Why use Taobao? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: apelly
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 14, 2016, 06:54:13 pm
content: Thisthreadjust got pinged again, but rather then pollute that I thought I'd ask in a new one...Why bother using Taobao? What do you get that is better than aliexpress? Or ebay?Is it cheaper or something? Or better organised?

author: wraper
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 14, 2016, 06:57:19 pm
content: Often it is the only place where you can get something. Also, sometimes cost savings are very significant compared to Aliexpress or ebay.

author: uncle_bob
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 14, 2016, 07:11:26 pm
content: Quote from: apelly on March 14, 2016, 06:54:13 pmHiHow to phrase this so as not to trip all over the place ....eBay still has a lot of US roots. That makes it difficult for some sellers to deal with. Ailexpress is sort of an eBay clone with not quite all of the same roots, but enough of them that it still makes some sellers shy away. Not speaking Chinese, I have absolutely no idea how well either site does in anything other than English. There may be some issues there.Taobao is about as close as you can get to the internal Chinese market and not travel over there. It's not as polished, at least not when viewed from outside China and trying to deal with it in English. It does let you get at a lot of items that do not show up on the other two. In some (but not all) cases you can find items that are listed on the other two for less money on Taobao. All that said, there is a "hassle factor" digging things up and buying them there. I generally am willing to pay a 10% "eBay tax" to not have to deal with that.Bob

author: apelly
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 14, 2016, 07:12:04 pm
content: Quote from: wraper on March 14, 2016, 06:57:19 pmFair enough.Just for fun though; what's something you've only been able to find on Taobao? Sure, I often can't find the exact thing I'm looking for on ali, but man there's a lot of stuff.OK. Just thought of something: Shorts for fat dudes. Checking now...

author: uncle_bob
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 14, 2016, 07:15:14 pm
content: Quote from: apelly on March 14, 2016, 07:12:04 pmHiThe range of surplus OCXO's on Taobao is much larger than on the other two. The same is true of boards with modern FPGA's on them.Bob

author: apelly
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 14, 2016, 07:40:21 pm
content: Quote from: uncle_bob on March 14, 2016, 07:15:14 pmThat's unexpected. And interesting.I guess I'll add them to the usual suspects for cheap toys.Thanks guys.

author: uncle_bob
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 14, 2016, 07:42:23 pm
content: Quote from: apelly on March 14, 2016, 07:40:21 pmHiBe warned, the search process (for someone starting from English) is *painful*.Bob

author: apis
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 14, 2016, 11:12:02 pm
content: I tried to figure out how to buy from Taobao, do most sellers ship abroad? I found a couple of bloggs in English that recommended using "agents", i.e. someone in Hong Kong, for example, that buys the item from Taobao for you and then forwards it to your adress. But the ones I found charged enough that it took away the economic benefit compared to E-bay or AliExpress. On Ebay you have better buyer-protection as well.

author: sleemanj
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 14, 2016, 11:39:11 pm
content: Quote from: apelly on March 14, 2016, 06:54:13 pmFor me, I buy stuff *mostly* destined for resale locally. While I do buy a lot off aliexpress as well, about once a month I buy a box load of stuff from various taobao vendors.It means I get one properly packed box filled with a few hundred dollars worth ofjunkvaluable electronic components, via EMS rather than slow-boat, there's not usually much difference in price once the shipping and agent fees are accounted for, maybe a little cheaper on average.Compare that to getting 50 bags of loose stuff from various Aliexpress sellers, spread over a month or more, trying to keep track of what has arrived, what hasn't etc...That said, I'd say my monthly spend on stock is about 60% Taobao and 40% Aliexpress these days.

author: dannyf
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 15, 2016, 12:56:20 am
content: When buy from such a source, re careful of high cost of low prices.Otherwise, good luck.

author: uncle_bob
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 15, 2016, 01:00:55 am
content: Quote from: dannyf on March 15, 2016, 12:56:20 amHiIndeed, never "invest" more than you can afford to loose in this case. From what I've seen (so far) the chances on junk are no worse on eBay. The recovery process is a bit easier there.Bob

author: edavid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 15, 2016, 02:29:51 am
content: Quote from: uncle_bob on March 14, 2016, 07:15:14 pmHow do you search for surplus OCXOs? Entering "OCXO" only found new ones, not surplus.

author: edpalmer42
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 15, 2016, 03:03:42 am
content: I suspect that Chinese-only speakers sell on Taobao to Chinese-English speakers who sell on ebay after a suitable markup.edavid, try your search again. I searched for OCXO and got 59 pages of results. They were a mix of new and used with the used ones at the bottom of the price range.

