Best Taobao Agent

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wave_code
Posts: 575
Joined: Wed Nov 21, 2018 2:10 pm
Location: Germany

Wed Aug 11, 2021 5:03 pm

Superbuy looks interesting, I might give it a try. One thing I noticed right away about it that other taobao cart sites also have is the issue around seller stores, but maybe this changes once you have an account? That if you find an item, and then you would want to see what else that vendor has it either doesn't want to load or it will link to their taobao site, so if you see something else you want from them you still have to then re-find that item on superbuy/whatever other cart site. Not particularly convenient.

I was trying out Pandaboo for a minute, but aside from the vendor sites almost never loading (some sort of connection issue to Taobao from what I understand), I wanted to make a small order for the first time to try it out and the shipping was way overpriced. I was just gonna get a little 100g CNNP box to test out the whole process, and I don't know if its because this was earlier in COVID time before shipping seemed to have smoothed back out a bit or how it always is, perhaps its the shipping/export issue outlined above, but it was like $30 shipping because supposedly the tea could only be shipped via one specific carrier which was much more costly. Or at least at the time that I tried making that trial order, I don't know if its always that way since I haven't tried again since.
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chadao
Posts: 32
Joined: Sun Jan 17, 2021 8:23 pm
Location: Vancouver, Canada

Wed Aug 11, 2021 5:06 pm

Balthazar wrote:
Wed Aug 11, 2021 1:54 pm
chadao wrote:
Wed Aug 11, 2021 11:43 am
- For anything involving tea, Superbuy will only permit EMS shipping (not always a problem, but sometimes you don't want to pay so much and are okay with writing)
Is this a recent or location specific thing? I've had two packages from Superbuy shipped with SAL and one with EUB/Youbao earlier this year (last one shipped in May). One contained only tea, the other two a mixture of tea and other goods.
It *may* be location specific. Every time they received tea for me, only EMS and EMS-equivalent options were available. I think EUB may have been...
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chadao
Posts: 32
Joined: Sun Jan 17, 2021 8:23 pm
Location: Vancouver, Canada

Wed Aug 11, 2021 5:07 pm

wave_code wrote:
Wed Aug 11, 2021 5:03 pm
Superbuy looks interesting, I might give it a try. One thing I noticed right away about it that other taobao cart sites also have is the issue around seller stores, but maybe this changes once you have an account? That if you find an item, and then you would want to see what else that vendor has it either doesn't want to load or it will link to their taobao site, so if you see something else you want from them you still have to then re-find that item on superbuy/whatever other cart site. Not particularly convenient.

I was trying out Pandaboo for a minute, but aside from the vendor sites almost never loading (some sort of connection issue to Taobao from what I understand), I wanted to make a small order for the first time to try it out and the shipping was way overpriced. I was just gonna get a little 100g CNNP box to test out the whole process, and I don't know if its because this was earlier in COVID time before shipping seemed to have smoothed back out a bit or how it always is, perhaps its the shipping/export issue outlined above, but it was like $30 shipping because supposedly the tea could only be shipped via one specific carrier which was much more costly. Or at least at the time that I tried making that trial order, I don't know if its always that way since I haven't tried again since.
They want you to use *their* search system and not always find products on your own. Some more conspiracy-minded people say this helps them channel business to preferred vendors, but I've seen no evidence of this.
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Balthazar
Posts: 706
Joined: Mon Apr 02, 2018 7:04 am
Location: Oslo, Norway

Thu Aug 12, 2021 2:39 am

wave_code wrote:
Wed Aug 11, 2021 5:03 pm
Superbuy looks interesting, I might give it a try. One thing I noticed right away about it that other taobao cart sites also have is the issue around seller stores, but maybe this changes once you have an account? That if you find an item, and then you would want to see what else that vendor has it either doesn't want to load or it will link to their taobao site, so if you see something else you want from them you still have to then re-find that item on superbuy/whatever other cart site. Not particularly convenient.
One thing you could try is to use the translate function of Google Chrome and browse Taobao directly, instead of searching for stuff through Superbuy. I haven't tried so myself (don't use Chrome), but imagine it should work. You'll still need to do your actual searches in Chinese though, but for most tea related stuff it shouldn't be too hard to find the right characters (e.g. brand name followed by year if we're talking big factory stuff).

Regarding shipping, the "entry price" for all agents is pretty high in my experience. So not good prices (compared to the reference list for EMS, SAL etc) for <1-2 kg.
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wave_code
Posts: 575
Joined: Wed Nov 21, 2018 2:10 pm
Location: Germany

Wed Nov 24, 2021 3:33 am

looking outside of Taobao, anyone have experience with or can recommend proxy buyers for Hong Kong? I can find a few and some package forwarders too, but curious if anyone has any first hand experience with any of them. I also haven't found anyone covering Malaysia - just going in the other direction of shipping from China or international TO Malaysia rather than the other way around.
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wave_code
Posts: 575
Joined: Wed Nov 21, 2018 2:10 pm
Location: Germany

Tue Aug 29, 2023 1:24 pm

Still looking for a good proxy buyer for HK. Superbuy does cover HK, but they only have two shipping lines at the moment and the rates are awful. One was 60 euros, the other 80, to ship a single cup!
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aet
Vendor
Posts: 409
Joined: Tue Feb 06, 2018 7:56 pm
Location: Kunming ( China )

Tue Aug 29, 2023 11:43 pm

Ive just tried out of the curiousity

Total for items: 9.88 USD
Items price: 12.90 RMB
Domestic shipping: 15.00 RMB
Subtotal: 27.90 RMB
Commission: 35.00 RMB
Total: 62.90 RMB
Total in USD: 9.88 USD

they can't give even estimated shipping to the actual destination country. Like don't get me wrong , but I can get such a cake for 13 RMB here in KM and add 15 RMB as my local shipping ( Me , riding my ebike to the market ) and comission 35 RMB ( for my packing work ) ...I'll be happy to do that D and can tell you a shipping fee to your country same time before you even decide to buy so.

I wonder if fees go higher with more expencive and comlicated stuff like big glass pitcher with tong of puerh in one box ;-)
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