Time stamps: 0:00 Intro 0:42 Why buy figures on Taobao? 1:50 Always use the smartphone app! 2:15 Topic breakdown 4:15 Signing up an account 5:30 Setting up your profile, address & payment 10:50 Different regional versions of Taobao 12:51 How to search for anime figures 18:41 Important keywords to know, and Identifying bootlegs 26:22 How to read an anime figure product page 31:13 Different regional versions of anime figures 33:30 Seller ranking & Experience 35:23: Purchasing an Anime Figure & Checkout 39:18: Shipping options 45:18 Automated messages from seller 47:43 Combined shipping & tracking 52:04 Cancelling an order & refunds 53:20 Useful features in your user profile 55:28 My advice on preordering & buying preowned items
34:34 The highest rank is not diamond, it is Heart > Diamond > Silver crown > Gold crown, and just a little add-on info, if the shop has gold medal near their store 35:05 name that mean the shop got high reliability. From my experience, 2-3 Diamonds is the minimum ranking you should look for, don't looking for lower than that (It does not mean they are bad, personally I judge from my experience about packaging and shipping speed, high rank shop usually got really good packaging and protection)
I designed this tutorial to help non-chinese speakers use taobao. There is even a mini chinese language course thrown in where there are words people can learn and memorize to help them read a product listing
Thank you so much, man! I ve wanted to buy from Taobao for a long while but never dared to because it seemed so unaccessible. Now I will look into it in details. Thanks again!
Thank you for such a helpful guide! I have been buying from taobao alot but theres still so much i could learn from this video. Thank you for including the ranking system too as i had no idea how the drown, dias and stars work.
Hello from Singapore. Didn't know that there were so many genuine anime figures on Taobao. Even though I am Chinese, I am ashamed as well that I can't navigate Taobao because of my bad Chinese. Thanks for the guide. It is very well made. Always watching your weekly figure news.
I remember buying from taobao once , messed up big time as I was young and had no knowledge about it and the delivery ethics. I wasted 30 dollars and had never shopped from it ever again.
Hey Steven, thankyou so much for the guide, it is very helpful. What is your thought of the store named "手办正版店" which you have bookmarked do you think they are legit?? I'm planning to try to purchase a figure there but found it a bit skeptical as they are selling almost half of the amount Bilibili official store is selling.
Some genuine figures do indeed go for that low in taobao. Your next step would be to go to their store, go for their best selling scales in terms of numbers sold and read the user feedback. If I'm not mistaken I've purchased from them once in the past. Some of the figures are very cheap because no one is buying them. It's more like a store that mostly sells stock clearance stuff, so don't expect to find highly popular figures there for a big discount.
Just to chip in, they are one of my regular seller (current logo is yellow with a pegasus head?). They renamed from 次元模玩 (their previous name and likely to be more well known) in the last one year for reasons I wasn't aware of but my subsequent purchases with them didn't encounter any issue.
What I do to search for character names in japanese and chinese is to search for the character on wikipedia and then change the language to japanese or chinese, another way to get the names and is very easy.
I noticed today they have google account registration.... seems way easier now. I kept having phone number not sending me security code, the google method worked for me at least. I asked some shop, looks like need to use own 代购shipping... hmm... That does makes me wonder if it worth it when compared to pre-ordering with local seller on Shopee for example. if they can ship straight to me then it's potentially saving a lot of money, but need 代购shipping might not really save much. Hmmmmmmmm....
This guide is very in-depth and helpful. But I wonder, what's the difference between pre-ordering on tao and Japanese websites? Wouldn't Japanese shops already have China-Japan shipping cost factored in the price, while tao operates on the domestic market?
Yes. There's not much benefit for preordering on Taobao, except for Chinese brand figures which might come with extra accessories or parts that are China exclusive, or you may get it earlier than the international release. Ideally taobao is for buying in stock figures.
