We buy on taobao.com
I left a lot of board games in Russia, I didn’t see sense to take them with me to Vietnam. I hoped that it would be possible to buy something on the spot. Bummer, sir, there was little to hear about board games, there are no specialized shops. The solution was found - near China, with a huge assortment and relatively small prices. Now I will tell you, on the example of purchasing board games, how to buy something in China.
taobao.com is a Chinese ebay, or something similar to it. A large number of different stores that provide different types of goods. If I understood everything correctly - taobao itself is like an aggregator of such stores. You can find a huge number of different goods: toys, appliances, clothing, etc. etc. The range of prices is large, as always for China, from very, very low, to ordinary European. Quality is appropriate.
')
Directly from China, foreigners are procured problematically: payment only in RMB (for foreigners there seem to be difficulties with establishing a local account), all sites are in Chinese, delivery is limited to China, no one is going to communicate with you in English in the stores themselves.
But there are several intermediaries who help with the purchase and shipment outside the country. On the advice of a comrade who stocked thousands of $$ a year in China, I used yoybuy.com. You need to register (for free), as a result you will have an address to which you can make orders. The principle as in shipito, you are given a real address (apparently, some kind of warehouse) and the name of the recipient (http://order.yoybuy.com/en/chineseaddress.html). Everything, now it is possible to go and pick up goods on taobao, and for a long time to disappear in the vast spaces of this site.
Since I was looking for board games, I immediately swept aside those where there is a language component. There are many games consisting only of various components and pictures, without language. The search for stores selling a certain product is complicated by the fact that a search in English yields very few results. I have not yet learned the art of searching in Chinese. As I did, I searched for an English title, and then I looked through the entire catalog of the store.
Thus, I found such a store and made the first order from here.
Regarding prices - they are in RMB. 1 ¥ = $ 0.1606 = 5 RUR. I highly recommend using a browser that does the translation right on the page. It is very convenient not to suffer with hieroglyphs.
Short purchase algorithm:
Now for each step a little more.
1. Add items to cart.
For example, take the order of the game Power Grid worth 35 yuan (175 rubles). We need only link c taobao. On yoybuy, open My account (1) -> New order and paste the link with taobao:
Submit, and see approximately the following image with full information about the product:
Here we see the cost of goods, the cost of local delivery (from the store to your address in China). You can select the quantity of goods. Click "Add to Shopping Cart". Thus we fill our own basket with any number of different goods. This is the first stage, just collect the things we are interested in with taobao. It’s not necessary to buy them all then, so you can make your own catalog. All products are added to your cart (near My account). It is very desirable to order a lot of goods from one store on taobao, because in this case the cost of delivery of goods will be for several things at once, and not for each. In my case, the total weight of the initial order exceeded 10 kg. I asked to cancel part of the games. Do not forget that later you will need to take out all the goods yourself, and you will pay for the total mass of the parcel.
2. Throw money at the account in yoybuy.
The options for depositing funds are different, I did through my VISA card. Pay attention to the fee, how much money will not reach your account.
3. Once transferred money, you can place an order . Open the basket, choose what products you want to order, look at the cost and confirm the order (Pay). Please note that there is a field for notes near each item. Sometimes it happens that when ordering goods on taobao, you can choose some option (for example, you can buy cardboard or plastic cards). What exactly do you need, what kind of option, you need to specify in this field for notes. Also look at the Shipping field. Since all goods were ordered in one store, delivery is counted once for all goods. With payment delivery possible nuance of it below.
Ok, after payment of the goods we wait until everything ordered will be bought and will come to the warehouse, where it will weigh everything and wait for your order to send the parcel.
4. We are waiting for the delivery of goods in China. Perhaps the most dreary stage. Open the My Order page and see what happens with your order:
Pay attention to the three columns: Balance, Message and Status.
Requests for a surcharge for an order may appear in the Balance field. In my case, they asked me to pay extra for local delivery of goods due to the large weight of the order. I was not told how much it weighs (this information yoybuy can show only after the goods arrive at their warehouse). I myself went through the list of my order and asked to remove the heaviest things from it (a game with wooden coins and some kind of plastic puzzle).
If there are any questions regarding the product, delivery, or something else, the operator yoybuy will send you messages. Read and answer. Also, you yourself can chat with them, clarify some questions. All correspondence in English, respond relatively quickly (it is stated that the answer will always be within 24 hours, in fact I did not have to wait for more than 2 hours).
The last field is the status of your order. When the goods arrive at the yoybuy warehouse, you will see its weight. The status will change to Arrived, and then you can order the shipment to yourself.
5. Sending a parcel.
Yoybuy offers three shipping options. By airmail, DHL, EMS. Parcel weight is in kg.
Approximate shipping costs can be calculated in this calculator: www.yoybuy.com/en/service/tools/costestimation.html . It is implemented a little crookedly:
The first two fields are needed in order for you to write a full bill of how much your package will cost you in full, including the cost of goods and services.
