Buying in China, pricing between actual shops and taobao..

[rich0d]

Heyas, I'm off to China (Beijing) in a few months, and I was wondering what kind of comparison between prices on Taobao and actual shops are? Like, I was looking at buying up a 108 key Ducky and a few KBC Poker's for various desks I work on... The Pokers and Ducky's I've been looking at are roughly 399-499RMB on Taobao, I know I could probably get these sent along to my girlfriend who is going to be studying over there, but I'd either have to wait until she's finished up, or sends them to me, so I was hoping to just buy them whilst out there from Computer City, or anywhere else I can find them would their prices be the same (maybe slightly more) than Taobao?

Any experiances?

-Rich

[Randallrocks]

Vacationing in China/HK right now. From what I've seen, you really would be better off buying online. Think comparisons between say, Newegg and Best Buy. You would be better off sticking to Taobao, but going to stores for trying out the different switches (tried out clears )

Other computer hardware/peripherals do tend to be cheaper though... SSDs tend to be the same as newegg/microcenter prices.

[feng]

Usually the prices on Taobao are much better than the actual shops. Anyway, Taobao is the best place to buy from for purchasing a mechanical keyboard. Some electronic online shop like Newegg, Jingdong, they don't have many choice of mechanical keyboards.

[REVENGE]

Buy from TaoBao, use payment upon delivery if you can't pay otherwise or want to inspect the merchandise. Shops are WAY overpriced, you would be much better off buying your keyboard in the states vs. buying them from a department store over there.

[theferenc]

Taobao is your friend. Everything is cheaper online, unless you can find a local shop that is willing to haggle and get the price down. For instance, the KBC poker on Taobao works out to I think $90 shipped, but in the computer shops that even have them, it's nearly double that.

You'll need an Alipay account, but you can use it like escrow. You "pay", but you only release the funds when you get the item. Most sellers on Taobao accept this form of payment, since it guarantees that you have the funds to them, and that they have the item to you. If the item is incorrect, you just send it back. As soon as they receive it back, they mark it returned, and your money is returned to you.

Alipay is a lot like paypal, but with more features in some ways, fewer features in others. For instance, as of May at least, you couldn't transfer from Alipay to your bank account.


Edit: Oh, and this is true of just about anything, by the way, not just electronics. The disparity is markedly higher than it is here in the US.

[noodles256]

everytime i hear Park Bom's "don't cry" I always break out in dance.

[keyboardlover]

everytime i hear Park Bom's "don't cry" I always break out in dance.

Pics or it didn't happen.

[noodles256]

Pics or it didn't happen.

titsorgtfo

[keyboardlover]

titsorgtfo

As requested:



At least I'm on topic.

[noodles256]

dat vein on da middle girl is so hot. i jsut want to rip it out

[Larry Dallas]

If you look at the Beijing based sellers on Taobao, most of them will have a booth at Zhong Guan Cun, that might be what you're calling Computer City. I bought my Red Poker there for 499￥, but that won't be the starting price, especially for a foreigner. If neither you nor your GF speak Mandarin, you should try to get someone who does to go with you. If you don't want to haggle, just buy it on Taobao. In fact, if you don't want to haggle, don't buy anything in China.

[theferenc]

Even if you do speak Mandarin, getting someone who looks local is a better bet. Prices double at most booths there if they see skin any color but yellow (which is what they call themselves, not a racist comment). I've seen it happen so many times. I ask for the price (in mandarin), get one number. My fiance asks the price, she gets a much lower number. But she's Chinese.

And always haggle, pretty much anywhere but big department stores (like carrefour) and restaurants. You can always get a better deal. And remember, never be afraid to walk away. Just acting like you'll walk away often gets you a better price.

[F u r u y á]

everytime i hear Park Bom's "don't cry" I always break out in dance.

lol I know this song.

a few months ago I uploaded it in two flavors.

[Input Nirvana]

As requested:

Show Image

At least I'm on topic.

Funnity-fun-fun!!!!!!!!!

[F u r u y á]

Korea is the only country where Gingers are cool.

lol just went from urban dictionary and found this

Some darker skinned or non-ginger haired persons feel compelled to denegrate gingers out of jealousy because a ginger's look is unique.

other good one

All previous entries can only be explained by the extreme likelihood that they were written by mentally-handicapped and racist children

[smalltao]

Buy from toabao if you don't know the price in actual shop. If you don't have Chinese friend, pls do not pay via actual shop, it will be more expensive than you expect. Also you can pay via some B2C website, like smalltao, lightinthebox, Dhgate.com. They are all largest website and smalltao is the taoabo agent. You can pay directly via paypal there. If you are not sure how to do it, this is steps that you can register in smalltao.com.
1 If you haven't registered: click "Create my account" on the right, complete the simple application form
and click the "Sign up & Check out" button.
2 Specify what you want to buy and from which website e.g. Taobao
3 Pay smalltao using PayPal
4 Smalltao buying the item for you. You can check the status of the buying process e.g. "processing" , "not yet shipped" "deliveried" etc
5 Once the items reaches your overseas address, you confirm the transaction is completed.

[pitashen]

If you know your way around HK and China, you can get some dirt cheap stuff. Knowing how to bargain with them would help a lot too.

[taobaoseek]

Somehow,it is difficult to master how to bargain with the sellers.But if you shop taobao,i am sure you should not bargain with the sellers,because the products are really discountable.And if you have chinese friends,you must know taobao,you must ask them to shop for you,right?Or if you have not had any friends in China,you can not buy from taobao directly.Because shop taobao not like EBAY,can pay by dollars. You should look for a realiable taobao agent first,just like taobaoseek.com which can accept paypal to pay,anyway,buy anything we want is the happiest thing!

[liyolanda]

I also like shopping online in taobao.com, because i think the iterms on taobao are cheaper, what's more, i usually use taobao agent, it is more fast and safe. some of them are newbuybay.com, taobaomaster.com, etc.

[Zeal]

^That two years thread necro! 

[SpAmRaY]

^That two years thread necro! 

They are a true spammer/advertiser...check their other posts