author: coppice
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 15, 2016, 03:06:30 am
content: Quote from: edavid on March 15, 2016, 02:29:51 amYou really need to enter Chinese to get TaoBao to search in any reasonable way. Entering something in English might get you a couple of hits, where entering the same thing in Chinese will get you pages of hits. You could try using translate.google.com to cook up some Chinese phrases, and paste those into TaoBao's search box, but translations miss the mark more often than they hit it. Unfortunately, this forum won't accept Chinese characters, so I can't give you the relevant text for second hand, or used.I don't really understand how anyone can make good use of TaoBao unless they can read Chinese. It must be an endless string of frustrations.

author: coppice
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 15, 2016, 03:10:47 am
content: Quote from: edpalmer42 on March 15, 2016, 03:03:42 amIts mostly Chinese people selling to other Chinese people, with little thought about the world beyond China's borders. Some sellers target Chinese speakers in other countries, selling them things they might find hard to get locally, but that's a rather small activity.

author: sleemanj
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 15, 2016, 03:19:39 am
content: Quote from: coppice on March 15, 2016, 03:06:30 amI get by ok with Chrome set to auto-translate, particularly given the fact that many things in the electronics world have some "expected" characteristics it's not too hard to decipher even marginal translation.I love I can say that so casually, "set to auto-translate", we are living in the future.

author: edavid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 15, 2016, 04:11:20 am
content: Quote from: edpalmer42 on March 15, 2016, 03:03:42 amOK, here's my search results page:https://list.tmall.com/search_product.htm?spm=a220m.1000858.0.0.Zl67mF&q=ocxo&sort=p&style=g&from=mallfp..pc_1_searchbutton&active=2&tmhkmain=0&type=pcIt's sorted by price, and there are no used oscillators on the first page.What am I doing wrong?

author: sleemanj
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 15, 2016, 04:14:03 am
content: Quote from: edavid on March 15, 2016, 04:11:20 amSearch on taobao.comhttp://world.taobao.com/search/search.htm?_ksTS=1458015183730_52&spm=a21bp.7806943.20151106.1&_input_charset=utf-8&navigator=all&json=on&q=ocxo&callback=__jsonp_cb&cna=f2fOC8mjqTsCAcpOmxdPvQfS&abtest=_AB-LR517-LR854-LR895-PR517-PR854-PV895_2461

author: edavid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 15, 2016, 04:20:42 am
content: Quote from: sleemanj on March 15, 2016, 04:14:03 amWell, I tried, but when I used the search box at the top level taobao.com page, I somehow got redirected to tmall.com (in Chrome)However, if I start from that results page, I can search for other things without being redirected, so I guess that will work. Thanks.

author: coppice
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 15, 2016, 04:25:59 am
content: Quote from: edavid on March 15, 2016, 04:20:42 amTmall is where large sellers set up their own stores within the Taobao system, usually offering their full catalogue of products. Hence, almost everything there is new.

author: koalafan
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: May 05, 2016, 04:52:11 am
content: You can find the goods that you can not find at aliexprss or ebay..and some agent can collect the goods for you ,it help you save money to ship them together than you buy them at aliexpress one by one..

author: amyk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 07, 2016, 02:45:43 am
content: Quote from: sleemanj on March 15, 2016, 03:19:39 amWith enough exposure, you'll start learning bits of Chinese, and some of the words even start to make sense. For example, voltage is literally the two characters"electron" and "pressure", current is"electron" and "flow"(as in a river flow), and resistance is"electron" and "oppose". That "electron" character (it also means "electric", "electricity", and similar concepts) will probably be the first thing you recognise, it's like a little quad-grid with a tail coming out of it.

author: koalafan
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: May 28, 2016, 05:09:01 am
content: You always can find what you want at taobao...And the price wil cheaper than other places i have use cssbuy for 3 years

author: gamalot
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 29, 2016, 12:05:53 pm
content: I bought 2 TF-245 resistor networks on Taobao, the unit price of 70 RMB was a little bit expensive, but much better than nowhere to buy.That's the reason why we call it omnipotent Taobao in China.

author: eas
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 31, 2016, 06:21:03 am
content: Chiming in late, but I found that a lot of the specialized boards and gadgets on ebay and AliExpress, things like the AVR transistor tester clones, USB testers, and more interesting little modules originate from small builders that have their own TaoBao shops.I got pretty good at finding the shops by careful inspection of photos, google translate, google searches, and image searches. Having done so, I found even more stuff well before it showed up in listings on ebay. For example, I got some automated battery testers I found there by way of Franky long before they ever showed up on ebay, for less than they were selling on AliExpress (which didn't ship to my state at the time anyway).More recently, I've tracked down some interesting modules on TaoBao that aren't available on AliExpress or Ebay.

