Yes, I did preorder TE prime and the total is 550 yuan compared to probably 580-600 yuan in stock price. I think the saving is insignificant, especially when you take the coupon for in-stock item into discount. That's why I am hesitant to preorder TE mirage.

 

Gotcha. Also TB now charges USA sales tax unless you use an agent for the forwarding. The sales tax erodes what little savings there was even further.
I might PO TE Mirage through ShowZ like I did TE Prime. If not ShowZ then Baba. Neither of them charges sales tax.

 

Yes, I think I most likely won't buy any non-FT product individually on Taobao in the near future.

 

To a lesser extent, the only non-FT products I usually preorder/but from TB are XTB/KFC products.

Sorry to hear that. I think you should again with SB to see if you can have your account with them reinstated.
Also @Hawkwave has been using SB for his entire order process from preorder, to discounted balance payment, to shipping. You may want to speak with him on how he does it. In fact his most recent order is being delivered tomorrow.
In any case, I'd recommend using SB just for the forwarding part in order to save money.

Thanks for this list. I'll use it as a cross-reference to see which FT items I still need to preorder.

 

SB did get back to me. Said they want all the money back they lost in the dispute before they unlock my account or let me completely close and delete my account. So buyer beware, I suppose, that if you ever dispute something with them and win, you're screwed for the future. This happen in 2018, so they remember.

I endeded up getting my Iceman preorder from Thor Toys and paid the sales tax and TB official shipping. Cost probably $40 (have to pull out my notes). I'll look into other forwarding agents. If anyone has any recommendations, I'd gladdly take them.

 

I've taken a look and I'm not too bothered by the air cost for my current orders.
All up, Ice Man and Sheridan are costing me a grand total of AU$246 (Iceman 30 yuan deposit plus 510, Sheridan 30 deposit plus 380 + 264 shipping = 1214 yuan plus sundry CC charges)
ShowZ would cost me AU$375 (Iceman US$140, Sheridan US$100 + US$20 shipping = US$260 plus sundry CC charges)

Its 264 yuan to for official Air Freight for the two of them to Aust. Show.Z is charging AU$16 each for shipping. It's definitely pricier than it used to be but certainly nothing to break the bank.
I'll probably choose sea shipping for Unicron of course!!

 

It's great that both of them added to under 2 kg.

For me, Iceman was 1.4 kg and Sheridan was 0.7 kg.

It's 264 yuan (A$53.50) vs 84 yuan (A$17) for shipping. It's good the higher cost doesn't deter you.  

 

I see. Maybe it's a good idea to get the shipping parcel insurance that SB offers.

 

@hoptimusprime
@solskjaer
@Starganderfish
@nhyone

I just paid the preorder balance for FT Sheridan from Darkmount/Black Night Play. They'll ship it out to the SB warehouse in a few hours.
You may want to check with your sellers on your Sheridan preorders if you haven't already.

 

only little bee prince and thor toy,i always buy from them,very good

 

So from June 5th (2 days from now) for USA customers: 90 yuan for first 0.5kg and 48 yuan for every 0.5kg after. This translates to 138 yuan for the first 1kg and 48yuan for each 0.5kg therafter.
The rate at this moment is 99 yuan for first 0.5kg and 66 yuan every 0.5kg after (165 yuan for the first 1kg and 66 yuan for each 0.5kg thereafter).

However before the pandemic shipping cost hike, for USA customers it was
83 yuan for the first 1kg and and 22 yaun for each 0.5kg after.

So basically the official Taobao forwarding warehouse are dropping their shipping rates by just a bit but starting June 5 but not low enough to pre-pandemic shipping costs. Hopefully this will be lowered even further before the end of summer.
It wouldn't be so bad except for the fact that USA customers also must now pay USA sales tax if we use the offical Taobao warehouse.

 

Yeah. It's more expensive, but still well below the cost of any other source. And I've already been waiting weeks for these to arrive, don't want to wait another 4-6 weeks!! I accidentally sent a bunch of stuff via ship late last year and I've had to ship some 3D printing resins by ship as well (they won't ship them by air) and the crazy long shipping and terrible tracking is just too frustrating for me.

 

Which sellers do you use? Both price of Iceman and Sheridan are in the low end.

 

Have an issue:

Order 3 item from Boutique toy model shop - 精品玩具模型店铺, total 195 Yuan.

After using his shop coupons, Taobao promo codes, and cross shop sale, it was 166 Yuan.

After the order, Seller messaged me to top up 29 Yuan, to bring it back to the original value of 195 Yuan. His reason is that the 3 items I ordered already had discounted prices, so I can't use any sort of coupon, code, etc. to lower the price further.

These 3 items are not deposits, they are full-priced items, albeit lowered as it was a sale period.

Never encountered anything like that before. I have bought from other sellers who also lower their prices during a sale, and I've managed to use further discounts on those with no issues.

Gonna check with Taobao CSO once their English service starts, but has anyone encountered this before?


Only thing is that 2 of the items I ordered are to be used for the substitution method, i.e. to buy 2 other items instead that I can't check out. While that is not the cause of the main issue, I'm afraid it could become an issue if the seller wants to make it one.

And just to be clear, I did inform him before I ordered that I will be using the substitution method, and I even told him which items I will be using and which items I wanted instead. And he agreed.

Now, if I don't top up the 29 Yuan, and if let's say he is forced to carry out the sale, he can very well send me what I ordered instead of what I wanted. That is what I have been fearing all along.

So I feel like the sale might not work out well for me if he doesn't get his way.

 

Was it indicated in the listing? Some sellers are lazy to program their rules properly (a hassle, I imagine).

I have seen sellers who stated the item does not qualify for additional discount -- although you can apply coupons. I imagine they will ask you to top-up or cancel.

He doesn't have to ship anything. He can just leave it hanging until you give up and cancel it.  

 

Superbuy order arrrived this morning.


Fun time after work today.

 

pls send me the links of this shop

 

Where is it usually listed on the page? I don't see anything that says coupons can't be used.

The only thing I see is "出售状态: 预售" on the product details section of 1 of the items, if that even means anything.

Here are the 2 items. See if you can spot something I can't. Not a lot of details anyway:

https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1z0d.6639537.1997196601.336.5b5774845d3QDK&id=575740441582

https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1z0d.6639537.1997196601.346.5b5774845d3QDK&id=573339913743

I need to ask the CSO if I cancel the sale, whether it will affect the discounts on my other items, as I had to hit 500 Yuan total to qualify for the cross shop discount as well as a coupon code.

 

Nothing on the page. It looks like he lowered his prices for this promo. He didn't remove his store coupons?

Maybe he isn't expecting the cross-shop promo. From what I remember, it comes out of the seller's pocket as well...

 

Nice. Do you have the links for those items?