anything about taobao overseas can refer www.howtotao.co....
special thanks to my new friend shamuon, helped me a lot with this blog.(and she has bought things in Xianyu, so if you wanna give it a try, can ask her for help)
but still, it seems we can't make it perfect. So I just posted it, to talk about it with you guys. And if you find anything in this blog is wrong or can't work on you, just comment below, we’ll find it out together.
if needed, this is the link of googledoc, you can edit it directly.docs.google.com...
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This is a detailed description on how to buy items from bilibili and Xianyu. Both of them need an APP to be used.
bilibili
At first, I thought on MFC there wouldn't be anyone buying figures from bilibili. So I wouldn’t talk too much about it.
blog/50125
But 2 days after posting my blog, I met one, and he seemed not to know much about the flow.
I have to say this situation would never happen to me, I wouldn’t pay until I confirm everything.
So I'm quite worried about those guys when something happens, and that's why I posted this blog.
I don't know how to use a proxy, so I’ll just talk about how things work in bilibili.
Bilibili is like youtube, but its content is more like niconico. Its previous name was 'miku fans', at that time the videos were all ACG related. But when it became bigger and bigger, it became not so ACG oriented.
There are 2 kinds of items: in stock and pre-order. 2 ways to get those items, by cash or by a lottery drawing.
You should keep in mind if there is no discount, the same item’s price on bilibili will be higher than it is on taobao(around 10%).
There are 2 kinds of discounts:
in stock："三件七折"(3 pieces 30% off, 2 for 20%, etc..), means a list of items, if you buy 3 of them, you will get 30% off;
Pre-order:"早划算"(the earlier the cheaper). When a new figure starts a pre-order, the first 100(or 50-200, depending on the specific figure) users who paid the deposit will get a discount on the final payment. usually 1000-300, 600-200, 100-80,etc...
And a key point is it won't tell you whether you're in the first 100 when you pay, results show 10 min after the '早划算' starts.
Obviously, it's hard to be in the first 100… and if you didn’t make it, you can choose whether to pay full price or give up the deposit when the figure is released.
Because bilibili has a higher price, if you don't have a discount, it's cheaper to buy it on taobao.
So most people will choose to give up their deposit(except those who don't care about money).
I have to say this is a really good way to make money… and obviously I'm one of its victims.
Sometimes, some of the first 100 may sell their pro-order figure in xianyu at a lower price to earn a price difference.
Another kind of 'victim' comes from '魔力赏' and '福袋'.'魔力' means magic, '赏' in Chinese means show, 魔力赏 is kind of like Japanese 一番くじ,赏 equal to くじ.
'福袋' means lucky bag. 福袋 is simple. A certain price for one draw, no complex rules.
魔力赏 needs to change money to '魔石'(magic stone), a certain 魔石 for one draw, and have complex rules.
魔力赏 is gacha stuff basically. To a certain group of people it’s addicting, most of them are girls(no offense, but this is truth, and this is an important information)
I've tried once, and never played it.
There are some rules, and descriptions are very complex. Even though I'm Chinese, I can’t get its meaning. Maybe I need to draw more times until i know '魔力赏' play patterns. The picture below is the rules, if anyone knows Chinese, you can try to understand its meaning...
But after those complex rules, the result is that it seems players have a chance to earn from it, not just rely on luck.
So, the people who play 魔力赏 will sell items they don't want or they already have in xianyu with a lower price.
The most important: all those items from 魔力赏 are brand new and can be delivered directly from bilibili, no need to worry about fakes.
Also, bilibili's packing box is very cute.
It's very embarrassing for a 27-year-old man to carry a pink box outside, but who can reject pink?
Xianyu
At the very first, I thought you overseas can have a Taobao account, and can login on Taobao and Xianyu APP, so you can chat directly with the store staff and the seller. What you can't do is:because of no Chinese IDcard, you can't have an Alipay account,so can't buy directly, need a proxy.but the truth seems not like this.
After chatting with shamuon, it seems you overseas can have a Taobao account, can login on a webpage, but can’t login on Taobao APP. And if you don't login, you just can't chat with others in both Xianyu and Taobao.
So some of the below may be useless for you.
I also thought that on MFC, there wouldn't be anyone buying figures from xianyu. Then I found this post: blog/50050.
