I would be extra weary of the Chinese sellers for the foreseable future. Ebay charging tax puts a major dent into their sales. Tax on a 100+ figuer erases a lot of the incentive to buy overseas. A $100 dollar figure is now $108-$110. The same figure on Bigbad might be $115. A lot leas worry and hassle for an extra $5.

Reason I mention this is these sellers may be cutting and running now that their profits are taking a hit.

 

To be fair, your comparing BBTS website to ebay. Compare Uncle Billy, TF Direct, etc to BBTS and then provide that comparison. BBTS you have to pay taxes and $4 shipping too but not sure if that is factored in your example (doesn't seem like). Ebay for me was losing its luster when they stopped the discounts and moved to ebay bucks percentages.

However, if that International Postal Union goes through, I would agree then, the power shift may end up back in US sellers hands. Taking the deep discounted shipping China gets and then I see no change between those two markets.

 

I tend to comparison shop before I buy.

 

Same here but I always keep in mind customer support and how they will ship it to me too.

 

Also worth remembering that Chinese ebayers like baba are only one option. Purchasing through TaoBao is significantly cheaper still. Not sure about the tax situation there. They aren’t yet charging me Australia’s GST, while eBay are.
As for support. I’ve had to make three different support claims over the years. One from a western retailer (TFSource), one from a TaoBao seller (DarkMount) and once from as manufacturer (MMC).
MMC replaced the part and took about 8 weeks to do so. They charged me shipping for the new part.
DarkMount was also able to replace a part and did so in less then a month. He charged me nothing.
TFSource initially refused to replace the part and required me to jump through multiple hoops and pressure them repeatedly. Took several months all told. They charged me for the replacement part and for shipping.
Every seller, retailer and circumstance is different of course but from my experience, the customer service from a Western retailer was by far the worst.
This idea that you need to pay more to get the after sales support is frankly wrong.

 

I keep thinking about trying taobao but every time I glance at the thread it looks like such a huge pain to go through. Is it worth the time? Do you have to find a couple reliable sellers like eBay?

 

Takes a bit of effort the first time but once you have it sorted it's almost as easy as eBay. I save an average of 30% on almost every figure.
I've never been scammed, and there are protections in place if it does happen. Honestly? TaoBao sellers are a lot more honest than eBay sellers. Many have been selling products for a decade or more and they value the reputation they've accrued. Never heard of a TaoBao seller building up a store and then selling it off to a scammer like happens on a daily basis on eBay. I have a couple of legit sellers I tend to prefer buying from (Thor Toys, Little Bee Little Prince, Galaxy Power Animation) because I know they can communicate well and deal with any quirks or questions. But I will often buy from someone new if they have what I want.
I also use it for a lot more than just toys. Had a new motherboard, a wireless router and some electronic components delivered a few weeks ago. I've bought fittings for my homebrew setup. There's a very diverse range of products. Basically 75% of the local retailers you are buying from are just purchasing their stock through TaoBao or through Aliexpress, adding a markup and slapping their own name on it before selling it to you. You're basically sourcing from the wholesaler and cutting out the retailer's extra markup.

I will say that the shipping prices can be very variable depending on your location. I live in Australia and shipping seems to be a lot cheaper for me than for some US-based guys. The other thing is that pretty much everything is done in Chinese, so you need to get comfortable with Google translate.

My advice is always: scan the TaoBao thread, have a look at the site (use Chrome with the auto-translate option). Figure out something you think you might like, at a good price and have a go. And ask for advice in the thread as you go. There are a number of us who post in the TaoBao thread pretty often and we've all been through the early teething stage and are happy to help.

If it works and you save some money, you may want to expand your efforts, if it's too hard, you can always go back. Personally almost everything in my collection now comes from TaoBao. YMMV

 

Wow 30% makes it pretty worth it, I’ll check it out thanks

 

Where is the TaoBao thread?

 

No worries.
Different figures and companies save more or less. FT
and XTB stuff get's good discounts, MMC has less of a discount and Takara official stuff cost's full-price (they don't even get the 30% pre-order discount).

Just bear in mind the prices you're seeing on the page don't include shipping so you will have to account for that. But you can store stuff for weeks or months at the warehouse and combine multiple orders into one shipment to save on shipping totals. There's the odd fee or currency conversion, just like ebay.

Buying Transformers on Taobao

 

to the guy who custom painted their original FT 16, what paint did you use? especially to protect the paint from scratching on such a premium figure. Or does anyone else know or recommend what paint to use?

 

Look up @MajinSin post. Hope that helps 
FansToys FT-16 Sovereign (Masterpiece Galvatron)

 

I used car spray paint.

I took the whole figure apart (took photos because screws were different sizes).

Sanded it all down and put masking tape on parts like the abs that I couldnt seperate.

Gave it 3 coats of primer, 3 coats of colour, 3 coats of clear lacquer (all car spray spaint).

Put it all back together.

I messed up the chest so ordered a replacement one and I can say, I cant scratch that paint off with my nail (maybe if I got really aggressive with it). I tried but its solid.

However... the joints on the fingers flake easy, barely noticible though. And if I lift the hip skirt, paint comes off the top of it due to the lack of clearance. I had to touch that part up with paint. Otherwise his paint job seems solid. I pose him a lot but havent transformed him.



Before I attempted it though, I had a back up Sovereign (which I sold as soon as I put this one back together).

As rare as he currently is, I wouldnt recommend trying this unless you have a back up OR you really know what you're doing (I didnt, hence the back up).

Good luck!

EDIT*

I bought my car spray paints from Halfords in UK... went through 3 different colours because none of them look like the colour on the can so... maybe google the colour name to get an idea while you're in the store, or try them out on something else before doing this. I had to strip of the paint on half the parts because it dried an awful colour, the first one I picked... that was long -_-

If you want the name of the colour I used, I can let you know when I get home. Dont know ot off the top of my head.

 

I have a real concern my ebay orders are going to be from a rogue. He's still listing Sov M as "last one", a month after I ordered 2 of his "last ones". Still got massive feedback, so it would be unlucky, but im still not sure how he's adding stock.

Sellers Im using are Toystrike and Djfungshing.

 

One problem is the lacquer Halfords sell is very very soft. If you want something hardened you really want a 2k lacquer which is 1 part lacquer and 1 part hardener. It's not as commonly sold due to being toxic (mask needed when spraying) but a car body shop would be able to supply it. Obviously useless info now but just in case you ever need to do it again  

 

Awesome, thanks for that!

 

2k spray is not recommended for beginners. Like mentioned in the quote, it is super toxic (even through the dermal layers - hence full body coverage is recommended).

Skipping to my points, you might be better off paying a body shop to shoot a 2k clear coat.

 

The black on his feet make him look like he has old man socks and black slippers on =0

 

I never really got why they did his feet and fave white instead of matching his shins, hips, tracks etc.

 

Those were in style in the 40s