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Halloween costumes are fun and entertaining for kids and adults alike. Ordering them online can save you the time and hassle of shopping in retail stores, not to mention saving you money.
There are many stores that advertise Halloween costumes online, but some offer far greater selection and value than others. How do you know where to look, and avoid wasting your time and money? TopConsumerReviews.com finds and rates the best Halloween costume stores available.
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Halloween has become one of the most entertaining holidays of the year. Kids and adults both get to dress up in fun and frightening costumes, attend parties, enter contests, and share in festivities.
Halloween costumes themselves have become far more elaborate than the old "bedsheet-over-the-head" ghost of yesteryear. Indeed, in retail stores you can find yourself spending hundreds of dollars on just one costume.
With the advent of the internet, however, you can save 50% or more off traditional retail prices. From the comfort of your own home, you can easily browse hundreds of costumes to find just the one you're looking for. No more driving from store to store, fighting the crowds, or settling for what's "left over" after all the good costumes have been taken.
When shopping at different online Halloween costume stores, you want to consider a few factors. Some of these include:
• Selection. Some stores have thousands of costumes available; others may have just a couple hundred. The more costumes they have, the greater chance you'll find what you're looking for.
• Cost. Even among online stores, costs vary widely. You want to find a store that reliably has low prices, passing the savings on to you.
• Customer Service. Do they let you check the status of your order online? Answer your questions in a FAQ section? Provide support after the sale?
TopConsumerReviews.com has reviewed and ranked the best Halloween costume stores online today. We hope you find these reviews helpful in your next costume purchase!
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Halloween Express gives you everything you could want in a Halloween store - and then some. Let's start with the website. You are presented with a screen that is packed with information but extremely easy to use. Their costumes are arranged by categories and subcategories to help you in your search. For example, in the Kids category they
have over 30 different subcategories, including
animals, princesses, and superheroes and "new" for that year. In the adult category they have horror, careers, sexy costumes, and more. When you click on these categories you are presented with dozens of different styles of costumes. Clicking on the thumbnail picture gives you a bigger picture to view details of the costume.
In addition to Adults and Kids, Halloween Express carries costumes for Pets, Couples, Groups, Holidays, and Dancewear. We were very impressed with the selection of costumes at Halloween Express. In fact, Halloween Express has the biggest selection of Halloween costumes and accessories available online. If you're looking for a costume,
chances are you will find it here.
Halloween Express also has an endless number of costume accessories, such as hats, wigs, masks, and makeup. Like the costumes, all these items are easily searchable and viewable.
Moving beyond costumes, Halloween Express also offers a large selection of Halloween-related items. Looking for Halloween party supplies? You can find them here. Yard decorations? They've got 'em. Signs, props, and special effects? You bet. Halloween Express seems to have thought of everything.
To top it off, when we did our cost comparisons between the sites, Halloween Express was consistently among the lowest prices we found.
Halloween Express offers a list of additional consumer-friendly features, such as:
• Same-day shipping. Order your costume by 1pm est and it is shipped out that day.
• Free shipping. Spend $65 or more and your costume ships for free.
• Order checking. You can easily check the status of your order online directly from their home page.
• Return policy. The return policy offered by Halloween Express is among the most generous we've found. They offer a satisfaction guarantee on most items for up to 15 days after delivery. If you aren't happy with the item for any reason, you can return it - no questions asked.
• FAQ section. If you have questions about shipping, returns, or costume information, they offer a helpful FAQ section with answers to 25 of the most-asked questions. They also have answers to more than a dozen other questions, as direct links from their home page.
• "Fun Stuff" section. Directly from their home page you can find information on Halloween costume ideas, party tips, crafts, Halloween party games, and more
Halloween Express has been around for over 20 years. In addition to selling costumes over the internet, they also sell them in retail stores across the country. In fact, they leverage the buying power of over 300 retail
stores in order to bring you the best possible prices online. That retail presence and experience means added security for your
purchases.
Halloween Express is a one-stop shop for all things Halloween. With the largest selection, lowest prices, generous return policy, and all their little extras, we can't think of a reason why you'd shop anywhere else. Halloween Express earns our highest rating.