So, back to the order. Select in the My Order table those products that already have the Arrived status, and click the Submit Delivery button. See something like this:
There is complete information on what will be placed in the parcel and how much it will weigh. Since the parcel for you will be collected in stock, the total weight will be different from the sum of the weight of all goods. Estimated parcel weight is the approximate weight of the package after the final packaging to be sent to you, it is considered a bit with a margin. Here you will need to pick a little, what should I take in this package, what to postpone to the next. It is advisable to choose so that the weight of the parcel was slightly lower than whole kg. Click Next.
On the next page we indicate the address and choose the delivery method:
There is probably nothing special to tell. Service Fee - this is actually what this portal lives, they take 10% of the value of the goods . Payment of their services in forming you a parcel. Insurance fee, insurance, at your discretion. Total Amount - the total cost of the parcel sending operation: payment for shipping, youbuy service, customs payment (Customs Charge), insurance.
I ordered EMS, so the site calmly looked at what was happening with my package:
Actually everything. Next, wait for the parcel and hope that what was in the pictures at least a little will correspond to reality.
Here are the real numbers on my first premise:
What I really got.
The biggest misfortune befell me with Le Havre. On the pictures there were photos with the English field and maps: item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1z10.3.0.63.r16zLM&id=18061352615 , in fact, the entire Chinese version arrived. In fact, I now looked closely - in the pictures are the English and German versions.
The quality of the Power Grid, Le Havre, Ballon Cup and Pocket Jack is excellent. Boxes, cutting, printing quality is very good. Power Grid and Le Havre were with additions. The quality of printing and cutting in addition to the Carcassonne is terrible. Finca has a very poor quality box, the printing of components is a bit darkish, the cutting on the cardboard is normal, all the wooden chips are very good. Mr Jack New York is somewhat dark and there was a bit of bad cutting cards (I had to get one card carefully with scissors).
And the conclusion I got is simple - to order in China is possible and necessary. You need to watch a little more carefully what you buy, spend a little more time searching for several stores with a large selection of games. And at the price, whenever possible, to take not the cheapest, but a little bit more expensive. But if you want to give someone a gift, but you can hardly count on China, the game may come in a somewhat unrepresentative form. As a gift, I would prefer to buy a box in a store where I can immediately assess the quality of workmanship.
Then just lay out the photos to look at the quality of the components.
Ps. Now I’m already waiting for the 4th package, this time with a cord for RockSmith (xbox360) and a set of different Rubik's cubes.
taobao.com is a Chinese ebay, or something similar to it. A large number of different stores that provide different types of goods. If I understood everything correctly - taobao itself is like an aggregator of such stores. You can find a huge number of different goods: toys, appliances, clothing, etc. etc. The range of prices is large, as always for China, from very, very low, to ordinary European. Quality is appropriate.
')
Directly from China, foreigners are procured problematically: payment only in RMB (for foreigners there seem to be difficulties with establishing a local account), all sites are in Chinese, delivery is limited to China, no one is going to communicate with you in English in the stores themselves.
But there are several intermediaries who help with the purchase and shipment outside the country. On the advice of a comrade who stocked thousands of $$ a year in China, I used yoybuy.com. You need to register (for free), as a result you will have an address to which you can make orders. The principle as in shipito, you are given a real address (apparently, some kind of warehouse) and the name of the recipient (http://order.yoybuy.com/en/chineseaddress.html). Everything, now it is possible to go and pick up goods on taobao, and for a long time to disappear in the vast spaces of this site.
Since I was looking for board games, I immediately swept aside those where there is a language component. There are many games consisting only of various components and pictures, without language. The search for stores selling a certain product is complicated by the fact that a search in English yields very few results. I have not yet learned the art of searching in Chinese. As I did, I searched for an English title, and then I looked through the entire catalog of the store.
Thus, I found such a store and made the first order from here.
Regarding prices - they are in RMB. 1 ¥ = $ 0.1606 = 5 RUR. I highly recommend using a browser that does the translation right on the page. It is very convenient not to suffer with hieroglyphs.
Short purchase algorithm:
- Find the right product and add to your cart.
- Throw money at your yoybuy account. Of these funds, games will be purchased in China, they will be paid for shipping in China, and then you will need to order delivery of the parcel to yourself in another country.
- Go to the page with the goods selected in paragraph 1 and place an order for a purchase.
- We are waiting further when yoybuy operators will buy the goods you ordered. There are possible nuances in the form of communication about the cost of delivery, clarification of the requirements of the order, the removal of missing goods, etc. We are waiting until the goods arrive at the warehouse in China.
- We form and pay a package from China to our home.
- ???
- PROFIT !!!
Now for each step a little more.
1. Add items to cart.
For example, take the order of the game Power Grid worth 35 yuan (175 rubles). We need only link c taobao. On yoybuy, open My account (1) -> New order and paste the link with taobao:
Submit, and see approximately the following image with full information about the product:
Here we see the cost of goods, the cost of local delivery (from the store to your address in China). You can select the quantity of goods. Click "Add to Shopping Cart". Thus we fill our own basket with any number of different goods. This is the first stage, just collect the things we are interested in with taobao. It’s not necessary to buy them all then, so you can make your own catalog. All products are added to your cart (near My account). It is very desirable to order a lot of goods from one store on taobao, because in this case the cost of delivery of goods will be for several things at once, and not for each. In my case, the total weight of the initial order exceeded 10 kg. I asked to cancel part of the games. Do not forget that later you will need to take out all the goods yourself, and you will pay for the total mass of the parcel.
