A few weeks ago, I heard of an online monthly subscription service called Little Black Bag that really caught my attention. I’m already a fan of Shoedazzle, which I love because it has great accessories and an ever expanding line of new items, but ultimately its not as unique as one would expect. Little Black Bag is a completely new social buying website. Based loosely on the Japanese craze “Lucky Bag Sale” where a price is set for a bag whose contents are promised to be valued greater than the purchase price, LBB combines designer accessories with online swapping. Let me just quickly run through how it works. First, like many online personalized accessory websites, you take a style quiz to determine your personal style profile. Next, you are taken to an online gallery of 100-200 items of various value that have been chosen to fit your style profile. You then are asked to choose any one item you see to add to your bag, but at this point you can also “love items” to keep track of others you may also be interested in. With that one item in your bag which is guaranteed to be yours, one to three other items are added to your bag automatically based on your personal style so that the value of the overall bag is $100-$125. At this point you cannot see what the items are, but it does tell you how many items have been added and what category they fall under (make-up, jewelry, etc). So, you head to check out to pay. LBB offers two options, either a monthly subscription price of $49.95 or a one-time buy price of $59.95. Monthly subscribers have the option to opt out on a month if they do not want to participate, and there is no contract, you can cancel your subscription at any time. Once you have paid for your bag, you can now see the other items added to your bag. If you like everything you see and are completely satisfied, you can then hit “Ship to me” and you will receive your LBB in a matter of days. If you are not satisfied with the contents of your bag, well, that’s where the social aspect of this site begins. You can then start swapping items in your bag for up to seven days until you are ready to have the items ship. It’s important to note, if you choose the swapping option, you do not have to wait an additional seven days for your bag to ship, you can spend a few hours or a few days swapping items until you’re satisfied and ship your bag at any point, but after seven days, what you have in your bag will be shipped to you, so you need to make your time count.
What does swapping entail? Well, swapping works two ways. Immediately upon check out if you choose to delay shipping your items so you have time to swap, you will probably immediately receive offers from other users who want to offer you something of theirs for something in your bag. It’s up to you if you want to take their offers, but you get these notifications immediately because when you or someone else has an item they are looking to acquire and an item (or items) they are willing to swap, the notification goes out to everyone who has the item desired. Now, you may have noticed I said items above, because you do not have to make a one for one swap. You can offer more than one item in your bag to swap for another item and the value of your item does not matter. You can offer a swap between items of differing costs, although if you really want something good you should be prepared to make a good offer or expect to be rejected. You can get a leg up on swapping by watching the news feed on the site to see what is in people’s bags, what they are swapping and the hot items of the day.
Now, the system is not perfect, and if you have items in your bag that you do not like, it is not guaranteed that you will be able to swap for items you like, which is why it is important to choose that first item carefully and make sure it is something you feel is worth the full price of the bag because you may not get anything else you like. Before I tried out the site, I read through some reviews where people did not like what they ended up with, but I also found some others where people were able to trade and get what they wanted. Personally, I think there is definitely some strategy behind the social swapping aspect of this site and I could totally imagine that there are some people out there who are so good at watching the feed and seeing what is in people’s bags that they end up with exactly the items they want each and every time. It really makes me think of that story about the guy who traded a paper clip for a house using Craigslist. Now, perhaps that is an extreme example, especially since you have only seven days to swap, but I think if you’re smart about this site you could end up with a bag full of wonderful items, but you definitely need to play the game if you want to win!
I made a video unboxing and haul detailing my experience on Little Black Bag for the first time, so please check it out if you want to see what was in my bag, what I swapped and what I ended up with!