My online shopping experience

Ever since I started card making, which started about 5 years ago, my supply list has grown, to a point that the word obsession has come to my mind.

First to shop at local scrapbooking stores and Michaels, but eventually they no longer "fulfilled" my objective to get the latest stuff in time. And remember that, I'm located in Canada, a place where things tend to be more expensive (higher tax), and stuff comes in a touch slower compare to our neighbour country. The "good" thing though, I live fairly close to the border so often I just ship to USA and enjoy the "free shipping within US". I just pay a small fee to go there to pickup the package.

So, I started to look for online shops. Before that I almost never shop online besides buying baby stuff from Amazon.

Here are a few ones that I visit (and no I don't receive commission on any of them):
I should comment on them in terms of stock variety and shipping (I mean shipping within US; I don't even want to talk about shipping to Canada, the rate is most of the time outrages).

Joanne.com
They don't have the latest stuff, but if you are looking for older stamps that you can't find elsewhere you probably can try here. Also, the 30% or 40% discount is often ON so makes the price very attractive. Shipping is reasonable sometimes it may have free shipping for a lower $ of spending but you can't combine with other offers. I still found the shipping is reasonable. I bought quite a lot of distress ink, tools, card stocks and older stamps from there.

PBstamps.com
Only sell Penny Black stamps, in discount. And you can find most if not all Penny Black stamps there. And man, the store owner must be standing by the computer 24/7. I tried emailing the order at 2am (which is 5am eastern time) and I got reply RIGHT AWAY. And no I don't mean those automatically reply.
And he charges the actual shipping cost. (so no free shipping on certain amount). To me it's still pretty good because the shipping rate to Canada is very reasonable (since it's the actual postage cost). The only thing I found a bit difficult in the first time is that the order process is a bit "unusual". I email him the items I want then he comes back to me about the charges and stuff, unlike other online store that has "shopping cart".

creativeplaystamps.com
More new items, different brands, and often in 10% discount or so (will get extra discount when subscribe to their email list). Free shipping with $60+ order. Quite reasonable.

oozak.com
If you need copic markers, here's the place. They sell copics in discount. Most of other items they sell is also 10% (or more?) off the suggested retail value. (i.e. GOOD PRICE). Great customer service (great I mean responsive). Shipping is free with $50+ order. And fast shipping too.

SimonSaysStamp.com
Even though I hate to shop at a place without discount, but this place, I have to admit, it's like a "one stop shop". You can find most items you want from here, latest or oldest. So in order to save shipping, I often order from here even though I paid regular price. Also great (responsive) customer service and shipping is fast. You get free shipping with $75+ and $5.99 flat rate otherwise. This is the best of all other stores if you can't reach the threshold for free shipping.

http://www.magnoliastamps.us/
If you are into Magnolia stamps (the cute Tilda and Edwin that melt your heart), you should check out this place. They specialized in selling Magnolia stamp. Some of the stamps would be on sale and shipping is free with $75+ within US and $150+ within Canada. And if you are located in Canada like me, this is very good that they can actually MAIL from Canada so no worry about custom fee or brokerage fee which can be outrageous!

heroarts.com
Since I am a fan of Heroarts products. I do directly purchase stamp from their site. But I DO make a mistake to ship to Canada and the brokerage fee is more expensive than the item I bought. I learn the lesson that if the shop does not ship by USPS (it's USPS, NOT UPS or FedEx or DHL), do NOT ship to Canada. Otherwise, responsive customer service and you can get latest release item from them, mostly at regular price, though.

twopeasinabucket.com
Used to sell more "stamp" but I found they switch to sell more digital kits now. I could be wrong but I found them carry less stamps. Sometimes I found the discount attractive so I do order from them at times. Free shipping with $50+ order. Need a code from subscribing to their email, though.

Well, that's all I have for now. If you have other favourite online stores I would be more than glad to hear from you. :)