Know any Trustworthy TaoBao proxies? Share them!

[dr_habu]

I've been trying to buy a Plum 96 keyboard since November '15. I've tried contacting both imsto and qtan and nothing much came out of it(Both of them seem to be busy with other stuff for the time being).

I consider myself to be a very patient man, but after 3 months I'm starting to think about other ways to buy stuff from TaoBao, so please tell me if you know any trustworthy TaoBao proxies. It would be best if you bought stuff from them yourself as opposed to just hearing about them from your friend or something along those lines. I would also be grateful if you shared your experience with them(is it easy to get in touch with them? How communicative were they? How was the packaging? Did you get what you ordered? Etc.).

Thank you!

[Blaise170]

Taobaoring

[hwood34]

TaoBao Focus. Literally the only one you'll ever need

[SpAmRaY]

I'm fairly certain just recently someone was selling a Plum 96 in the classifieds.

[meiosis]

TaoBao Focus. Literally the only one you'll ever need

[swimmingbird]

TaoBao Focus. Literally the only one you'll ever need

Tempted to try them out now

Thanks

[jdcarpe]

I've always used bhiner.

[dr_habu]

I assume that you guys received exactly what you ordered and it was in one peace.

So far bhiner seems to be the cheapest option.

[SpAmRaY]

I assume that you guys received exactly what you ordered and it was in one peace.

So far bhiner seems to be the cheapest option.

I've used bhiner, TaoBao Focus and Mr. TaoBao, had good and bad experiences. Had things arrive broken or not at all. Also ordered an RGB keyboard but got a nonbacklit one instead. Never got any refunds just excuses from them all. YMMV.

[hwood34]

I assume that you guys received exactly what you ordered and it was in one peace.

I've ordered from TBF 10+ times. I've always gotten everything in a timely manner and relatively cheaply. They also have some of the most hardcore sturdy packaging I've ever seen.

[xiaodian317]

By friends in China via GH

[romevi]

I've used Bhiner. They're pretty legit, tbh fam.

Also, how the fart do you pronounce "Bhiner"? I've always said it like "beaner."

[mashby]

I've used IMSTO and had no issues.

[BrewCaps]

I've used IMSTO and had no issues.

He said he tried IMSTO.

[romevi]

I've used IMSTO and had no issues.

He said he tried IMSTO.

I've PM'd imsto a few times last year. He responded twice, but months later.

[SpAmRaY]

I've used IMSTO and had no issues.

He said he tried IMSTO.

I've PM'd imsto a few times last year. He responded twice, but months later.

Same here, I had the stuff from taobao using another proxy before imsto even replied to me last time.

[falkentyne]

Taobaoring.
They even confirm with you the item you want to buy if you leave a note/memo, and take pictures of everything in the box after they receive the item, including the serial numbers on the back of the item, so you can make sure that's the item you ordered.  I'm sure, if you request it directly, they will also plug in a RGB keyboard and take pictures of the lighting if you ask them to and you tell them the keypress to turn on the lighting, although I didn't ask that.  When I was doing some dirty searches for what proxies are good, taobaoring came up as the best overall one.  I have an item being shipped today later (a void ray teamwolf hot swappable switch RGB keyboard) and if it arrives in one piece and works, I would not hesitate to use and recommend them again.

[azhdar]

I had a great experience the 2 times I deal with taobaofocus

[mashby]

I've used IMSTO and had no issues.

He said he tried IMSTO.

Whoops. Missed that. Sorry.

[HPE1000]

I've used Bhiner. They're pretty legit, tbh fam.

Also, how the fart do you pronounce "Bhiner"? I've always said it like "beaner."

lmao their video is right on the front page of the site. They pronounce it as buyner.

[Blaise170]

I assume that you guys received exactly what you ordered and it was in one peace.

So far bhiner seems to be the cheapest option.

I've ordered about 20+ items from Taobaoring and they have always packaged my stuff really well and shipping was relatively quick. They are a little more expensive than the others but they photograph everything and make sure that they received the right thing before shipping it out to you.