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Costume Craze has a clean, easy site that is loaded with information but still effortless to use. And with thousands of customers to browse, they offer one of the largest costume selections in our review.
They start by prominently featuring their customer service hours at the top of the page. We found this very helpful; most sites have this information buried somewhere 2 or 3 levels down from the home page.
Down along the left side of the screen they list 20 costume categories, including cartoon characters, superheroes, and teen costumes. Some of these links send you to further subcategories; the traditional link, for example, sends you to a page where you can choose from over 40 more categories, including angels, Pirates, and Princesses. Once you reach a final category
of costumes, you are presented with a thumbnail preview of each item. Clicking on a thumbnail will present you with a larger view of the costume, although in most cases the thumbnails themselves are large enough for you to easily see what the costume looks like.
Costume Craze also provides you with search options across the top of the screen; here you get to choose from Costumes on Sale, Adult, Teen, Child, Dog, and Shoes. Clicking on these links will let you browse through thousands of costumes at a time. However, we wish they had further provided themes within these categories; in order
to see all the adult vampire costumes,
for example, you have to manually look through the hundreds of thumbnails within the adult category.
Alternatively, Costume Craze provides a very useful search bar at the top of the home page. Entering information here (like "Vampire" or "Star Trek") quickly takes you to the thumbnail results of your search. When using the search bar, you are also presented with a unique ability to further refine your search with 5 options - Price
range, Gender, licensing, Age, and Vendor. Some of these, including price and gender, are extremely helpful when viewing a large number of matches. It would be nice to see these options on all their costume lists!
When looking at pricing, we were pleased to see costs that compared favorably to most of the sites in our review. In fact, on some items Costume Craze had the lowest price of any of our reviewed sites.
Costume Craze provide same-day shipping on most items if the order is placed by 4pm cst. They also guarantee a flat $5.99 shipping fee for standard ground transportation for your order, no matter how many items you buy. That is a cost-savings option for those people ordering more than one costume or a number of accessories. And you can easily check
the status of your order online.
The return policy offered by Costume Craze provides a worry-free return policy. This means that if you return the item in perfect condition with all pieces prior to 30 days from purchase for a full refund. If returned after 30 days the company charges a 15% restocking fee and anything left will be in the form of an in-store credit. Clearance items are considered
final.
Costume Craze does almost everything right. They have a huge selection of costumes, low prices, same-day shipping, and helpful search options. Overall Costume Craze earns very high marks in our review.
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Spirit Halloween is an extension of the Spirit Halloween retail stores. Those stores have been in existence for over 25 years. Their retail stores are only open in September and October, however their online store is open all year.
Their success in retail stores is not lost on the website. Visually, the site is friendly and fun. On the home page you find a variety of colorful links to other Halloween-related areas. They also provide you with a zip code search box, where you can find the retail store nearest you.
Along the left side of the screen they display 12 different categories of items to shop for, including men's costumes, couples costumes, and baby costumes. Within each of these categories you have further subcategories to search, which make finding the costume you want a snap. Along the top of the screen they give you the same categories,
so no matter where you are on the site,
you can always search by category.
If you've ever visited a Spirit Halloween store you're instantly impressed with the selection and organization of the selections. Perhaps not surprisingly, the online site is very similar to the stores. We liked that you can find a selection of costumes here not offered by other stores.
Orders placed by 12:00 noon EST are usually shipped same day. Once an order is placed, a confirmation email is sent to the buyer; within this email is a link so that you can track the status of your order online. While not as convenient as some of the other sites, nevertheless they do give you online tracking information.
Spirit Halloween allows you to return most costumes as long as they are unopened and in their factory-sealed packages within 21 days of purchase for a full refund. This is acceptable if you change your mind after placing the order; however if you open the package and try the costume on, only to find it doesn't fit, you cannot return the costume.
Spirit Halloween offers an FAQ link directly from their main page. This section only contains answers to 6 of their most commonly asked questions. However, their customer service section is quite extensive, with 8 different areas of information.
In addition to costumes, Spirit Halloween also offers some other fun Halloween areas. They provide links to Halloween-related Recipes, Crafts, Games, and Party Tips. While not extensive, they do provide a more fun holiday experience than just offering costumes.