I wasn't aware that are that many lol. Normally I'd lean towards the most downloaded one. Some people use the lite version if they are using a lower end smartphone because the app is quite resource-heavy when in use.
This is super useful - thanks Steven! But what about Google translate? I used that a lot when in Japan. Its not completely accurate but maybe can help by translating pages..
On desktop you certainly can use translate, but not in app. The UI of the desktop site is super cluttered that even i myself have trouble navigating it
Can you elaborate on the pre ordering part? Do they send you a link of a 'hidden' store listing in taobao for a full payment of the figure? Also does any of them ask you to transfer directly through WeChat's payment system?
I actually don't have much experience with preordering figures on Taobao (which is why i did not include preorders in detail in this video), except for about 2 or 3 stores. And each store is different. For Genshin official store, i just stalk their store (I remember the release month of the figure by saving it in MFC), but for most other figure stores they like to use WeChat to inform you for payment. They sent me a link, but usually i go to their shop in the app and search for the remainder payment listing - by searching the figure's name (just in case, to avoid being phished in case that was a fake message). I never had to use WeChat pay - there is always a Remainder Payment product listing in their store where you add to cart and check out as usual within Taobao.
Does anyone here have problems receiving the verification SMS when registering for Taobao? I'm just not getting any and I'm afraid my number might be blacklisted if I retry too often.
Same with me, but you can still use ali pay(first option). So you have to create a Ali Pay account, which is a pain in the ass but doable😅. Thats how it works for me.
Will there be a separate shipment fee when the parcel arrives at your doorstep? Because when I press buy I had roughly 30 dollar shipping fee included in the full payment to be paid through taobao, but the seller told me that shipment see is paid separately offline to the courier so Im unsure if I have to pay twice for shipping or is it that the taobao shipment fee is enough?
@@hightrogen6233 it depends on whether you chose direct or consolidated shipping. If it is direct you pay the full amount including international shipping. If consolidated, the (lower) shipping fee you pay is for the domestic shipping within China. Until it arrives at the warehouse where you'll get notifications. You'll have to manually combine your purchases, and then pay a second round of international shipping cost. All of it is done within the Taobao app.
@@EXkuroganeAh so direct is if I buy individually and consolidated is for multiple figs? Also is it recommended to go for shipping or air transport because shipping is half the cost but I fear if its more damaging since Im trying to import a large figure...
@@hightrogen6233 yes correct. Consolidated is for multiple purchases from multiple different sellers. If you bought multiple figures from one single seller it's okay to use direct. Or, You can just opt for direct for everything, just that you will receive multiple parcels, arriving at different times. It simply means every purchase from each seller will be shipped on its own. With shipping it's the usual - whether you choose speed or cost. Sea freight is about half the cost of Air but takes much longer to arrive. And pray that the ship carrying your parcel doesn't get bombed or hijacked at the Suez Canal (if you live in the west) given how there are geopolitical tensions over there.
@@EXkurogane alright, will try ordering one by shipping now and wait for it to come, how long do you usually wait for one of these? I live in SEA as well so I could possibly expect around the same timing 😄
Hello, any way to search for legit resin figurines? I speak chinese and realised quite some resin figurine studios are from China so was wondering if theres a way to find the legit ones
There are very few legit resin figure brands, i think i can count them with only both of my hands. The ones that immediately come to mind are Tsume, Starexva Studio, Prime 1 studio, Figurama, and a few others. And most of them make figures of very mainstream stuff like shonen characters (Dragon ball, Bleach, Naruto etc) or maybe Nier automata. If you are looking for legit resin figurines of Genshin, Honkai, Azur Lane, FGO, anime characters for example, they don't exist.
@@EXkurogane So One Piece resin figures should exist right? Though im not so sure if they will be any cheaper than other sites 😅 thanks for the reply as well
@@hightrogen6233 with one piece i think Tsume is known for them but they are extremely rare and expensive. And i haven't heard of any news from them for a long time.