[romevi]

I've used Bhiner. They're pretty legit, tbh fam.

Also, how the fart do you pronounce "Bhiner"? I've always said it like "beaner."

lmao their video is right on the front page of the site. They pronounce it as buyner.

Oh. I don't watch videos.

[merlin64]

So with these proxies, what happens if you buy the item, but when it gets to the proxy, the shipping charges are more than you can pay for. What happens then?

[hwood34]

So with these proxies, what happens if you buy the item, but when it gets to the proxy, the shipping charges are more than you can pay for. What happens then?

They probably just return the item. I know Taobaofocus can just hold it in their warehouse for a few months.

[falkentyne]

Why in the **** would you try to buy from an overseas proxy if you can't afford the shipping?
Well it should be obvious.
Don't buy items if you can't afford the cost.

Most likely, you pay the slower, very cheap price for Sea shipping and deal with the 2-3 month wait before you receive the item.
Or they return the item for a refund and you lose money.  Shipping by boat is cheap.

You realize that you pay a commission for them buying the item precisely to avoid intentional griefing like you're proposing.  So if you buy something and can't afford it, they refund the price of the item and you lose the commission charge and they make a profit off you.

[Blaise170]

Most places will hold it for a short while, and unless you are buying something huge, shipping from China is cheap. Even using their expedited service (EMS) won't be more than $20-30 for most items.

[romevi]

Most places will hold it for a short while, and unless you are buying something huge, shipping from China is cheap. Even using their expedited service (EMS) won't be more than $20-30 for most items.

lol My first proxy order from Bhiner was $55 for just shipping.

[SpAmRaY]

Most places will hold it for a short while, and unless you are buying something huge, shipping from China is cheap. Even using their expedited service (EMS) won't be more than $20-30 for most items.

lol My first proxy order from Bhiner was $55 for just shipping.

Yeah, last keyboard I ordered they said they had a 50% off coupon and they estimated DHL would be ~$30 it was more like $70. 

[HPE1000]

Most places will hold it for a short while, and unless you are buying something huge, shipping from China is cheap. Even using their expedited service (EMS) won't be more than $20-30 for most items.

lol My first proxy order from Bhiner was $55 for just shipping.

Yeah, last keyboard I ordered they said they had a 50% off coupon and they estimated DHL would be ~$30 it was more like $70. 

From what I understand they (taobao agents/proxies) all rip you off on shipping for the most part. Things like telling you they can get you 40-50% off shipping when they are really getting 60% off and pocketing the difference as well as straight up lying about the weight of your package to further pocket more money.

[SpAmRaY]

Most places will hold it for a short while, and unless you are buying something huge, shipping from China is cheap. Even using their expedited service (EMS) won't be more than $20-30 for most items.

lol My first proxy order from Bhiner was $55 for just shipping.

Yeah, last keyboard I ordered they said they had a 50% off coupon and they estimated DHL would be ~$30 it was more like $70. 

From what I understand they (taobao agents/proxies) all rip you off on shipping for the most part. Things like telling you they can get you 40-50% off shipping when they are really getting 60% off and pocketing the difference as well as straight up lying about the weight of your package to further pocket more money.

Oh I don't doubt it they charged me for 2.5Kg while the package was actually 1.7Kg which doesn't sound like much difference unless you're talking express international shipping from china haha.

[HPE1000]

Most places will hold it for a short while, and unless you are buying something huge, shipping from China is cheap. Even using their expedited service (EMS) won't be more than $20-30 for most items.

lol My first proxy order from Bhiner was $55 for just shipping.

Yeah, last keyboard I ordered they said they had a 50% off coupon and they estimated DHL would be ~$30 it was more like $70. 

From what I understand they (taobao agents/proxies) all rip you off on shipping for the most part. Things like telling you they can get you 40-50% off shipping when they are really getting 60% off and pocketing the difference as well as straight up lying about the weight of your package to further pocket more money.

