385 is a good price. I paid 399 and PO'ed halfway through last year. No chance in going early with anything else now unless FT announce something new. And with FT's new practices I think they're limiting pre orders so probably will be fewer of them, harder to come by, and more aligned pricing. That's just my theory though. All so FT can drive up the perception that they're premium and can charge more

 

~400 yuan is the real PO price. I went in very late. I didn't plan to get Hunk but changed my mind recently -- blame the lockdown.  

PO had long closed for most sellers except for a handful, like Rabbit. (He closed it 1-2 days after I put in my order.)

The MSRP seems to be 500 yuan. Rabbit is giving me a slight discount from that, so it's not the real PO price -- I have missed the cutoff for it. To be fair, he allows me to cancel it.

So, the lesson here is, some sellers keep the PO open for very long, but it is coming out of their regular stock.

 

did he say what you need? I usually typed ok and it goes through

 

Just ask them on the online help. It does not happen often, so without seeing it I can't remember.

 

this is the message that I’ve been getting.

 

On your order there should be a yellow contact button on the right side. Click it and tell them you want to confirm your order. Do not know why your getting that error.

Also if its after 8pm CST if you click the headphones and then click oniline support you will get help almost immediately.

 

I'll try that. Thanks

 

I think the lesson here as chrome has said b4..... do ur po asap for ft items.... limited to 1 as I knw of now in tb

 

gona po contructicons from ft even the slight hint that it is out ….. even if its out in 2025

 

I actually was able to confirm it on my work computer. The computer didn't auto-translate which I've had problems adding items to the cart on TaoBao when it is in English. That could have been the problem.

 

That's provided you either like the character or you are a completionist.

I didn't intend to get Hunk cos I didn't think he looked good enough. I forgot all about it during the lockdown, especially his backpack.

When Rabbit offered me the chance to cancel it, I was thinking if I should take it. In the end I didn't, but I don't know if that's the correct choice, because I have started to prune my collection and yet I'm adding one that I may not like.

 

I tried calling my CC company and no issue with my card. Alipay still won't process it. I might have to try another card which is annoying. @Starganderfish have you had to pay for anything in the last few days and had success / issues?

 

Been about a fortnight since I bought something. But I have had TaoBao/Alipay reject my card a couple of times in the last year or so. It's generally my bank (INGDirect) rejecting the transaction as suspicious. I've called them up, told them it was legit and that they should pass it and then just re-processed the payment.
About a month or two ago, there was a couple of weeks where my card wasn't accepted by Alipay. I just used a different card for the next few transactions and then tried the original and it worked again. It wasn't a big worry for me as I had a couple of different payment options I could use.
It's usually the bank blocking the transaction as possibly fraudulent based on it being an "unknown Chinese store", and it happens even if you've made loads of TaoBao transactions previously.

I did go through a bad period about 2 or 3 years ago where Alipay flat-out rejected every card and wouldn't let me pay for anything! I had a couple of pre-orders I needed to pay for and I ended up buying Alipay gift cards off of eBay to finalise those payments. It was NOT a great way to do it but I was kind of stuck.
I believe the problem that time, occurred because I messed up setting up my account and di it as a mainland China account instead of an international account or something like that. One day they suddenly noticed and blocked it. I was never able to contact TaoBao or AliPay about it and, once I'd paid off all my outstanding orders, I ended up just opening up a brand new TaoBao account, making sure I went through the correct process this time. This was back in the early days of TaoBao where none of us really understand the process that well.

 

I am struggled to understand what is going on. My seller told me FT cuts his stock by 15% and he just can't get enough stock for everyone. FT has started to cut his stock since pandemic. But there are other sellers who offer in stock purchase which means they get more than they order, unless they maliciously do it to take extra profit. Maybe my seller is a small player in the game?

 

I paid for 2x orders today, FT-42 and TransArt Skateboard Gorilla. Working OK for me on the same old card I always use.

 

My guess is that FansToys sells only a certain number at the original pre-order price (<400 yuan), the rest sellers have to sell near MSRP (500 yuan) to make a profit.

When buyers pre-order, they expect to get it at pre-order price. They get mad if they can't get it at that price.  

 

Seems like a good guess.

On the other hand, the prices FansToys sell from the factory is probably much lower, not sure in China but info I get from some sellers is that it may be usually half the final price, which means that they may sell for some 200 ( and the sellers need to double that to make some profit).

Also, it may be that the FT price is fixed, and sellers can earn more os less profit depending on the situation (they get less profit but almost-sure sell on preorders, then sell others at street prices).

But I think the lower-price for a percentage of first buyers is a better guess.

 

I do everything Taobao related on my home computer/laptop on using Chrome window so I never have any issues. Work computers can be kinda problematic if they block certain settings including auto translate features. Superbuy I can do wherever.

As far as that message in the yellow box goes, I usually respond with something like: "I understand. Please proceed."

 

Just wanted to let the Australian guys here know that I be paid for my account today with zero issues with my cc.

 

Did LBP contact you directly to let you know it was in stock or did you have to chase him? I ordered hunk from him and haven't heard anything. Haven't heard anything so I assume he's pushed me back to the 2nd run like usual.