IL Postcard

Valentine's Day Gifts for Cheapskates

Date: 02/13/2008

Thursday, Feb. 14, 2008
St. Valentine’s Day

Read more about making money from your world travels in International Living Postcards—your daily escape

Love is in the air, credit cards are taking yet another hammering. But when you know where to shop, expressing your Valentine’s Day devotion can be dirt-cheap. Imagine your sweetheart’s reaction to a rose-pink pashmina, hand-loomed in Nepal. She’ll never guess this cashmere and silk creation cost you only $9.

Too expensive? Being a cheapskate myself, I agree. Why traipse the Himalayas when you can buy pashminas direct from China for $4.32?

The lady in your life may be equally thrilled with an embroidered sarong from Indonesia. At $2.80, that’s even less expensive. But why not also give her a necklace hand-crafted from beads and abalone shell? After all, it’s only 90 cents.

She prefers heavier jewelry? No problem. She’ll love a Tibetan silver and yak bone pendant set with amber. Handmade by Nepalese and Tibetan refugee craftsmen in Katmandu, it costs $4.

What to give your guy? An onyx egg makes a great desk paperweight. (30 cents from Pakistan.) Or you can keep his hands toasty with stylish deerskin leather gloves for $2.30. No need to explain they’re not from the local men’s outfitters. They charge almost $38.95.

No! That $13 wood and mother-of-pearl backgammon set from Turkey is above our $10 budget. If you insist on a mother-of-pearl keepsake, a $4 caviar spoon from Thailand is the perfect gift for a foodie. (Let him buy his own caviar.)

Don’t forget Valentine’s Day for doggy companions. How about a cute sweater with floral applique patches? Yours for $4.83. Similar "sale-price" sweaters on a U.S. website are $32.97.

But why give them away? Imagine the profit you could make by selling such things yourself.

Starting an import-export venture doesn’t require lots of capital. Nor do you have to order container loads of product to get wholesale rates. For those Indonesian sarongs, the minimum order is 30.

Naturally, I’m reluctant to divulge my secrets about exactly where to track down such treasures, like the Indian source offering small gemstone paintings for between $7 and $8. The paintings are done on glass using crushed stones like amethyst, carnelian, garnet, lapis-lazuli, malachite, peridot, tourmaline, etc. This special gemstone work can also be inlaid into boxes. I haven’t come across anyone in the States selling them. The market looks wide open.

To discover where in India to buy them—and a lot more besides—come along to my import-export session at International Living’s Ultimate Event in Cancun, Mexico, this May.

But I will share some information here. If you have a limited budget and seek products from China, one interesting source is www.globalsourcesdirect.com. You can order a single case, and the company will arrange shipping to the States. Here are three more cut-price items for next Valentine’s Day:

A bracelet of Swarovski crystal beads and heart-shaped pendants for $3.11 apiece. There are 30 bracelets in a case ($93.90) and the estimated shipping cost per case is $28.60.

A heart-shaped optical mouse for $2.90 apiece. (Your sweetheart gets reminded of your love every time he or she uses the computer.) With 20 units per case, it comes to $58 plus an estimated shipping cost of $36.30 per case.

Say it with flowers...a recordable rose that records a 10-second message or snatch of song is $3.22 apiece. A case of 64 units costs $206.08 with an estimated shipping cost of $81.40 per case.

Steenie Harvey
For International Living