LeBonCoin.fr is the French equivalent of the "classified ads" section of a newspaper : people can place ads for... anything, cars, appartments, and so on. There's no payment system included in the website (unlike ebay), there are just ads, with 3 pictures max, a small description, and it's sorted geographically, by "département". Usually, you can get in touch with the seller by phone or email, and you agree together of the form of payment, and shipment, if that is the case, or you agree to meet in person, and exchange to goods, against cash.
By the way, I am not affiliated in any way with leboncoin.fr, it's just that I'm French and living in France, and this website is used by lots of people.
As any of you, I browse Ebay from time to time, and it can be fun to find models that were previously unknown to me : had you ever heard of a zipped compact Portobello ? Or a personal Ranger ? I hadn't... ! And it's strange, but I had never really thought of browsing leboncoin.fr for good Filofax deals...
But please be warned : people who use this website sometimes aren't... Internet-litterate, you will find lots of typos/grammar mistakes (and it's in French, obviously), the pics are not always helpful (sometimes blurry, and/or too small...); and regarding people selling Filofaxes, you will not always find the exact name model (or any name, for that matter). If you like digging around, that can be fun and surprising.
So, how do you search theses Filofax on this website ? First, load up http://www.leboncoin.fr/ in your browser. Then click any part on the map, because whichever "département" you choose, the next screen will have a drop-down menu allowing you to search an item in the whole of France.
Don't bother with a complex search : "filofax" will do the trick just fine. You can then sort the results by price (lowest to highest) and then, you might have some interesting suprises.
Here is the link with the results of this query : http://www.leboncoin.fr/annonces/offres/alsace/occasions/?q=filofax&sp=1
And so, as of today (Saturday, June 2nd, 2012), we could buy... lots of vintage/discontinued Filofaxes, and some pretty cool ones !
- a blue Pocket "College" Filofax, for 4 euros (funny, my mom offered my the personal one when I was 18 and entering University, I never knew there were other formats !)
- a Cross in M2 format (!!!), color "mustard", along with a pink Letts organizer, and both for... 7 euros !
- a grey Personal Tuscany, 15 euros
- a red A4 zip Graphic (or Sketch ?), 15 euros
- a red Personal Piccadilly (!), 15 euros
- a really old Personal Savannah, 20 euros
- a burgundy (?) Deskfax (model unknown), *and* its punch-hole, both for 30 euros :
- a Personal Richmond, 45 euros
- a Pocket Siena in cinnamon, 60 euros (retails for 140 on filofax.de but currently on sale at 98 euros...)
And so on...
I am currently trying to get the M2, and perhaps the Deskfax, as I am curious about these sizes, but perhaps some other French readers of Philofaxy might like to score some of these items for themselves ?
Oh, the enabling
Happy hunting !
Frédérique
You are bad bad influence :o)But thank you for great post. We have somtething similar in my country, but not many filofaxes there.
ReplyDeleteOh my, another resource for filofaxes, thanks!
ReplyDeleteTalking of enabling, there is a sale on the Filofax German site: http://www.filofax.de/store/page.asp?id=202
ReplyDeleteIn Sweden you have Blocket.se which is a classifieds bulletin board, and tradera.se which is our ebay. Happy hunting!
ReplyDeleteIn this day and age of so many people "living in" their smartphones it's an absolute treat thriftiness for FFs. I just bought an late 90s FF Classic A5 (black) plus four storage boxes from Time System. All for the staggering amount of 99 Danish kroner (equals around 11 pounds or 14 euros)!!!!
ReplyDeleteOh Frederique, how could you!! LOL
ReplyDeleteEbay.fr also has an "ads" part. I found a lovely Filofax there. Wrote the seller in English first. Then, when I didn't get an answer, I Google-translated it in French. However, never received a reply. Very frustrating ...
But thanks for a few leisurey hours of browsing ..!
Jotje,
Deleteand I thought English was the problem - I never received the reply as well (but didn't make myself translate it into French, my fingers were to stiff from the constant checking of my inbox!)- frustrating indeed!
PS If you manage to find the right language, will you please let me know? ;-)
(PPS Does missing the word verification 3 times in a row mean I AM a robot????)
DeleteWow!! What a great post!! Thanks Frederique. You've encouraged me to rummage around, as in the loft somewhere I have got a brown personal "vintage" Filofax. Bought with my very first pay packet from my first teaching job....oooh... way back in 1986, when shoulder pads, Dynasty and Dallas went along with the Filofax which was a had to have item back then.... you were not successful without your Filofax to hand!!! I also bought a gorgeous and very expensive fountain pen to go with it. But unfortunately that was stolen a while back. I didn't know the model name of my vintage Filofax.... just it was brown and personal sized. Now of course, I would love to know.
ReplyDeleteWho knows what Alexis and J.R. had in their Filofaxes?
DeleteNo time to write now - I have a link to follow :o) Thank you
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this some timeless classics here, I think it would be great if all fellow philofaxy's readers added links to things they buy for their FF (inserts,stickers, extras) then we could have our own collection of where to shop! could also help new readers??
ReplyDeleteI wish I spoke French. I'm interested in one of these! Sigh.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the post, Frederique :)
Thank you all for your kinds comments!
ReplyDeleteSometimes, as any of you, I get pretty obsessed and I browse everything frantically for a few hours/days, and then force myself to stop, as I have to constantly remind me I don't need another filofax... And when you got these "MUST. STOP. PERUSING. EBAY." moments, you know you do that too much :)
But what can I do ? It seems I'm always finding "new" unknown/discontinued filofaxes, and I always think "oh that's too bad, can't let this one go", and luckily, I've always stopped myself in time :)
Paul B. (and possibly others ?), if you want, we could try and arrange for me to have this binder sent to you, if the seller of the item you want is willing to ship internationally. Or I could acquire it for you and then send it to you afterwards, at cost ? In which country are you ?
Feel free to send me an email to 702723 at gmail.com and I will see what's possible !
I emailed one of the sellers saying I didnt speak French, but asked if they spoke English and could they mail to UK, but got no reply. Can anyone translate that into French for me ? :)
ReplyDelete[Meh, commenting on Blogger is *hard* sometimes !]
ReplyDeleteFirst, thank you all for your kind words!
Paul B (and possibly others?), which filo are you interested in? If there is one you want, I could acquire it for you and send it to you afterwards, at cost? [after checking the shipping costs, depending on the country you're in...]
But don't get your hopes too high up: I've contacted the seller of the M2 in "mustard" and so far, haven't heard back... )
Please feel free to send me an email at 702723 (at) gmail (dot) com and we'll see if and how we can proceed !
For those in America that like the look of the M2 there is currently a pink portobello m2 on ebay for only $9.99. the postage put me off but im sure it would be miles cheaper than $40 if you're within the USA!
ReplyDelete