In all, Spirit Halloween is a fine extension of the Spirit Halloween retail stores. With a user-friendly website, great prices, and an extensive selection, Spirit Halloween provides a good choice for your Halloween costume needs.
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Costume Hub provides thousands of costume choices and accessories for adult, kids, and pets. This full service online Halloween store has a number of benefits to shopping as well as a few drawbacks.
When you first arrive, you may feel a little overwhelmed with this busy website. It took us a few extra minutes to visually focus and determine how to best navigate our costume search experience. Costumes are organized across the top by Kid, Adult, Pet, Accessories and more. Once you click on "Kid", for example, additional search options are available on the left hand side
of the page to better define what you're looking for. After a few moments, we figured out how to expand some of those lists and found what we were looking for. We liked that multiple choices are available on many of the costumes. They generally offer a less expensive and more expensive selection under each category to fit everyone’s needs.
From our comparison across several Halloween costume website competitors, we found that Costume Hub generally saves you $2-$5 per costume. Not only are the prices good but we liked the additional information provided on each product. Each costume description includes the accessories, cleaning instructions, material, and any unique return policy guidelines.
Costume Hub provides what they call a "stress free" return policy with no date limitations in October. Essentially, if you change your mind on the costume you have up to 14 days from the date you placed your order to initiate a return on items that are qualified for return (which are most). Wigs, hose and other items are excluded from return for sanitary reasons. To initiate
the return you must call or go on-line to notify them of the return - no restocking fees are charged.
Shipping is free if you spend $65 or more. If you spend less, your shipping is a flat $5.99 for a 6-10 day delivery. However, if you are in a hurry, all orders placed before 5:00 pm EST will be shipped the same day and if you choose to pay the extra costs that means you can have that item the next day.
Overall, we liked this customer friendly site. We felt the return policy was fair and would meet most people’s needs, the prices allowed for a savings opportunity, product descriptions were helpful and the selection was impressive. The only draw back we found at Costume Hub was the organization of the site and the initial ramp up time needed to filter out the visual confusion and begin
the search. Costume Hub is a great choice for those looking for a costume for anyone.
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Costume Kingdom provides a visually pleasing Halloween costume website. The site is very well organized with no distracting pictures or colors to reduce the clarity of what you're looking for. You may choose from adult, kids, masks, couples, pet, and accessories. With nearly 2,000 adult costumes, the selection is significant. Costume Kingdom also allows for you to narrow
your search by category, gender, size, and theme further defining your search for quick results.
Pricing across the costumes we compared was average to low to average across several of the sites. We would have liked a better selection of teen costumes and a specific category for this age group. We found “young adult” within the adult section of the categories which may create some confusion for some. Also, the kid’s selection of costumes was smaller than some of
the other sites we visited.
The return policy at Costume Kingdom allows for 14 days from the time you get your order to return it. All items must be returned complete with undamaged packaging and all pieces neatly included. Any orders placed between Oct 14th and 31st are not returnable.
Overall, Costume Kingdom offers some positive reasons to shop – especially for the adult looking for a fair priced costume. The return policy is fair and the free shipping of $50 or more makes this a good site to browse for the adult population.
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Buy Costumes has been around for over 10 years and is a very popular online costume store. When we first visited Buy Costumes, we were impressed. And after further exploration of their site and services, our initial impressions were confirmed. This is an excellent Halloween store.
The website is laid out in a very straightforward manner. Departments are listed down the left and across the top. Clicking within a department, you are shown a large number of costume categories. For example, there are 29 adult categories, including Disney, food & beverages, and pirate. For kids, there are nearly 30 categories, including princesses,
tv & movies, and witches
/ monsters. They also have departments for accessories & makeup, hats, wigs, masks, Halloween decorations, mascot costumes, and pet costumes. In fact, Buy Costumes carries over 10,000 items - truly an incredible selection.
Questions about shipping returns, and costume information are easily found. They have a truly comprehensive FAQ section with over 30 answers to the most frequently asked questions.
Buy Costumes offers same-day shipping if you place your order before 4pm cst. You can easily check the status of your order online, a feature that we found extremely helpful. Buy Costumes offers 99 cent standard shipping if you spend $60 or more.
