Hello, first time poster in this particular subforum.

I overheard my young relatives discussing about purchasing figmas and figurines (bootleg and otherwise). One of them is based in China and said the bootlegs are very close to the originals for a fraction of the price and he had amassed quite a collection.

This is not about ori vs bootlegs though, but someone suddenly asked "Well, how are you going to bring them back? Bootleg or not, you will be taxed, right?"

The look on his face made us laugh, but that raises a serious question.

Will you get taxed in Malaysia if you bring back your toys and figures, if you carefully repack them into their boxes?

o.O even with that price?! is that the power of LLer?

I shouldn't have looked, now I feel I'm falling into a pit. It's like I've discovered a whole new world... An expensive world.

Even bootleg stuff is pricey though (relatively). I see Figmas for USD15-25 on AliExpress and the negative reviews can be really negative. Perhaps the price is actually even lower, but jacked to secret include shipping (they advertise as Free Shipping). Otherwise how do they earn a profit...

Maybe it's because I don't understand the production process, but I find it difficult to see how the pricing is made for these toys (whether original or bootleg). From pictures, the Play Arts figures look nice but they seem to be double or triple the price I'm willing to pay for. Then again, maybe it's because I've never seen or held one yet, and in my mind I still see them as "toys" instead of "works of art".

How reasonable are the prices in AliExpress when making comparisons (taking account of shipping, which AliExpress claims to be free)? Are their quoted prices (examples to show price variance): figmas USD15 (Kirito)- 25 (Gilgamesh), Play Arts USD38 (Deadpool), Sephiroth (USD50) reasonable for being bootlegs?

Edit: I'm not trying to promote bootlegs, just curious after having my interest sparked. I'm the type that gets overly obsessive about knowing stuff once I'm interested. I've made other purchases from AliExpress (after being annoyed with Lazada, and since the same stuff is also shipped from overseas and same pricing...) and curious about the wide range of anime-related goods/toys often promoted there. Recently I was intrigued by an Android-powered console emulator but begged off once I realize it would be subject to import tax.

Your description about Taobao charges is accurate. I actually have a singular experience with Taobao, I bought the Transformers Matrix of Leadership via ezBuy. Unfortunately the item arrived without its stand, but ezBuy managed to negotiate a 1/3 refund for me. Everything else worked very well though, and I managed to light many a darkest hour.

But the entire experience made me feel completely helpless as I am entirely dependent on ezBuy to conduct the transaction and negotiations after I have made my order.
Ah, I think you have confused AliExpress with Alibaba. Aliexpress is for b2c (business to consumer) and they are willing to sell and ship in single units.

The reason I ask about bootleg prices is because they list figmas (USD13-25) and play arts (USD50~) at the prices I mentioned previously and often say "free shipping"; I'm not sure the 'free shipping' is really free or they simply calculated the cost into the product's price.

Alibaba is the b2b (business to business) version and often they would ask for a minimum order of 1000, though there are some who would put sell one unit, and usually at the same pricing and terms as AliExpress. Unfortunately the single units offered are often the same products already advertised in AliExpress, and usually the ones unavailable in AliExpress are the ones that require the said 1000 minimum order from Alibaba.

More on AlieExpress (not anime goods specific):

I moved to AliExpress if the thing I want to buy from Lazada is listed as "shipped from overseas", because that is usually where they got it from anyway lol. The pricing is about the same but AliExpress has a much more intuitive and robust customer protection system. In Lazada I can't even message the seller directly, and in the Q&A section you're not even allowed to put in a sequence of numbers (eg, your order number) to ask the seller for a follow up because the Lazada website thinks you're putting your phone number and 'helpfully' prevents you from posting it.

AliExpress is a middleman and very powerful one at that, they will only release money to the seller after the buyer has acknowledged receipt. Even after that, you can still put in a dispute and get your money back. I had a case of fraud: the seller gave a fake tracking ID and I put in a dispute. Even though at first glance someone might say "according to courier tracking, someone received the goods", I managed to convince AliExpress that it wasn't me (with help from PosLaju) and got my money back. The seller got his store erased from AliExpress.

I'm going to buy a bootleg figma as a test, I'll let you guys know how it goes in 3 weeks.

Wow! She got pushed to December. T.T

anyone want to preorder anastasia? thinking of doing combine shipping

http://www.amiami.com/top/detail/detail?gc...033594&page=top

nice... although me thinks the primary light source should be from above? the berries shadow cast on the dress suggests that the primary lightsource is coming from the left of the camera?

I hold the opposite opinion I think that the lighting should be more dim as heaven feel is actually a pretty sad arc (if I din remember wrongly)

don't get me wrong. exkurogane... i understand where you're coming from and it is indeed an awesome setup/photo. it's the berry shadow upon the skirt that gives the impression that the strongest light source is coming from somewhere to the left of the camera. would've been perfect without that shadow cast. then again, i'm no expert 

Great photo. The figure look pretty impressive, even it was prize figure.

It's been a while I'm visiting this thread.
Anyway, the pre-order figure began to killing my passion on this hobby. The sudden delay & wait really makes me think again to place my order.
Maybe I just wait & just buy at the time it will release, even it will be a bit expansive.

And none of new figure really attract me to buy them.

Actually maybe kena tahan already... the tracking status change to "Item en route to" half hour ago. I do hope it's actually en route to local poslaju depot instead of en route to Kastam storage.

Anyone bought the previous version jibril? Would like to know the roughly shipping cost.

http://www.amiami.com/top/detail/detail?gc...036430&page=top

Sweet. Gonna check nippon yasan rate then decide whr to Po.

Thanks bro

nippon yasan EMS 3800 yen  ... but figure is 1000 yen ++ cheaper

man this kahotan throwing poison on me really makes me feel like buying the Jeanne d' Arc figurine 

the only problem i see now is the release date is next year February