I don't know how you guys find items in xianyu, but xianyu's website page doesn't have detailed descriptions, the descriptions only show in the APP.
This is an item in xianyu. If you open it from a browser, it only shows the title and pictures.
If you click buy or chat, it will open the xianyu APP and you need to login with a taobao account. if you don't have the APP,a link to download will appear. (Available on u.s app store, but chinese only)
and then you'll see a detailed description.
But after I asked shamuon,she said no need to login to open Xianyu APP.I thought maybe it's different between China and overseas, but noticed that she is using an Iphone and I was in Android, maybe that’s the reason? So I tried it on the Ipad: it can be opened in the A-look browser, although it still asks you to login with your Taobao account, but you can choose to open Xianyu first.
but when it comes in Safari, it will be the same as in my Android phone: ask you to login first, then you can choose to open Xianyu APP.
so, I'm kind of confused about the real reason... I need you guys to find the truth together.
Notice that some descriptions are not so specific. One reason is the seller was too lazy and didn't want to write a lot. Another reason is different people wanna know different things. Even if you have described a lot, you can't meet everyone’s demands.
For me, figures must be kept in a display box, dust is unacceptable. But I can't force everyone to keep a figure like me.
So if I buy a figure in xianyu described in good condition, I don’t care about the figure's picture, but ask whether it is kept in a display box first.
So chat can be more important than the description. If there are problems in the deal, chat history is an important piece of evidence that xianyu will rely on.
The right way to buy things in xianyu is after reading the description, you should chat with the seller and confirm everything you want to know. It's good for both sides.
Chat usually means every angle of an item, or even a video, and the seller in xianyu is not a store, reply usually will not be so fast.
Here is some chat history of mine.
This is a post I asked to buy, and someone came to chat with me.
This one is from when I sold a figure. I bought it from bilibili, had it sent to me, but it's unopened. I have uploaded a picture of the figure's box. So this buyer just pays without chatting since it’s new.
Because it's not delivered directly from bilibili, there are risks as you can't confirm its truth or not just by those pictures.
All I know is if a figure comes from bilibili, there will be a bilibili tag on the figure's box, but I don't think this is convincing evidence.
Some sellers, like this girl I followed, says her items came from 魔力赏, a girl and 魔力赏, typical victim of 魔力赏(mentioned above). Then by checking her sales history and reviews, I think her items can be trusted.
When chatting, you should check the seller's information.
three keypoints:
'已认证' means Real-name authentication has been done. This means Alipay has the user's IDcard information. So if necessary, Alipay can find this user with that information.
'芝麻信用' means credit rating. It’s rated by Alipay, so it;s reliable. 极好(best),优秀(good),良好(not bad) will be a good choice, '一般' (normal)is not too bad. Any and others should avoid.
As everyone cares about these two points, it's a little difficult to find an unauthenticated or low rated user for this blog. So here I don't have a picture to show, but you need to pay attention to.
These two points are important for both sellers and buyers. If you haven't been authenticated or have a low credit rating, when you chat with a seller, they probably won't reply to you, and obviously no one will buy your items.
The above two are provided by Alipay, the last one is reviews from the item's buyer. '好评' means good deal and '差评' is bad. Xianyu is not like Taobao. Taobao has lots of paid, fake reviews while Xianyu has much less. Even if there’s only have one 差评 (bad review), you should be careful, buyers in Xianyu don’t give a negative reviews so easily.
Considering you guys can’t chat in Chinese (I think simple English will be ok, just give it a go), a figure delivered directly from bilibili or a brand new one will be a better choice.
You don't need to chat, just reading the description is enough.
Here are some frequently-used phrases in Xianyu.
'手办':figure,'粘土人':nendoroid.
'刀' in Chinese literally means knife(n) or cut(v), and when you wanna a lower price, you will 'cut' the price, this is called 刀.
'议价' means bargaining, so 刀=议价= bargaining
'不'is no. 不刀=不议价=no bargaining, if a seller hasn’t said 不刀/不议价 in the description, you can try to bargaining if you want.
'可'='可以' means can, '可刀'='可议价'= can bargain
'小' means small. '可小刀' means can bargain a little lower. just the opposite, '屠龙刀' literally means kill dragon sword, obviously it’s big, so it means a big discount.