Buy Costumes also has a consumer-friendly return policy. You can return most items within 14 days of receipt. Under most circumstances there is no restocking fee.
The only downside to Buy Costumes is their pricing. When compared to the other sites in our review, their costs tended to be 5-20% higher.
Still, when looking at the large selection, liberal return policy, and easy shopping experience, Buy Costumes earns one of our highest marks.
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If you want cheap costumes, Costume Discounters is the site for you! Costume Discounters provides many of the same costumes other stores offer but at a significant savings. However, that doesn't come without any drawbacks in service.
This no frills website provides a just ok website to assist you in locating what you're looking for. YOU may choose from Kids, Adult, Teen, Pet, Accessories and more. Once you select your department you can further select from popular theme, and characters, male or female, and age of the child if that applies. We thought it was a bit odd that once you selected "kids"
they brought up 4 costumes for toddlers and then you had to scroll down to the bottom of the page to find the additional categories. Overall the navigating of this discount store is awkward at best and product information is lacking. Costume Discounters provides a size chart but no specific on accessories, materials, or cleaning instructions.
Costume Discounters offers free shipping on orders over $70.00. The return policy allows for return within 10 days of delivery . A restocking fee of 15% does apply if you have ordered 4 or more of the same product. In the event that you choose the wrong size, Costume Discounters requires that you actually return the first item and purchase the next. No exchanges. All returns
must be "authorized" and exclude wigs, hose, and other accessories for sanitary reasons.
Costume Discounters provides a toll free number for customer service questions but we had a little trouble getting them to answer our questions and their actual hours available are unknown. However, we thought the "In Home Delivery Date Calculator" was a good tool available to determine the actual delivery date to your home dependant on the delivery method you
select.
Costume Discounters is a good site for those looking for a bargain and know what costume and size they need. For those super organized shoppers, perhaps trying on the costume at the store and then shopping at Costume Discounters would provide the best results - more work but a savings opportunity. The return policy and overall professionalism at Costume Discounters was a
little less impressive than our higher ranked stores.
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Costumes by Shindigz allows you to browse their inventory in a number of ways. First, along the left side of the screen you'll find costume categories - Top 10 Costumes, Top 10 Accessories, Themed Costumes, Disney Costumes, and so on. Clicking on Themed costumes you are presented with nearly 40 different types - from Angels to Zombies, and even including 1950's
greasers. Entering any of these
theme types, you are presented with thumbnail views of related costumes and accessories - grouped together for your convenience.
If you'd rather search according to the costume-wearer, Costumes By Shindigz provides options along the top of the screen. You can search between 8 categories; Adult, Teen, Child, Infant/Toddler, Pets, Mother/Daughter, Couples and Families. Some of these selections let you further refine your search by gender of the costume wearer. Once selected,
all related costumes and accessories
are displayed in thumbnail for your review.
Finding the costume you want is fairly easy. We do wish their thumbnail previews were a little larger, however; they're a little too small for our liking. Most of the time we had to click on the thumbnail to see the larger costume, because we couldn't tell much from the thumbnail picture.
Costume prices were competitive among the sites we reviewed. However, the number of costumes provided was less than most other sites. While Costumes by Shindigz provided a good variety, we would love to see more depth to their selections.
In addition to costumes, Costumes by Shindigz also provides links to other Halloween-related items. Click on Party Essentials, for example, and you're presented with a selection of Activities, Favors, Table, Party Apparel, Special Effects, and Treats/Accessories to choose from. Or, choose the Party Décor selection and you can select Balloons,
Banners, Decorating Accents, Outdoor Decorations,
and Theme Décor. They even have a special Sale link.
If you're interested in throwing a party - not just a Halloween Party, but any kind of party - Costumes by Shindigz gives you a link where your can find tips on over 200 different kinds of parties - from Baseball parties to Winter Olympics parties, and everything in between. This by itself is an incredible resource of information.
Costumes by Shindigz does a good job answering questions, even before they're asked. Under Customer Service you find links to several categories of information, including sizing charts and shipping information. Under the FAQ category, you find answers to 18 commonly asked questions.
