Ebeanstalk.com Review

I don’t buy my children toys very often. They have grandparents that spoil them with toys, but when I do buy them toys or when I’m searching for a toy to buy for another child (nephew) I want to be able to search for a toy online. So, I can take my time looking for fun age appropriate education eco-friendly toys. Few websites like Ebeanstalk.com make it easy to do all of this in one place and with ease.

Ebeanstalk.com is a website for safe children and family toys at a reasonable price. A good long look at the website and I can search for age appropriate toys by individual years instead of by a group of years (1-3 or 3-5 or 6-9). I love this. Kids can be so different and grow so much in a year that some toys just aren’t suitable for them. For example, a 5 year old can speak fluently, hopscotch, play patty cake, string beads… whereas a 3 year old is just beginning to learn any of this. And a fun toy for a 1 year old is much different from a fun toy for a 3 year old.

Age appropriate toys at Ebeanstalk begin at newborn and end at age 12. They also have family games–this I like, but I’d like to see age category stop 15 years of age. I know a lot of young teens who still play with board games, card games, remote control toys, science based toys, frisbees, footballs. I can search toddler toys, toys for girls, toys for boys or even search by specific toy need (travel toys, sports, musical, outdoor, wooden, puzzles, toys for building and so on).

Throughout the website there are big links, readable font, and big buttons that make it easy for anyone of any age to search for specific items, pages or categories. I like the big links like the,

Where would you like to go now?

← Return to the previous page

Create a Wishlist → and big buttons like the

Add to cart » button. This makes it easy for elderly, someone who has trouble seeing or someone in a hurry to see. There is no missing these links and buttons. The links and buttons are at the center of the page too. I don’t have to do much scrolling up or down to find a link or button.

Each toy has a specific description of how it works, how educational it is and its safety. I appreciate Ebeanstalk review before allowing toys on their site. This shows me the company cares about my children and yours. However, I would like to see the experts reviews in writing. It’s not that I don’t trust the experts it’s that I want to know why in their expert opinion they think this is a good toy and why they chose it over another. I would also like to see customer reviews too. Customer opinions matter too. There is just something about getting opinions from all sorts of people who make the review genuine.

I would also like to see more toys that encourage kids to move around. The ride along toys and scooters are great and lots of fun, but they tend to isolate 1 or two parts of the body. I would like to see more toys like Dodge Tag Shield toy or Jump Rope on the site for all age groups. Kids need to get up and go crazy having fun, so they can stay healthy and happy.

I would like to see a wider selection of ecofriendly toys too, including DIY recycling toys for older children. I appreciate the variety that Ebeanstalk has, but I find that most eco-friendly toys consist of plush toys or wooden building kits. There are few recycling kits. Maybe a little more of these recycling kits could be added. Maybe a few more eco-friendly board games for the older kids. In addition it is important for me to know the depth of a toys eco-friendliness. How eco -friendly is it? Is it locally made? Is it recycled? Is it organic too? Is the paint on the toy soy-based? A few of the eco-friendly toys on the site have short descriptions of their eco-friendliness, but unless I already know a toy companies eco-friendliness I was left wondering about their greenness.

I love the book selections. I love that there are good books choices even for 12 year olds. Forgive the greeny in me again, but by any chance are any of these books from eco-friendly publishing companies? If so, I would love to see that featured and if not I would love to see it encouraged. Here is a link to a great site called Eco-libris that encourages green publishing, http://www.ecolibris.net/.

The Grow and Learn series is a fascinating idea. I really like it. I have a niece in mind for it. I don’t know that I like the idea of a toy sent out every three months, but how about every six months or as another option, every year. This would also be perfect for the aunt or grandparent who never wants to forget a birthday. I imagine it like this: When my niece is born I set up an account for her at Ebeanstalk.com to have her receive a gift every year. I can pay for them in advance at a discount or when the time comes at regular price. Until her 12th birthday I never have to stress about buying her an age appropriate toy again, unless I want to like on her 5th birthday when I knew she really wanted a doll.

The birthday reminder is helpful too. Between my kids, my nephews, a soon to be niece and a brother in-law and a busy schedule it’s hard to remember birthday. I don’t even know what day it is tomorrow. So I know this will be helpful.

Did I mention the price? The toys here are reasonable priced. I have a big family so, my budget per kid is usually around $20 or less. I found that many of the toys on the site (good toys too) fit within my budget. That’s awesome. Now, if only the shipping cost could be discounted for my membership loyalty.

