts. It would be nice if more manufacturers started doing this.