Checking the status of your order is easy with their online tracking system. Most orders are sent out within two days of order placement. Costumes by Shindigz also offers shipping deals on purchases over $50 on standard ground orders - a helpful money-saving feature.
In case you're not happy with your order, most items can be returned within 30 days of delivery, minus a 15% restocking fee.
Costumes by Shindigz gets good marks for delivering an enjoyable shopping experience to their customers. With good search options, competitive pricing, and great customer service section, they obviously place a high level of importance on their customers. We wish they could provide more depth in their costume selections and same-day-shipping.
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The Half Price Costumes website is laid out with the consumer in mind. Their costumes are grouped into categories to aid in your search. The categories are listed across the top and down the left side, and include Adult Costumes, Kid Costumes, Accessories, Wigs & Masks, Decorations, Mascots, and Pets. Under each category they have
subcategories. For example,
under the Adult category they have several subcategories including horror, couples and humorous; under Kids they include Disney, Star Wars, and Superheroes. They also offer a category for this year's Top 10 costumes, which could be useful for those shoppers looking for something new.
They have a very large selection, with over 10,000 items available for purchase. This ranks them among the largest online stores in our review, alongside Buy Costumes and Halloween Express. There's a certain satisfaction knowing you're shopping at one of the largest stores of its kind.
Half Price Costumes offers same-day shipping on orders placed before 12pm est. We were also pleased to find an offer of free shipping on all orders over $60.
With a name like Half Price Costumes, we expected to find prices among the lowest in our review. Unfortunately, we were surprised to find their prices fall in the middle-to-high side. It may be true that their standard prices are 50% less than comparable retail outlets, but compared with other online Halloween stores, they have some ground
to make up.
The return policy offered by Half Price Costumes is among the worst offered in our review. They consider all purchases final if bought in October. No refunds are allowed for any reason. Exchanges for defective items, or for items in different sizes, are accepted if returned unopened within two days of receipt. But they will not process any exchanges
- for any reason - on items purchased
after October 10. Half Price Costumes can do much better than this.
If you're looking for answers to questions about shipping, returns, or costumes, you may be disappointed. An FAQ section is offered, but it's hidden under Customer Service - and it only contains answers to 10 questions. You can email additional questions to the company, but be prepared for some delays in the response. They would do well to look at some of the top sites in
our review to get a better idea of information their shoppers
may be interested in.
Half Price Costumes has been in business for over 7 years. They have a good selection of costumes, attractive shipping offer, and a website that's easy to navigate. However, their higher prices, obsolete return policy, and sparse FAQ section hold this site back from the top rankings.
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Extreme Halloween Network is a family-owned business that has been servicing customers online for over 10 years. That kind of market longevity is to be applauded.
Unfortunately, the Extreme Halloween Network website looks like it was created 10 years ago. In a Halloween-theme, they make widespread use of blacks, yellows, and reds. These color combinations make the site difficult to read and find what you're looking for. From an organization standpoint, the site looks like a hodgepodge of offerings. The costumes
are organized
by categories, much like the other sites in our review. However, there are categories listed down the left side, and other categories featured in the middle of the page, but they aren't the same ones. So where do you look to find the costume that you want? You have to hunt through the various categories, fighting the bright colors, until you find what you're after. They do provide a search bar, but that is halfway down the website.
If you can navigate to the categories, you'll find an ample selection. Costumes are grouped by Adult, Child, Teen, Baby, and Plus sizes. Within these categories they have a variety of subcategories; for example under Adult they have 19 groupings including funny, couples, and sexy. They also have an impressive assortment of costume
accessory categories; there are several categories
of wigs and 26 groupings of masks.
Costume prices were consistently among the lowest we found in our review; it's obvious that Extreme Halloween Network cares about bringing quality merchandise to their customers at affordable prices. They also offer same-day shipping for orders received before 2pm est.
Extreme Halloween Network accepts returns on most items if they are made within 5 days of delivery. Returns are subject to a 15% restocking fee. Returns are not accepted for orders placed between October 15th and November 1st.
Extreme Halloween Network provides 15 answers to frequently asked questions under their Customer Service area. Many of these answers contain links to other sections of their website with more detailed information. They also supply a toll-free number if you can't find the answers you're looking for.