I was most impressed with the safety letter Ebeanstalk.com posted on its site for its customers. I copied a letter from the website. Most online businesses don’t care enough to ease their customers concerns:

“Dear Customers,

While we are dedicated to a child’s development and learning, we never compromise a child’s safety.

OUR MANUFACTURERS: We work with all of our manufacturers to ensure all safety steps have been made in the manufacturing process. If we are not satisfied, we remove the manufacturer from our site.

INTERNAL TESTING: Our team of child experts hand-pick every toy that is on our website and conduct their own tests to ensure that that the toy is age-appropriate. Many times a toy will be for ‘AGES 3+’ and our experts will move that toy to an older age group. Additionally, we conduct our own ‘wear-and-tear’ tests. If we don’t think a toy will stand up to the tough, daily grind of being a toy, we don’t want the toy.

RECALLS: Rest assured…” read the rest here http://www.ebeanstalk.com/toy-safety.php.

Disclosure: I wrote this review on behalf of Ebeanstalk.com. I have been compensated with a gift car to thank me for taking the time to write a review. I was under no obligation to write a positive review. My opinions are my own.

MyExtra Custom Slim Packs Review Opportunity from MomSelect

Gum isn’t just gum anymore. Not only are the textures and flavors of gum changing, now the packaging is getting a makeover too. Take Wrigley’s MyExtra Custom Slim Packs, as an example. For the first time ever Wrigley’s is allowing customer to customize the packaging of their gum!

Yeah for me! As a MomSelect Mom I was given the opportunity to give the  MyExtra Custom Slim Packs a try for free. I was sent a unique code that allowed me to order 5 FREE MyExtra customized packs. Each custom Slim Pack contains 15 sticks of Extra sugar-free gum. The available flavors are: Extra Peppermint, Spearmint and Sweet Watermelon. I chose Spearmint. Any chance Wrigley’s will ever have an authentic juicy mango flavor?

I was able to to choose the theme, add a photo, draft a message and pick a flavor. The code covered all the cost including shipping and I was grateful because it was a bit expensive for gum, in my opinion (almost $30 for 5 pack), but it didn’t take my order very long to arrive, a few days. When I opened up the package that arrived in the mail I was impressed by what I saw. The picture I used to customize my pack came out just like a printed picture. It was not distorted or dull. It looked professional and I thought something like this would make great stocking stuffers, wedding favors, gift basket items. A business could even use these for inexpensive advertisement.

Though, if I had a chance to redo my customized packs again, I’d change a few things. I think I chose the wrong color for the background it made everything a little darker than I hoped. I would also change the font color and style I used. Because of the dark colored background, the dark colored font color and style and the gloss on the picture the message I used is not easy to read unless held at an angle. On the computer preview everything was a bit lighter and easier to see. I’d like the background to look lighter like on the computer.

What I did with with my packs, I tossed one to my husband. I kept one for myself and 3 left for my kids. The picture is one of the family, the kids, myself and my husband. My husband, who loves to show off his family showed it to someone at work the next day. His coworker liked it and told him to show someone else… Later that day my husband called me to tell me that everyone liked it and they wanted to know where I got it from. I told him I’d email him the link  http://www.myextragum.com/. So, I did. i later emailed Megan from MomSelect to let her know and she mentioned she’d email Wrigley.  Isn’t it funny how word of mouth can do so much.

What I didn’t like…. I could make as many themes as I wanted, but I was limited to 5 packs and 1 set = 5 packs. If I wanted to order one of each of the themes I created I would have had to ordered 25 packs of gum.  Instead, I could only use one of the themes I made, but I would have preferred to have had the choice to have ordered only one pack (instead of set) of each of the 5 themes I made for each individual in my family.

The ordering process:  designing and ordering the gum at first was a bit frustrating. At first the page froze. I don’t know if it was my computer or the website. I tried again at a later time and the website was down. I tired once more later time and I was finally able to design and order my gum with ease. I would have liked to have had a little bit more freedom to the placement of the text and the logo.

I also worry about what happens to these customized packages and uncustomized packages when the gum is all gone. Any chance the packages are made of recycled material or that they will be? Could they be recycled? How about joining with Terracycle? Just and eco-friendly thought? Can’t help myself. Otherwise, I thought this was an interesting idea and one that could be very popular for all sorts of celebrations.