buying directly from taobao.com by yourself or through me
I wouldn't post this thread if only 1 or 2 years ago, but now, due to some logistic breakthrough between Aus and China, buying TF directly from taobao.com seems feasible.
taobao now provides seamless freight forwarding service to many places including Australia. It works as the following:
Step 1: create a taobao account, and fill in your Aussie phone number and address;
Step 2: choose the toy/seller you want, and simply click buy;
Step 3: taobao platform will automatically identify your address to be an overseas one and inform seller to send item to forwarder's address; therefore from seller's point of view, he/she simply send item to a local recipient without detailed knowledge of the foreign buyer; at this point you will pay toy's price + local transportation cost (usually less than 5 AUD);
Step 4: waiting for the forwarder to inform you about the international shipping cost, once you receive the notice, you pay again for international postage. this transaction is now too seamlessly integrated within taobao platform. At this point you will already know your total deliver-to-door cost of your toy.
Step 5: waiting for up to 3 weeks for your item to come.
The language:
as far as I know they are around 10 sellers with long term (10 years +) reputation. it is easy to remember them. google web translate also helps.
The bank account:
taobao recognises Aussie credit card and mobile number (for verification code). However, the exchange rate they apply might be a small rip-off.
Warranty issue:
3rd party toys now all provide warranty to buyers. taobao sellers simply give you their contact so you can contact yourself. I am sure they have team member speaking English. They will firstly offer part replacement, if you can prove it is too hard just by replacing certain part, they will offer replacement, but usually postage cost is on you. Sending replacement parts from China to Australia is done via "SF Express", which is different from taobao forwarder, and it is pay-on-receiving.
official toys do not have warranty, so if you find a missing wheel, bad luck. However, the taobao listing price for a Hasbro Leader Class toy is usually 250RMB (50 AUD) , so I would take that risk if I am going to collecting TF in long term.
taobao's forwarder postage cost:
to Australia, it is roughly 13 AUD for first kg, and 4 AUD for each additional 0.5kg.
GST:
the total cost, toys + postage should not be more than 1000 AUD, otherwise GST will apply.
All I said above is not new except the integrated forwarder service, which really makes taobao feasible/accessible from Australia. Skipping all transactions that involve US dollars will bring the cost down a lot. I started buying TF in 2009, when 1 AUD worths more than 1 USD, but this won't come back in near term.
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I hope above is helpful to you. If you still feel not confident, as part of my home business, I can help you with all above with a % charge for service. My wife is doing buying agency at home for our suburb area. We offer pay-on-receiving service. You will be paying "transparent price of the toy + pre-disclosed % service charge + postage cost to your door" and only pay once the item arrives. The exchange rate applied will be the day rate when you are about to pay us. If you are interested in this, please email me at xin@diamondvalley.cn or pm me here.
thx