author: TheAmmoniacal
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 31, 2016, 06:36:03 am
content: Any non-Chinese speakers/readers been able to order stuff from Taobao? How? Which payment methods?

author: ebclr
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 31, 2016, 11:05:44 am
content: Very few Chinese can speak read or write English, Aliexpress is dedicated to international market, and normally the ones that have some little English can successful handle a store there. Taobao is design to be a local ( for chinese people ) and have a much broad range, since china electronic market is so big that many sellers simple does not care about westerns orders. This means taobao is much more abrangent than aliexpress, several aliexpress sellers, simple buy from taobao translate to english increase the price and sell on aliexpress, but to buy from taobao you need some china knowledge or friends to order from there

author: janekm
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 31, 2016, 11:15:41 am
content: Quote from: apelly on March 14, 2016, 07:12:04 pmActually, for what it's worth, "Shorts for fat dudes." falls into the category of things you'd be more likely to find on Aliexpress (items primarily manufactured for export, sucks to be fat/tall in China).

author: coppice
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 31, 2016, 11:49:41 am
content: Quote from: janekm on May 31, 2016, 11:15:41 amI never have problems finding sizes for tall fat dudes on TaoBao. Amongst 1.3B people there are a substantial number of tall and/or fat dudes. Enough to create a local, if specialist, market.

author: nowlan
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 31, 2016, 12:02:27 pm
content: Can I actually order direct via taobao? I saw some things, which came up with aud prices and estimated shipping?Or do I need to use a reshipper?

author: ebclr
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 31, 2016, 12:25:04 pm
content: You can order but not all sellers will ship internationally, only some.

author: janekm
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: June 01, 2016, 11:41:46 am
content: Quote from: nowlan on May 31, 2016, 12:02:27 pmTaobao have recently introduced their own re-shipping service to certain countries, maybe Australia is now amongst those so you may be in luck. They've also introduced payment with international credit cards recently...

author: coppice
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 01, 2016, 11:53:15 am
content: Quote from: janekm on June 01, 2016, 11:41:46 amThere is a drop down box at the top left of the window which lets you choose among a number of countries. Selecting one of those countries will make prices appear in the currency of that country. If you choose international (which is only written in Chinese) for the shipping destination, you can also choose one of those countries. I've never tried using these features, but they are present.

author: koalafan
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: November 17, 2016, 07:45:52 am
content: I always can find what i want at taobao ,and when i make an haul ,it will more cheaper than aliexpress.i use cssbuy as my taobao agent

author: cdaz1988
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: July 20, 2017, 11:00:19 am
content: So many reasons, its cheap, and its rich~i mean you can nearly find everything on taobao.

author: TheNewLab
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 22, 2017, 08:46:26 am
content: I know nothing of Taobao..I have noticed fewer choices more and more on ebay. and expansion of choice on Aliexpress...hummmm

author: all_repair
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 22, 2017, 10:04:35 am
content: I was avoiding Taobao and paying a premium for a misplaced trust of ebay/paypal "protection". Until I was cheated by a 99+% seller that know how to play the ebay system much better than typical user. My fear of taobao was somewhat unfounded, but that is because I have learned a lot and are able to argue with seller directly. Middleman seller can be a problem, usually they can't afford a negative review as that would severely affect their sale, so buyer normally get his way. But if the amount is large, some Taobao shop cannot take the loss, and Taobao would step in to compensate the buyer. So far only happen once to me. Taobao, its price and range you can't find anywhere else, especially obsolete electronics but these sellers are the worst on Taobao.

author: antonylex
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: August 05, 2017, 04:11:03 am
content: Taobao is usually cheaper, and Google Translate works just fine for most of the time.

author: Spikee
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 06, 2017, 04:06:28 am
content: Taoboa does not have everything. Sometimes I need to order on aliexpress or ebay to get the thing I need

author: Galenbo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 10, 2017, 06:57:39 am
content: There are some "services" you can order there, who are not available on other platforms, for some social justice political correct reason.https://www.hongkongfp.com/2017/08/09/video-chinas-taobao-vendors-sell-personalised-messages-african-children-amid-claims-racism/

author: Brumby
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 10, 2017, 07:20:05 am
content: I tried to find replacement LED strips for a TV - and Taobao was the only place I could find them online.I used a couple of translate applications to be able to work things out sufficiently to set up an account. I was also ready to try placing an order when the TV was scrapped - so I've never actually bought anything from there .... yet.