Would like to know if anyone has used Taobao to get anything before and if so: Are sellers reliable? Is it easy to get stuff sent worldwide or do you need someone native to help out? Any general experiences would be great, I've found a few things there I'd like to buy but no routes in or out yet. Rikki
Define “reliable”. Sure sellers will send you stuff if you pay for it. But what you receive and the quality of it will be up in the air. It's quite common for sellers to use stock pictures and pictures of similar (but not exactly the same) items in sales. As an example, from time to time you'll see pictures of large lots of games, but unless you read the fine-print you won't realize it's just a DVD full of ROMs they are selling. :/ Definitely it pays to know Chinese so you can investigate purchases and talk with the sellers directly. Lots of misunderstandings can be cleared up in that way, as well as obtaining guarantees on what your agreeing to buy. Sellers generally ship only within China, and to register I think you need a bank of China account as well as other things you probably could only obtain if you were in China or a Chinese citizen. Your best bet is to have a friend buy and ship to you, or use a for-profit middle man company that will accept locally and ship internationally. However, you'll be raped on the prices there and they won't lift a finger for you if something goes wrong in your deal (Broken items, wrong item, not as listed, etc). I've also seen instances where middle-man companies cheat you by pocketing shipping discounts and other things sellers pass to buyers, but don't realize it since they don't know Chinese or how to follow up.