@@EXkuroganealright thanks for the info! Also I heard from some who bought from brain hole studio and managed to actually get the real one so I'm thinking of trying one. Risky tho 😅
Mine is not the lite one. Is that user verification stage? I've never experienced that before. Sounds like the same thing you do when you register for Grab or TnG for example. My account real identity is unverified after all these years. Never bothered to do it.
@@EXkurogane it was after put phone number it require me to put IC/Passport and it didnt give global option other than Hong Kong, Mainland China & Taiwan. After that I already give up to register
@@Xtonishing well, the features are probably locked until you submit. no harm submitting your ID if you really want to use taobao. If you follow the instructions you'll be fine. It's the same as signing up for touch n go wallet here were we submit ID and even pictures for identity verification.
@@EXkurogane for our local app i dont mind cuz I use a lot but Taobao I just use as check figure price as if i wanna buy Im using my friend as proxy since he doing figure business
You can find them. The problem is whether you know the correct keywords to find it, and sellers can't show the pictures so often you get a pic of the face only.
Time stamps:
0:00 Intro
0:42 Why buy figures on Taobao?
1:50 Always use the smartphone app!
2:15 Topic breakdown
4:15 Signing up an account
5:30 Setting up your profile, address & payment
10:50 Different regional versions of Taobao
12:51 How to search for anime figures
18:41 Important keywords to know, and Identifying bootlegs
26:22 How to read an anime figure product page
31:13 Different regional versions of anime figures
33:30 Seller ranking & Experience
35:23: Purchasing an Anime Figure & Checkout
39:18: Shipping options
45:18 Automated messages from seller
47:43 Combined shipping & tracking
52:04 Cancelling an order & refunds
53:20 Useful features in your user profile
55:28 My advice on preordering & buying preowned items
17:21 Oh wow, that’s amazing, all you need to do is take a picture of it, that’s so cool.
34:34 The highest rank is not diamond, it is Heart > Diamond > Silver crown > Gold crown, and just a little add-on info, if the shop has gold medal near their store 35:05 name that mean the shop got high reliability. From my experience, 2-3 Diamonds is the minimum ranking you should look for, don't looking for lower than that (It does not mean they are bad, personally I judge from my experience about packaging and shipping speed, high rank shop usually got really good packaging and protection)
Thanks for the correction! After using for so many years there are still stuff to learn
Bro, you're GOATED for doing this! I love your reviews. Much love from Mexico!
I already do buy on Taobao but it would be nice to direct people to a recent guide.
I designed this tutorial to help non-chinese speakers use taobao. There is even a mini chinese language course thrown in where there are words people can learn and memorize to help them read a product listing
Thank you so much, man! I ve wanted to buy from Taobao for a long while but never dared to because it seemed so unaccessible. Now I will look into it in details. Thanks again!
Thank you for such a helpful guide! I have been buying from taobao alot but theres still so much i could learn from this video.
Thank you for including the ranking system too as i had no idea how the drown, dias and stars work.
This is really helpful, I usually only buy from AmiAmi, Solaris & Animota.
Hello from Singapore. Didn't know that there were so many genuine anime figures on Taobao. Even though I am Chinese, I am ashamed as well that I can't navigate Taobao because of my bad Chinese. Thanks for the guide. It is very well made. Always watching your weekly figure news.
Just what I'm looking for. Great content
Thanks for the content. Good stuff.
I remember buying from taobao once , messed up big time as I was young and had no knowledge about it and the delivery ethics. I wasted 30 dollars and had never shopped from it ever again.
Correct me if im wrong but i believe 粗版 is another term used for bootleg versions.
damnit i bought an morgan le fay caster resin figure at taobao it's 80$ cheaper. Very usefull information for the future thank you for the guide,
Hey Steven, thankyou so much for the guide, it is very helpful. What is your thought of the store named "手办正版店" which you have bookmarked do you think they are legit?? I'm planning to try to purchase a figure there but found it a bit skeptical as they are selling almost half of the amount Bilibili official store is selling.
