Taobao International Shipping

[杰.克]

Hi there,

 

Has anyone ever had any experience of success doing this? I'm interested in shipping some items to the UK and wondered if it is possible? I've contacted a few sellers, and am hoping it is, just simply requires me to pay a higher shipping fee.

 

Thanks 

[889]

The first thing I'd do is look on AliExpress, the overseas version of Taobao. Shipping can be very reasonable, but your package often seems to get sent to Singapore first, where it's re-sent. It can take some time to reach you.

[Balthazar]

There are plenty of "Taobao agents" that ship internationally for a reasonable fee. Many puer drinkers are using these services, and I've yet to hear of any bad experiences.

[alantin]

I just ordered a bunch of books from taobao through cssbuy.com.

 

I found the items on taobao, added them in the basket in cssbuy and placed the order. They ordered them from the sellers and once the items were in their warehouse, I placed the international shipping order. I’m waiting to see what happens next. The items should be sent in one baggage to me.

 

The site was convenient enough to use, had English, and it took a few different payment options including paypal so didn’t need to give my credit card information to anyone new.

 

I found a blog post reviewing a few taobao agents and just picked one of them.

Edited January 25, 2021 at 04:08 PM by alantin
typo

[Balthazar]

Yep. I've been using Superbuy and Taobao-Focus to get my quarantined hands on some otherwise inaccessible 黑茶 this year. Good experiences with both, Superbuy in particular (better communication). Agent fee and shipping not as much of a ripoff as I had feared.

[abcdefg]

On 1/25/2021 at 8:33 AM, Balthazar said:

Yep. I've been using Superbuy and Taobao-Focus to get my quarantined hands on some otherwise inaccessible 黑茶 this year.

 

黑茶？Hope to hear more after you have sampled it. I've tasted 黑茶 several times at tea expos and such, but have never really gotten into it. Had some very tasty ten-year-old 黑茶 from Sichuan last time, but the price was too high for my budget. It was tea that had been specifically made for Tibetan tastes, sold in large bricks. It was distinctly different from Pu'er. 

[Balthazar]

"This year" should have been "last year", I've been drinking lots of 安化黑茶 in particular since early autumn of last year. It can be all over the place, from dirt-cheap Tibetan bricks meant to be boiled with milk and/or butter (which have their place!) to really outstanding stuff with mineral notes that are unmatched perhaps outside of premium 岩茶 (e.g. this, which is one of the teas I picked up last year. It's on the expensive side for 黑茶 but definitely worth it).

 

I mostly drink puers, but find that heicha is a great alternative in the colder months, where most of my sheng puer goes into a sort of hibernation period (although they are stored with controlled humidity and a decent enough temperature). Heichas are less susceptible to the seasonal effect.

 

Perhaps I'll do a write-up in one of the tea threads here when I have time, to avoid derailing this one further ?

[abcdefg]

3 hours ago, Balthazar said:

Perhaps I'll do a write-up in one of the tea threads here when I have time, to avoid derailing this one further

 

Yes, by all means, please do!