So apparently it IS possible to purchase directly from Taobao

[Galactica]

I don't know if this is new or not, but you can now register on Taobao and connect a credit card to Alipay for payment.  I suppose that only gets over one of the hurdles though- as the seller must still be willing to ship to the U.S.

I noticed that for some of the listings for Monster High and for high end dolls (like Tonner's Evangeline Ghastly) the sellers state right on their auction that they will ship to the U.S.- but the sale prices are not really so tempting when you consider the cost of registered shipping from China. 

Also- I doubt the sellers selling the factory reject ponies will be so accomodating- it seems that the sellers who are willing to deal with a non-Chinese person and ship overseas have already listed their goods on the regular ebay. 

Have any of you made any purchases directly through a Taobao seller (rather than using an agent)?

[moving to TS - kaoskat]

[melodys_angel]

Interesting!

I personally havent really ventured there but I had no idea you could do it without an agent so would be interested to see who has

[khyron]

I'm super anxious about buying from Taobao... I had a bad experience once and the shipping is (understandably) super-high.

I wish I weren't a coward!   

[Galactica]

I understand completely-

I often buy from Mercadolivre and Mercadolibre- but it is SO much easier to translate Spanish and Portuguese- than Chinese.  Even then, it is often a challenge to get a seller to agree to sell and ship to a US bidder (I always check first).

The google chrome translator makes shopping on Taobao possible- but certainly not easy.  I sure wish I could read and write Chinese...

It is easier to use an agent, but sooooo expensive to pay two shipping charges plus the 10% fee.  I have to really want it...

[ponylady]

It will be interesting to see if anyone has tried this.
 
I use to have an agent but I ran into a few problems so I quit using them.  So if someone has had success I would love to try it.

[Yurusumaji]

Are the Taobao agents similar to Noppin? I would guess they are ...

Pokémon collectors can be found buying from Yahoo!Japan using several different agents, as well. I personally use Noppin, but in any case, what they will do is they will "start a box". They'll buy for a month or more, just getting as much stuff as possible, including picking up auctions for other people and then they'll just pay the one shipping cost once they're done buying for a while and have the giant box of awesome shipped to their place then. Noppin opens everything sent to them that was bought by you to check it for safety/condition/etc. and then they begin packing it for you. They'll hold it in their warehouse for a certain amount of time before charging you holding fees. I think it's 30 days.

It'll still be a pretty wild number, but if you're only shipping out once a month, you can save up the cash to do the large shipping cost then and it will end up being cheaper than having a bunch of small boxes shipped to you. Don't know if anyone buys enough for this to be a viable solution, but I thought I'd mention it.

[Galactica]

Yurusumaji- that is exactly what some of the Taobao agents do (like taobaonow)

FYI for those who are interested in registering directly on Taobao- you have to have an Alipay account-  Alipay appears to be owned by/affiliated with Paypal (which is reassuring)- but there are additional security measures- you have to have a valid passport number when registering.  You can't buy anything without an Alipay account...

[Ringlets]

Thanks for the info    I havent attempted to buy from them myself yet and  I didnt know it was possible without an agent, but if it works out ok then I'm interested  .  Giving this a to see if anyone has tried it yet*