Some genuine figures do indeed go for that low in taobao. Your next step would be to go to their store, go for their best selling scales in terms of numbers sold and read the user feedback. If I'm not mistaken I've purchased from them once in the past.
Some of the figures are very cheap because no one is buying them. It's more like a store that mostly sells stock clearance stuff, so don't expect to find highly popular figures there for a big discount.
Just to chip in, they are one of my regular seller (current logo is yellow with a pegasus head?). They renamed from 次元模玩 (their previous name and likely to be more well known) in the last one year for reasons I wasn't aware of but my subsequent purchases with them didn't encounter any issue.
What I do to search for character names in japanese and chinese is to search for the character on wikipedia and then change the language to japanese or chinese, another way to get the names and is very easy.
I noticed today they have google account registration.... seems way easier now. I kept having phone number not sending me security code, the google method worked for me at least.
I asked some shop, looks like need to use own 代购shipping... hmm... That does makes me wonder if it worth it when compared to pre-ordering with local seller on Shopee for example.
if they can ship straight to me then it's potentially saving a lot of money, but need 代购shipping might not really save much. Hmmmmmmmm....
This guide is very in-depth and helpful. But I wonder, what's the difference between pre-ordering on tao and Japanese websites? Wouldn't Japanese shops already have China-Japan shipping cost factored in the price, while tao operates on the domestic market?
Yes. There's not much benefit for preordering on Taobao, except for Chinese brand figures which might come with extra accessories or parts that are China exclusive, or you may get it earlier than the international release. Ideally taobao is for buying in stock figures.
I whish you would havbe told us which taobao app is the right one there IS LIKE 50 on the app store
I wasn't aware that are that many lol. Normally I'd lean towards the most downloaded one. Some people use the lite version if they are using a lower end smartphone because the app is quite resource-heavy when in use.
38:06 Ahh hahaha that was hilarious.
iloveloli street nice
This is super useful - thanks Steven! But what about Google translate? I used that a lot when in Japan. Its not completely accurate but maybe can help by translating pages..
On desktop you certainly can use translate, but not in app. The UI of the desktop site is super cluttered that even i myself have trouble navigating it
Can you elaborate on the pre ordering part?
Do they send you a link of a 'hidden' store listing in taobao for a full payment of the figure?
Also does any of them ask you to transfer directly through WeChat's payment system?
I actually don't have much experience with preordering figures on Taobao (which is why i did not include preorders in detail in this video), except for about 2 or 3 stores. And each store is different.
For Genshin official store, i just stalk their store (I remember the release month of the figure by saving it in MFC), but for most other figure stores they like to use WeChat to inform you for payment.
They sent me a link, but usually i go to their shop in the app and search for the remainder payment listing - by searching the figure's name (just in case, to avoid being phished in case that was a fake message). I never had to use WeChat pay - there is always a Remainder Payment product listing in their store where you add to cart and check out as usual within Taobao.
@@EXkurogane I see, thank you so much for the reply!
Does anyone here have problems receiving the verification SMS when registering for Taobao? I'm just not getting any and I'm afraid my number might be blacklisted if I retry too often.
Thanks for your guidance, but the adventure was over for me at 8:52 when I had only the first 2 options. I am from Germany, maybe I am too far away...
Same with me, but you can still use ali pay(first option). So you have to create a Ali Pay account, which is a pain in the ass but doable😅. Thats how it works for me.
Will there be a separate shipment fee when the parcel arrives at your doorstep? Because when I press buy I had roughly 30 dollar shipping fee included in the full payment to be paid through taobao, but the seller told me that shipment see is paid separately offline to the courier so Im unsure if I have to pay twice for shipping or is it that the taobao shipment fee is enough?
