To be honest, Taobao sellers are quite honest. It all depends on your ability to carefully read and understand item description (which many Malaysians fail at. I mean, sometimes price already mentioned still comment "pm price", common in facebook )

I shall post the guide again, below. Maybe i should add it on the home page on this thread?

This post has been edited by EXkurogane: Jan 23 2018, 10:34 PM

Guide to buying figures on Taobao

Differentiating genuine and bootlegs. The sellers are quite honest about them, it's up to you to read and understand item description.



Certificate of Authenticity



Taobao seller ranking system



This post has been edited by EXkurogane: Jan 24 2018, 08:05 AM

The certificate is given by a famous forum website in china 78模型网, which is quite famous among gunpla builders. I rmb they do update those WF or gunpla event or expo photos in japan.

This post has been edited by swx999: Jan 24 2018, 01:44 AM

I see, thanks for the info.
I have my own ways of determining genuine vs bootleg, i even check the entire store to see their inventory (which means everything is more expensive when compared to prices you normally see on bootlegs), and i also compare prices to official MSRP in Japan. So far every seller with that certificate i come across definitely so genuine stuff, so i can confidently say that ppl can feel safe to buy from sellers such those certs.

Is is generally cheaper buying genuine figures from Taobao compared to Japanese sites (Amiami, Nippon Yassan etc)?

Shipping also cheaper if don't mind waiting?

for shipping part yes crazy cheap and lead time around 5 days to arrived.

Now this helps ALOT... now I got some reference as benchmark...

Cause... I cannot read chinese....

The exact answer is, it depends. From experience,
1. For new/unreleased figures, If you can get 20%+ discounts upon early preorder in Japan sites, I'd rather preorder in Japanese sites. In this case, even with a more expensive shipping rate, often Japan is still slightly cheaper but not by much.

2. For figures already released, there are 2 main factors to consider. If that figure fell into the bargain bin territory, it's cheaper to get from japan. If that figure's value has risen, China side is cheaper - if u put in effort finding you might find that rare/high value figure at MSRP release prices. This is especially true for xxx figures by Native, Skytube, Daiki Kougyou, Dragon Toy, etc. That's where u save a lot. However taobao sellers are not stupid, some of them are known to fry the prices of rare figures too.

3. Shipping from China is definitely cheaper. A lot cheaper. But do take volumetric calculation into account, if it gets too big you will still pay a lot. There are 3 main options for shipping.

- Combine & Courier: You may buy a few items from different sellers across the entire country, all sellers will ship it to a warehouse in Guangzhou. Once all items arrive at warehouse you can combine ship all items as one single parcel. You get to choose 4 couriers, what i remember is Skynet, Abx, Lazada, and i forgot what's the 4th one. Average 7-14 days arrival.

- By sea/ship. Cheapest, RM10 or so to ship 30kg but 1 month wait.

- Direct Postage. Most expensive option especially if u request seller for EMS, but might be the fastest. Seller ships directly to u, bypassing the warehouse step.

For combine and courier, after u add items to cart and checkout for payment, during checkout process itself they will ask u what shipment method do u want and what courier you want. There are 2 payments, the first payment is for the item + domestic shipping within China to warehouse (usually under 20 yuan, sometimes seller provides free shipping). After the first payment you keep track on tracking results.

Once all your items reach warehouse u can combine, where u pay the second time for international shipping straight to your doorstep. 1st kg is about 25 yuan, but can get very expensive if you don't keep the parcel size in check. Usually u can still get decent pricing for combining as much as 3 or 4 scale figures, but definitely a lot cheaper compared to the same shipment size from Japan. Even when I only buy one item i still prefer to go through this 2-step shipping method. Good price and decent speed. Of course, this method is more complex, so being able to read Chinese will help.

Once item has entered Malaysia site you can track it on Skynet or Abx's site depending which courier u chose. They don't pass through kastam most of the time, but I'd advise caution during festive periods if u wanna import xxx figures.

4. One last point, do not expect the parcel packing quality to be as good as Japan. Definitely not Amiami level of packing in terms of strength. Depending on seller there are chances you might receive the figure with a slightly dented box, damaged during shipping process. Im totally OK with this if i could find a rare or high risk figure (xxx stuff) at normal prices. But i would totally order new safe figures from Japan.

Fuhh, that's very helpful

Due to my abysmal Chinese, I think I will just stick to Japanese sites unless I want to go grail hunting haha.

Thanks for sharing!

1 thing good on taobao is u can get cheap price for those limited edition figure that got PO for it and that some is not available in amiami and other online japan website that dont have limited edition figure.

This post has been edited by squall_12: Jan 24 2018, 11:12 AM

Good to know! also definitely pin this in the first post as FAQ and the Guide u posted above as well it will definitely help others

Yes, i use taobao only for ecchi figures and hunting grail stuff, and, PRIZE FIGURES!
Those banpresto/Sega prizes to for an average RM55-65 each only. And because they are small and light in packaging you pay like only rm20-30 to ship a truckload of them. In Malaysia one prize figure also need rm90, 100 ady.

This post has been edited by EXkurogane: Jan 24 2018, 12:14 PM

Um... what do they call "Overlord" in Chinese? 正版? Trying my luck since my wife buys stuff from Taobao on regular basis...

Eh found it.... but looks like pre-order... no idea how it works.. google translate doesnth help

https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a230r....bucket=6#detail

This post has been edited by MeToo: Jan 24 2018, 12:30 PM

正版 means genuine. Yeah u can include that term into your search for a figure. figure ＝ 手办

Overlord in Chinese eh. It's a challenge in the aspect, to find Chinese names of some anime. Overlord is literally 霸王 in Chinese but this term is also in reference to certain street fighter characters, and that's also the name of the dinosaur T rex. You u might get irrelevant results sometimes.

For characters with certain Japanese names u can type in the 'Chinese part' of the Japanese name directly which can be partial or the entire full name. For example, Megumi Kato figure u can search 加藤恵 手办 directly.



This post has been edited by EXkurogane: Jan 24 2018, 12:35 PM

No wonder lots of dinosaur/grimlock came up

The problem with Chinese as a language, one single word or phrase can have multiple meanings. Sometimes the translation from English is also weird or doesn't make sense.

Later when I'm free I'll probably list figure company names in Chinese too. Not all figure companies have a Chinese name. For example Banpresto is 眼镜厂 in Chinese. Literally "Eyeglasses factory" maybe because the logo looks like eyeglasses (see? The problem with Chinese translations or names). This made it very easy for me to look for prize figures, for example.

This post has been edited by EXkurogane: Jan 24 2018, 12:39 PM

I used GOod Smile it works... quite a few seller put it in english... but then things get complicated when they list the price as 50 Yuan...

It does work but if you put Chinese name u will get even more search results.

Those pricing only 50 yuan are most likely preorders (预定). That's the deposit amount not final price. Final price should be in item description as u scroll down

This post has been edited by EXkurogane: Jan 24 2018, 12:42 PM

Got a good price here:
http://www.amiami.com/top/detail/detail?gc...0%24pagecnt%3D1

wow the prices sure have dropped. thanks guys!