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Anyone have any tips about how to buy from Alibaba when you're in China?


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Posted

I keep needing goods that are only sold in the States.  But, every time, I'm able to find a substitute product on Alibaba.  Does anyone have experience ordering from them in China?  They also quote U.S. prices, I would hope that Chinese prices would be available inside China.  

Posted

You need to find the identical product on TMall/Taobao/JD.com etc. That's the easier approach, but not that easy since the search functions aren't so great on those sites.

 

Barring that, you contact the seller on Alibaba and ask about shipment within China. You may not get a yes, though. There may be legal or contractual restrictions on selling the goods domestically. Further, there's normally a VAT refund when goods are sold overseas, and that gets factored into the overseas price. Also, of course, there may be restrictions on Alibaba sellers selling outside Alibaba.

Posted

Is Aliexpress available from within China? I know its the Alibaba for the rest of the world, but don't know anymore. I buy from AE here in the UK.

Posted

Yeah, maybe Aliexpress is better.  I haven't used Alibaba for a long time so I didn't think about that one.  Yeah Aliexpress is basically the English Taobao.

 

The problem with finding the goods on Taobao/Jingdong/etc. is what I'm looking for are "lifestyle" goods.  Things people in China just don't buy, as the underlying infrastructure isn't there.  For example, a propeller guard, but you can't find those as recreational boating is tiny, and a prop guard is for a special use inside the hobby of boating.  

Posted

For stuff like that, I can imagine reimporting working out easier, if not cheaper.

Posted

Well, if I'm going to do that, I might as well just bite the bullet and order from the States and pay the outrageous shipping charges and possibly get my goods stolen en route.  It's such B.S. that China gets to ship its goods to America at a fraction of the cost.  

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