@@hightrogen6233 it depends on whether you chose direct or consolidated shipping. If it is direct you pay the full amount including international shipping. If consolidated, the (lower) shipping fee you pay is for the domestic shipping within China. Until it arrives at the warehouse where you'll get notifications. You'll have to manually combine your purchases, and then pay a second round of international shipping cost. All of it is done within the Taobao app.
@@EXkuroganeAh so direct is if I buy individually and consolidated is for multiple figs? Also is it recommended to go for shipping or air transport because shipping is half the cost but I fear if its more damaging since Im trying to import a large figure...
@@hightrogen6233 yes correct. Consolidated is for multiple purchases from multiple different sellers. If you bought multiple figures from one single seller it's okay to use direct.
Or, You can just opt for direct for everything, just that you will receive multiple parcels, arriving at different times. It simply means every purchase from each seller will be shipped on its own.
With shipping it's the usual - whether you choose speed or cost. Sea freight is about half the cost of Air but takes much longer to arrive. And pray that the ship carrying your parcel doesn't get bombed or hijacked at the Suez Canal (if you live in the west) given how there are geopolitical tensions over there.
@@EXkurogane alright, will try ordering one by shipping now and wait for it to come, how long do you usually wait for one of these? I live in SEA as well so I could possibly expect around the same timing 😄
haha your username is so cute...
Is it safe to press "order received" to release money to the seller for deposit for pre order?
You have to, or the preorder wouldn't be confirmed.
@@EXkurogane ah ok, then the shipping fee later on will be paid through taobao or somewhere else?
@@hightrogen6233 usually the seller will create a new product listing where u pay the remainder amount. During checkout you'll pay the shipping too
@@EXkurogane oh okay thanks, hope it is safe to do so 😅
Hello, any way to search for legit resin figurines? I speak chinese and realised quite some resin figurine studios are from China so was wondering if theres a way to find the legit ones
There are very few legit resin figure brands, i think i can count them with only both of my hands. The ones that immediately come to mind are Tsume, Starexva Studio, Prime 1 studio, Figurama, and a few others. And most of them make figures of very mainstream stuff like shonen characters (Dragon ball, Bleach, Naruto etc) or maybe Nier automata. If you are looking for legit resin figurines of Genshin, Honkai, Azur Lane, FGO, anime characters for example, they don't exist.
@@EXkurogane So One Piece resin figures should exist right? Though im not so sure if they will be any cheaper than other sites 😅 thanks for the reply as well
@@hightrogen6233 with one piece i think Tsume is known for them but they are extremely rare and expensive. And i haven't heard of any news from them for a long time.
@@EXkuroganealright thanks for the info! Also I heard from some who bought from brain hole studio and managed to actually get the real one so I'm thinking of trying one. Risky tho 😅
Can you recommend any proxy shipper in China?
Which Taobao app? I using Lite version and recently it require me to fill IC/Passport
Mine is not the lite one. Is that user verification stage? I've never experienced that before. Sounds like the same thing you do when you register for Grab or TnG for example. My account real identity is unverified after all these years. Never bothered to do it.
@@EXkurogane it was after put phone number it require me to put IC/Passport and it didnt give global option other than Hong Kong, Mainland China & Taiwan. After that I already give up to register
@@Xtonishing well, the features are probably locked until you submit. no harm submitting your ID if you really want to use taobao. If you follow the instructions you'll be fine. It's the same as signing up for touch n go wallet here were we submit ID and even pictures for identity verification.
@@EXkurogane for our local app i dont mind cuz I use a lot but Taobao I just use as check figure price as if i wanna buy Im using my friend as proxy since he doing figure business
Most Hadaka figures are unavailable in Taobao?
No, thank you.
They are available but the seller cannot post the picture of the figure on the listing, which is why the photo search method doesn't usually work.
You can find them. The problem is whether you know the correct keywords to find it, and sellers can't show the pictures so often you get a pic of the face only.