Oh I don't doubt it they charged me for 2.5Kg while the package was actually 1.7Kg which doesn't sound like much difference unless you're talking express international shipping from china haha.

That sucks :/

I hope that doesn't happen to me as well, I am going to be ordering a keyboard through bhiner in about a month when it gets back in stock.

[merlin64]

Why in the **** would you try to buy from an overseas proxy if you can't afford the shipping?
Well it should be obvious.
Don't buy items if you can't afford the cost.

Most likely, you pay the slower, very cheap price for Sea shipping and deal with the 2-3 month wait before you receive the item.
Or they return the item for a refund and you lose money.  Shipping by boat is cheap.

You realize that you pay a commission for them buying the item precisely to avoid intentional griefing like you're proposing.  So if you buy something and can't afford it, they refund the price of the item and you lose the commission charge and they make a profit off you.

Because maybe you buy a $30 dollar item, and expect the shipping to be $30 at the most, but they come back with a $70 shipping quote. At that rate you wonder if you're really saving money for buying from China lol.

From the other posts after mine, seems like people have similar stories.

[hwood34]

Why in the **** would you try to buy from an overseas proxy if you can't afford the shipping?
Well it should be obvious.
Don't buy items if you can't afford the cost.

Most likely, you pay the slower, very cheap price for Sea shipping and deal with the 2-3 month wait before you receive the item.
Or they return the item for a refund and you lose money.  Shipping by boat is cheap.

You realize that you pay a commission for them buying the item precisely to avoid intentional griefing like you're proposing.  So if you buy something and can't afford it, they refund the price of the item and you lose the commission charge and they make a profit off you.

Because maybe you buy a $30 dollar item, and expect the shipping to be $30 at the most, but they come back with a $70 shipping quote. At that rate you wonder if you're really saving money for buying from China lol.

From the other posts after mine, seems like people have similar stories.

You should be fine just going Air Mail, that'll always be cheap. Dont see why person before is so hostile. I didn't even know you could do shipping by boat anymore.

[falkentyne]

I don't know how you guys are paying $70 for shipping.
I bought a $90 keyboard (the void ray one) and chose DHL shipping for $58.  EMS would have been $30-$35.
Maybe if you guys had used Taobaoring instead of the lower rated agents, you wouldn't get so screwed on shipping.

[romevi]

I don't know how you guys are paying $70 for shipping.
I bought a $90 keyboard (the void ray one) and chose DHL shipping for $58.  EMS would have been $30-$35.
Maybe if you guys had used Taobaoring instead of the lower rated agents, you wouldn't get so screwed on shipping.

Every falkentyne...

[hwood34]

I don't know how you guys are paying $70 for shipping.
I bought a $90 keyboard (the void ray one) and chose DHL shipping for $58.  EMS would have been $30-$35.
Maybe if you guys had used Taobaoring instead of the lower rated agents, you wouldn't get so screwed on shipping.

I've always used TaobaoFocus and have never seen a rate as high as $70

[merlin64]

I sure hope no one gets hits that high haha. Once again, the $70 was merely an example with no real world occurrence that i know of. I apologize if I confused anyone with that.

My question was simply "what happens if shipping is more than expected?". It was a question I have always wondered myself and figured the OP would benefit having that knowledge. To those who answered the question, thank you.

[dtaflorida]

By friends in China via GH

Or order things to the in-law's place and go pick it up when visiting.

[saxophone]

Bhiner is my currently favored one:

They can do quoting of the item and communicate well with the seller to make sure it's the right item you want.
They have 40-50% cut rates on DHL shipping, meaning that it costs as much as other shipping options except it only takes 3-5 days.
They allow you to choose how much you want to declare as the item worth through customs when shipping it out.

[nubbinator]

The one timei tried bhiner, they only shipped half my order despite showing everything in the picture,  then refused to send the rest until I paid for shipping a second time.  It ended up costing me about $20 more than it should have.