2. Throw money at the account in yoybuy.
The options for depositing funds are different, I did through my VISA card. Pay attention to the fee, how much money will not reach your account.
3. Once transferred money, you can place an order . Open the basket, choose what products you want to order, look at the cost and confirm the order (Pay). Please note that there is a field for notes near each item. Sometimes it happens that when ordering goods on taobao, you can choose some option (for example, you can buy cardboard or plastic cards). What exactly do you need, what kind of option, you need to specify in this field for notes. Also look at the Shipping field. Since all goods were ordered in one store, delivery is counted once for all goods. With payment delivery possible nuance of it below.
Ok, after payment of the goods we wait until everything ordered will be bought and will come to the warehouse, where it will weigh everything and wait for your order to send the parcel.
4. We are waiting for the delivery of goods in China. Perhaps the most dreary stage. Open the My Order page and see what happens with your order:
Pay attention to the three columns: Balance, Message and Status.
Requests for a surcharge for an order may appear in the Balance field. In my case, they asked me to pay extra for local delivery of goods due to the large weight of the order. I was not told how much it weighs (this information yoybuy can show only after the goods arrive at their warehouse). I myself went through the list of my order and asked to remove the heaviest things from it (a game with wooden coins and some kind of plastic puzzle).
If there are any questions regarding the product, delivery, or something else, the operator yoybuy will send you messages. Read and answer. Also, you yourself can chat with them, clarify some questions. All correspondence in English, respond relatively quickly (it is stated that the answer will always be within 24 hours, in fact I did not have to wait for more than 2 hours).
The last field is the status of your order. When the goods arrive at the yoybuy warehouse, you will see its weight. The status will change to Arrived, and then you can order the shipment to yourself.
5. Sending a parcel.
Yoybuy offers three shipping options. By airmail, DHL, EMS. Parcel weight is in kg.
Approximate shipping costs can be calculated in this calculator: www.yoybuy.com/en/service/tools/costestimation.html . It is implemented a little crookedly:
- Items subtotal - the total value of your order in local currency
- Domestic shipping fee - the cost of local delivery of goods
- Weight - the weight of your package. This is actually the parameter by which the cost of the parcel is considered.
The first two fields are needed in order for you to write a full bill of how much your package will cost you in full, including the cost of goods and services.
So, back to the order. Select in the My Order table those products that already have the Arrived status, and click the Submit Delivery button. See something like this:
There is complete information on what will be placed in the parcel and how much it will weigh. Since the parcel for you will be collected in stock, the total weight will be different from the sum of the weight of all goods. Estimated parcel weight is the approximate weight of the package after the final packaging to be sent to you, it is considered a bit with a margin. Here you will need to pick a little, what should I take in this package, what to postpone to the next. It is advisable to choose so that the weight of the parcel was slightly lower than whole kg. Click Next.
On the next page we indicate the address and choose the delivery method:
There is probably nothing special to tell. Service Fee - this is actually what this portal lives, they take 10% of the value of the goods . Payment of their services in forming you a parcel. Insurance fee, insurance, at your discretion. Total Amount - the total cost of the parcel sending operation: payment for shipping, youbuy service, customs payment (Customs Charge), insurance.
I ordered EMS, so the site calmly looked at what was happening with my package:
Actually everything. Next, wait for the parcel and hope that what was in the pictures at least a little will correspond to reality.
Here are the real numbers on my first premise:
What I really got.
The biggest misfortune befell me with Le Havre. On the pictures there were photos with the English field and maps: item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1z10.3.0.63.r16zLM&id=18061352615 , in fact, the entire Chinese version arrived. In fact, I now looked closely - in the pictures are the English and German versions.
The quality of the Power Grid, Le Havre, Ballon Cup and Pocket Jack is excellent. Boxes, cutting, printing quality is very good. Power Grid and Le Havre were with additions. The quality of printing and cutting in addition to the Carcassonne is terrible. Finca has a very poor quality box, the printing of components is a bit darkish, the cutting on the cardboard is normal, all the wooden chips are very good. Mr Jack New York is somewhat dark and there was a bit of bad cutting cards (I had to get one card carefully with scissors).
And the conclusion I got is simple - to order in China is possible and necessary. You need to watch a little more carefully what you buy, spend a little more time searching for several stores with a large selection of games. And at the price, whenever possible, to take not the cheapest, but a little bit more expensive. But if you want to give someone a gift, but you can hardly count on China, the game may come in a somewhat unrepresentative form. As a gift, I would prefer to buy a box in a store where I can immediately assess the quality of workmanship.
Then just lay out the photos to look at the quality of the components.
Ps. Now I’m already waiting for the 4th package, this time with a cord for RockSmith (xbox360) and a set of different Rubik's cubes.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/172319/
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