Problem of bringing lots of electronic gadgets to China

[Simon_CH]

Hi Xiaocai

I did not intend to talk bad about Chinas electronics market, I simply noted a few observations and comparisons of my own. I travel a lot to different countries and am always interested in these things. So no hard feelings please, I apologize if it offended you.

As I said before, I am more than willing to change my mind. In fact, it looks like my screen would be too heavy to transport, so I am looking for a 22"-26" branded monitor.

I will only be based here for a year, so nothing too fancy/expensive.

Do you know of an online shop that delivers to Ningbo?

edit: I just checked Amazon.cn for monitor prices:

http://www.amazon.cn/s/ref=amb_link_29168472_2?ie=UTF8&n=874269051&pf_rd_m=A1AJ19PSB66TGU&pf_rd_s=center-4&pf_rd_r=0CKZJWC4SMWWFTCNNM5R&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=58501672&pf_rd_i=899254051

But they were expensive and mostly non-branded for the smaller screens 22"-24"

I also checked Taobao and there seemed to be a lot of better offers, but I couldn't check conditions etc. because I don't speak Chinese. So Taobao seems to be the weapon of choice so far, I'll ask for the help of a local friend when I'm there, I might even get a good 2nd hand offer for a great screen.

[xiaocai]

No need to apologise. It seems that things have been made clearer to both sides through discussion. So I think it will be just as good if we can remain on the focus, which I suppose is how to find a cheap computer display in China...

For some reason the link in your post actually led me to the page for flat panel TVs. Well that may explain why you couldn't find many that fall into that size range...

zol.com.cn as mentioned by roddy and Sarevok and pcpop are two good websites if you want to get a quote first. I don't think it will be too hard to find a few dealers around Ningbo that can do delivery to door on there. Taobao is just like eBay I guess. The prices can be more attractive but the risk of getting cheated is higher as well. If you intended to bid for a second hand one on Taobao, and you don't speak Chinese at all, it will be a good idea to get a local friend to help you. At least you have to make sure that you are bidding for what you wanted right?

[Simon_CH]

@ the Amazon link, you're right, I just randomly posted one of the sections I was clicking through, but it's the same with LCDs on that site I think, not so cheap.

Zol seems to be a good site too, but again the prices are a bit higher than what can be found on taobao. (New screens it seems, not 2nd hand)

In fact the best Taobao prices for screens are quite similar to what I'm used to here in Europe. I compared a few models, it's maybe a 5-10% markup if at all.

So I think I'll try to get a Chinese friend to sit down with me and search for a Taobao seller that would deliver to Ningbo.

Concerning the cheating, I heard that at Taobao you typically pay when it's being delivered and you can check it quickly right ?

[xiaocai]

Well all I could do was just comparing the price listed on zol and the Swiss website you've mention. However from what I have search the offers were slightly cheaper in China (for exchange rate I used 1:6.44)... Probably you can get better deals from your local market, but you can bargain here as well.

I think many people use something like Paypal on 淘宝? You can still get your money back if somehow the product does not match the dealer's description or you just don't receive it at all, but it would be too much hassle to lodge in a complain for them to investigate and precess and eventually refund you...

[Simon_CH]

Ah, I thought the normal payment system with Taobao is payment upon delivery, but I don't have any experience with that.

But I will see what can be done when I'm there, I will definitely not bring my own to China, as it's too heavy and I have to bring a lot of other stuff too!

[Simon_CH]

Oh and back to the HTC Desire:

I know that local Smartphones have the Wireless option disabled, could it be a problem to bring it to China ?

[xiaocai]

I don't think so. My phone was actually imported from Hong Kong with Wifi installed. They didn't seem to have any problem to bring it in.