One of the unique features of Extreme Halloween Network is their links to other costume websites. If you're looking for Easter Bunny costumes, western wear, wigs, luau costumes, Mardi Gras costumes, Santa suits, or costumes for cats and dogs, you can find links to them here.
If you can withstand the frustrating colors, confusing organization, and general lack of professionalism, Extreme Halloween Network has a good selection of costumes and low prices. Their website is need of an overhaul to make it more user-friendly.
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The website offered by Frank Bee Costumes is easy to navigate, if somewhat dated. A variety of costumes are divided into categories along the left side; included are Adult, Full cut, Children, Accessories, Capes, Masks, Wigs, Mascots, Funny Characters, Makeup, and Sale items. Within these categories are subcategories of items. For example, under Adult you'll find 70 subcategories
including Arabian nights, flappers & zoot suits,
and movies. Under Kids, you'll find boys/girls, Harry Potter, and Barbie.
With so many categories, it sometimes became confusing to find what we were looking for. Scary costumes, for example, are spread out between multiple categories, making it difficult to find exactly what we were looking for.
We were impressed with the large selection of costumes under each category. There are thousands of items between all categories and the selection process is easy to navigate. Unfortunately, it seemed that Frank Bee costumes didn't offer the latest costumes; often we found newer items on the other websites that were missing from the selections here. For the items that were shared,
prices were competitive with the other sites in our
review.
Frank Bee offers a simple return policy; they are not accepted. Sales are considered final on all costumes and accessories. This is a difficult policy to live with when doing business on the internet, especially with costumes that may or may not fit the consumer.
There is no FAQ section offered by Frank Bee Costumes. They do offer links to shipping information and sizing from their home page, but provide no further assistance online. This is a consumer-friendly service that should be rectified.
Frank Bee Costumes have been doing business since 1957. They offer a large selection of costumes at competitive prices. However, with a nonexistent return policy, dated website, and questionable selection, there are better options for the Halloween shopper.
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Your first impression at Costume City will not be your last. The site appears professional, well organized and easy to navigate. However, after spending a short time on the site you'll learn that the selection is smaller than our higher ranked stores, the price comparison between competitors is unfavorable and the return policy would leave anyone unsure.
While some companies provide thousands of costumes, that is not the case at Costume City. The selection was much smaller than most of the online stores and harder to find what you’re looking for. However, the selection was not our biggest complaint.
Although it's true that Costume City provides a return policy, it's comical at best. In the event that your costume is the wrong size, color or just not the one you want, you have 2 days to call Costume City and let them know. Then you only have 5 days to actually get the product back to them for your money back. Apparently once you order a costume from Costume City the clock starts ticking and the world stops
for you to make a decision. Don't plan on traveling if you've ordered a costume from this place. In the event you could actually meet their incredible timeframe restriction, you have several additional hoops to jump through in the process.
In addition, the pricing at Costume City was high compared to most of the competition. We found one costume that appeared to be the exact same and it was $10.00 more. Inflated pricing, ridiculous return policy and poor selection – our best suggestion is to shop somewhere else.
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Anytime Costumes provides a well organized site to easily search through their costume inventory. You may choose from adult, kids, plus size, accessories, wigs, masks and more. Within each category you may further define by age (for kids), theme, character, movie, and holiday.
Anytime Costumes appears to only carry the higher end versions of costumes. While some sites carry a range of the same costume allowing customers to choose what fits best in their budget, Anytime Costumes has mainly the deluxe version. While the quality is there, the cost and value of a one-time wear may not be worth it. The overall quantity of costumes is limited across all categories, reducing the likeliness that
you'll find exactly what you’re looking for.
The return policy does not exist. In place of that, you may exchange the costume for a different size, or something of equal value - within 3 days of receipt. Another not-so-friendly aspect of Anytime Costumes is the shipping costs. UPS Ground costs $8.99 – one of the most expensive across our lists of costume stores.
Overall, limited selection, higher priced costumes, no return policy and expensive shipping leave Anytime Costumes falling far behind. We couldn't find any good reason to shop at Anytime Costumes.
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Halloween Costumes in the News
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