BUMBERSHOOT'S WITCGERY COOKERY &MAGICAL LIVING - April 2019 Special Edition Harry Potter Haul

APRIL 2019 SPECIAL EDITION

HARRY POTTER & MAGICAL MERCHANDISE HAUL

The Good. The Bad. The Ugly.

This is a monthly sister blog feature for my popular Facebook page BUMBERSHOOT'S WITCHERY COOKERY & MAGICAL HOMES AND GARDENS. My followers asked for it, and so it was granted! Jump on your broomstick and fly on over to Facebook and join in on all the fun we have; especially during the fall and winter holidays.

Yes, spring has finally sprung here in The Magic City over the past three days and although we don't play quidditch in Broome County, it will soon be time for some broome ball practice...

I received, most likely, my last income tax refund because I retired on New Year's Day this year, so I thought I'd spend a bit of money on some frivolous items...

My Superbia Ravenclaw Wizardry Wand arrived from GEEK GEAR. I was a little surprised it didn't transfer to American Moonlight Mail once it was taken off the muggle plane from the UK. It was dropped off rather unceremoniously by the mundanes' mail service, USPS.

As you can see they are still using the old boxes with Noble Wands printed on them. *eye roll* The boxes are thin cardboard and look cheesy. I paid $20.00 for the wand and $8.00 shipping. I was a bit fooled, or foolish... whichever you deem more appropriate, concerning the postage because the website said "shipping to the US is pre-calculated". I don't think I would have ordered it if I had known the total would be $28.00. My son ordered it via his PayPal account because they do automatic currency exchange, and I was surprised when he told me how much I owed him.

The wand doesn't look at all like it was made a from naturally occurring material. It has a plastic-like appearance, especially the raven's head. Yes, I did see it said the wand was not made from real wood, but neither are the Noble Collection wands and they don't look like plastic or resin. In fact, I wish I had not bought this one and instead saved the money towards a more expensive wand, or Noble Collection's Luna Lovegood's wand; which is only $32.50 and comes in a beautiful display box.

I ordered this as a dressy special occasion fashion accessory, because as you know American witches do not normally use wands... we're more from the silent body gesture school, or for using a focusing crystal kept in a pocket or worn around the neck. This will be okay for Bookstagram photos, but nothing else. If it had been $20.00 all inclusive, fine, but not for $28.00. I guess this would be the ugly.

Now on to the bad...

This is the Hogwarts crest color-changing water goblet I ordered. The fool in me didn't check the reviews because it was a licensed HP product. If I had, I would have seen the complaints about the defective decals. First of all for $20.00 I expected fired on glass paint, not a cheap vinyl decal. It's also not water goblet size, it's about 4 oz smaller. To add insult to injury Hot Topic has it for $15.00. My glass, as you can see, is also already, and permanently color changed. I saw some review photos where large chunks of the decal were ripped and on the opposite sides of the glass! Obviously there was no quality control at this factory. Another lesson learned... always check to make sure items are not Amazon "marketplace" because they come from independent sellers. The cost to return this as a marketplace item? $6.00! I'm keeping it to use as background in photos.

Since I retired, every morning I make what I call The Grand Migration from my bedroom to my reading/practice chair in what was the living room, but now has just bookshelves, music equipment, and my Bookstagram items in it. I wanted a special backpack to transfer the personal items I need at hand all day in the "studio" and also like with me in the evenings when I hang out in bed, such as: manicure items, pens, day planner, post-its, tissues, ibuprophen, bandaids, scissors, candy, water bottle, two Kindle Fires, and my headphones, etc. I wanted something plain, but still Potterish because I'm redecorating my bedroom with a Hogwarts theme.  There were no reviews for this item, but... I did not check and it is "marketplace" merchandise, not Amazon.

i paid $55.00 for this because it was supposed to be 18.5 inches tall, with two side water bottle pockets, and a "large roomy" front pocket. First of all the bag itself is only 14.5 inches tall. If you pull up the hanging loop at the top, taughtly, then it measures 18 inches. As you can see from all three red arrows there is messy, incomplete, and frayed stitching. It was also supposed to be olive green and black. The color is more grey than green and I'd call it sage, not olive.

The side water bottle pockets are so short my bottle doesn't fit securely and likes to fall out. As for the "large roomy" front pocket, well, there is no depth to it and there is a wide seam around it, hidden on the inside, so it's narrower than it looks. My thin 7 inch Kindle Fire, I listen to my audiobooks on, won't even fit in it. Again the return postage of $9.00 makes it not worth sending back. I guess it will be a carry-on bag for my trip to The Wizarding World in 2020.

So buyer beware on these items. I have learned to not trust that licensed products have the good quality control like they used too, to read reviews on licensed merchandise, and to make sure an item is not "marketplace"; they are too difficult and expensive to return.

...and the good.

I have been going notebook crazy for my bedroom writing desk! The thestral and charms books I was very pleased with; except for finding them cheaper on Book Depository than they were on the Target website! The little note books were $5.00 cheaper. Ugh. The purple magical creatures sketchbook was $1.00 cheaper. The brown Hogwarts journal came in the first Culturefly box.

And these were the deal of the century! I bought them used from BETTER WORLD BOOKS for $5.00 each, thinking the stupefy notebook would be written in and the Newt Scamander scrapbook would probably not have all of it's collectable paper movie replicas intact, BUT... the notebook was still in shrink wrap with the paper ribbon on it and the scrapbook had all of the replicas!

 Next month I promise I'll have that hybrid butterbeer recipe I've been working on, the blog reveal of the super deluxe fancy dress wand I found, and am hoping to buy (no link because there's only one left and I don't want anyone to buy it, ha ha), a pair of fingerless writing gloves I received for review, and the non-Potter, but nonetheless magical items I bought for my Hogwarts is my home themed bedroom.

LAST MONTH'S BUMBERSHOOT'S

Do you have any themed rooms in your home?