[Blaise170]

I still recommend Taobaoring, I just ordered again and had no problems.

[kiwi99]

I've used bhiner once, other than canadapost losing my package for about a month  in their sorting facility bhiner handled everything good on their side, their packaging wasn't amazing but eh can't expect too much.

I've used Bhiner. They're pretty legit, tbh fam.

Also, how the fart do you pronounce "Bhiner"? I've always said it like "beaner."

haha, never thought about pronouncing it that way.  Do you pronounce these carabeaners? or cara-bye-ner?

[dtaflorida]

Taobaoring.
...
I have an item being shipped today later (a void ray teamwolf hot swappable switch RGB keyboard) and if it arrives in one piece and works, I would not hesitate to use and recommend them again.

How did that go? Actually I'm more curious about the keyboard than how Taobaoring went.

I have one coming through Massdrop in about a month. After some checking I realized the Massdrop deal seems to come with the Outemu blue + 120 additional Gateron switches of your choice but blue was not an option and I was wondering why blue wasn't an option until I realized that you'd be getting both the Outemu and the Gateron.

There's a firmware update on reddit for the Void Ray to fix the crashing and resetting.

[Blaise170]

Well I got my keyboard in from Taobaoring today. They overwrapped it I'd say. I started out cutting off a layer of bubble wrap and found a box underneath it all. After opening the box, I found another layer of bubble wrap covering the actual box.

[appleonama]

I wouldn't use bhiner any longer. Yesterday I was reading a reddit discussion about bhiner customers being over charged for shipping by doubling the amount weight and rounding up to the nearest whole number. I am aware that bhiner has the lowest fees but it seems they are recovering those lost fees by overcharging you with shipping.
I posted this on another post

A couple months ago I ordered some items that weight about 1kg and shipping was $22 according to bhiner.
I recently tried to order the same item but they doubled the weight for shipping and it was now going to be 2kg for $43.
This was strange to me because it was the same item. so I complained and they reduced it back to 1kg and price went down to $23. I just weighed the item and it was ~.5kg but they claimed after packing it is ~.7kg and the shipping company would round it to 1kg.

[falkentyne]

Taobaoring.
...
I have an item being shipped today later (a void ray teamwolf hot swappable switch RGB keyboard) and if it arrives in one piece and works, I would not hesitate to use and recommend them again.

How did that go? Actually I'm more curious about the keyboard than how Taobaoring went.

I have one coming through Massdrop in about a month. After some checking I realized the Massdrop deal seems to come with the Outemu blue + 120 additional Gateron switches of your choice but blue was not an option and I was wondering why blue wasn't an option until I realized that you'd be getting both the Outemu and the Gateron.

There's a firmware update on reddit for the Void Ray to fix the crashing and resetting.

Keyboard works fine.  Firmware update works fine (no idea where to get the update; teamwolf sent it to me directly).  I'm too sick to talk here or deal with all of this traffic right now.  Been violently sick for over a week and possibly no end in sight with my disability.  Enjoy your keyboards.

[spanyam]

Keyboard works fine.  Firmware update works fine (no idea where to get the update; teamwolf sent it to me directly).  I'm too sick to talk here or deal with all of this traffic right now.  Been violently sick for over a week and possibly no end in sight with my disability.  Enjoy your keyboards.

Good to hear it worked fine. Hope you get well soon.

[dtaflorida]

Keyboard works fine.  Firmware update works fine (no idea where to get the update; teamwolf sent it to me directly).  I'm too sick to talk here or deal with all of this traffic right now.  Been violently sick for over a week and possibly no end in sight with my disability.  Enjoy your keyboards.

Hope you get better.

For those who want to avoid the proxies all together, the Team Wolf Zhuque and the Void Ray are on Amazon (fulfilled by Amazon with Prime) for about a week now.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01AL9EWJ4

The seller doesn't seem to know how to set up product options so there's a lot of listings with differences in the product title for switch. I've only noticed 2 listings for the RGB tho, one with black, one with red switch.