taobao order?

[Gogobinsin]

So I'm hopefully working out an order for some taobao ponies with an arena member in the next few weeks but I do eventually want to be able to buy the occasional pony myself from taobao (I've always been too scared of things going wrong and it ending up costing too much) anyway so I was looking on taobaonow for their fees and such and quickly had a look at their shipping calculator.

Their calculator says the smallest size parcel 0.5kg sent with EMS is 168 Yuan? That's like £16-17 right or have I got the currency wrong? If I was only wanting to buy 1 or 2 ponies would shipping from the agent really end up costing me that much? I was all set to buy one cheap pony I've been looking for for a while just as a 'test' purchase I guess to see how things go but then I read that and now I'm put off doing my own purchases from an agent again...

Can anyone who has bought through agents before please give me an idea of shipping costs please? I didn't think shipping would be this much considering most Chinese sellers on ebay ship for free/very cheap

Sorry if there's already a post explaining this, please feel free to delete if so.

[Bergamot]

I've never used TaoBaoNow specifically, but those shipping costs sound about right. TaoBao agents tend to use the most reliable shipping method possible, and with that reliability comes extra cost.

Buying one pony at a time from TaoBao isn't ideal, because shipping costs and agent fees can be pretty steep. People tend to order many things at once when shopping on TaoBao instead, sometimes arranging group orders with friends to help offset and distribute the shipping / handling costs.

The agent that I worked with charged shipping twice: Once for the cost of shipping from the TaoBao seller to the agent, then another time for the cost of shipping from the TaoBao agent to me.

Hope this helps!

[Galactica]

That sounds about right-

A sizable box of ponies and dolls (2.136 kg) recently cost me $78 via EMS (which is the most reliable) 

It is much much cheaper to buy in bulk from China and not worth it at all to make a Taobao order for one or two ponies given the agent fee and shipping.  That is why I try to go in with others or save up a huge order of stuff so that it is worth it.

Keep in mind also the exchange rate fluctuates ...

[lovesbabysquirmy]

Why shouldn't the Taobao agents be paid appropriately for their time and services?  If that's the cost of shipping, then why expect it to be lower than what they have presented? 

[Gogobinsin]

Thanks for the responses guys, I appreciate it Guess I'll just stick to group orders then

Why shouldn't the Taobao agents be paid appropriately for their time and services?  If that's the cost of shipping, then why expect it to be lower than what they have presented? 

I never said they shouldn't be paid appropriately and I wasn't expecting them to charge lower than it actually costs, why would I? I just wanted to make sure I'd got it right, it was just a lot more than I was expecting. I've never understood how some sellers from China are able to ship for free anyway, surely it must cost them something.

[Sarah-Bee]

I use Taobaonow and find them really reliable and that does sound right for their shipping costs. It's definitely better to buy in bulk from them to keep shipping costs justifiable

[Gogobinsin]

I use Taobaonow and find them really reliable and that does sound right for their shipping costs. It's definitely better to buy in bulk from them to keep shipping costs justifiable

Well I have a few ponies on my wishlist right now, just counted 12 actually but 6 of them are hopefully being checked off my list soon through a group order If I'm not able to get the others I'll might wait till the second fan favourites collection is released and get the lot of them in one go. Hopefully with that many ponies it would end up working out at a reasonable amount per pony Thanks for your help

[Mistyeyes]

Hi all I have placed an order with daffydilly for some ponies from taobao but was wondering how do you all order from there?

I have had a look and there is LOADS that I want haha

Any help greatly appreciated

[moving to Trader Support ~ many thanks ~ hathorcat]

[Sarah-Bee]

Basically you use an agent to buy things from there on your behalf. The one I use, taobaonow.com, you copy the link for the item you want into their shopping cart. They charge you 10% as a service charge (minimum 50 yuan). You make 2 payments, one for the items then a second for shipping when they have all your items and they know how much shipping will be. My agent's postage charges are very reasonable. Hope this helps.

[ponylady]

Sarah is absolutely correct.

I am going to merge this with the already on going thread we have in here dealing with Taobao though to keep things together.