Usually, seller will say the item's price has been 屠龙刀, it means the price is already very low (you'd beeter not bargain). Or '屠龙刀勿扰', '勿扰' means do not disturb, '勿扰'='绕道'.
'验尸官' literally means coroner, it describes a person will check every minor detail of figure, high demand everywhere.(negative)
'盒控' high demand on figure's box.(negative)
'到手刀' when buyer get the item, find some detail that is not so good, asks for compensation or they will return the item. (This is permitted, but everyone hate those people)
'拍前请联系' means chat before pay, this usually indicates seller may have some special requirements, you must chat and confirm what it is.
'暂不出' means on hold for the moment(暂) dont(不) sell(出),
'收' means ask to buy, sometimes it has a very high price listed, it’s not the real price. Indicates this user really wants this item.
'展示交流' just for show and communication, not for sale,
暂不出&展示交流 usually have a very high price that’s not the real price, just to prevent people from buying it. indicates the user doesn’t wanna sell, at least for now.
'已拆' means already(已) opened(拆), '未摆'hasn't(未) been displayed(摆), and 拆摆 means already opened and displayed.
'全新未拆': brand new and hasn’t been open,
'直发'：deliver directly (from bilibili/wherever to your address), brand new
'无瑕' means no flaws, but this also means it is already opened, because you can’t promise it’s 无暇, if you haven't opened it.
the opposite situation:
'中奖' literally means won in a prize drawing. In xianyu it means when your figure has an official flaw, this is called 中奖.
'不包中奖': if you buy a brand-new not opened figure, and it has flaws，you can’t require to return, but most sellers will help you Communicate with the manufacturer. So if you don't wanna deal with that， you'd be better off buying an opened and confirmed to have no flaws figure.
bilibili=B站(website B)=哔站(bilibili in Chinese is 哔哩哔哩)=粉红
(or 粉红家，家 means store, 粉红 is pink, because bilibili's logo and packing box is pink)=叔叔
(or 叔叔家，叔叔=uncle, chairman of bilibili is an uncle)=阿B(just a nick name, kind like bro B?)
'马云家' means any store in taobao(马云 is chairman of taobao)
'不退不换':no(不) return(退) no(不) exchange(换), this should on the condition that the item is ok.
'不包邮': price not(不) including shipping fee, means the total number will add around 10~80yuan(depends on size and weight).
The opposite,'包邮' means seller pays the shipping fee.
'到付':price not including shipping fee, shipping fee will paid by receiver when it arrives. A proxy may refuse this kind of express, so you should chat with the seller to add the shipping fee into the total price.
For example, if I wanna buy the figure in blog/50050.
First, keyword will be '2233 海军风'.
Then, I choose this
Listing that says: no room to display, figure's box is ok, 22's bag is missing because of his little child. This is important, if a figure can be reached by kids, this usually means it was not under good protection. In fact, from the picture, you can easily find there were some bad markings in the base, so it can be speculated this figure was not kept in good condition. Although the price is cheaper, I won't choose this one.
next one:
'拆摆'：already opened and displayed, '有盒'：still has figure's box, and from the picture knows it was kept in cabinet.
Then credit rating is '极好'，price seems reasonable, so this one will be a good choice.
next one:
'内外盒齐全': have both(齐全) inner(内) box(盒) and otter(外) box(盒), other keyword you can refer above. In the picture, it seems to not have dust prevention. so you'd better chat and confirm. This one is a maybe.
next one:
'外盒拆过':outter box already opened, '小盒'='内盒':inner box，未拆:unopened, '外盒有点瑕疵': 外盒 have a little flaw. obviously its price is higher, but if you want a new figure this will be a good choice.
last one:
Brand-new unopened and has been delivered to the seller. So no need to describe more, but the price is unacceptable. You can ask if this is the real price or just don’t wanna sell. If the price is 600, I think it's a good choice for you, because you don't need to chat to confirm anything.
c.tb.cn/s5.VD7N... this is my xianyu homepage. If anyone wants to have a try or wants to ask for help, you can chat with me. Maybe i could be the proxy in Xianyu of MFC someday.LOL
Although I've tried my best, there are still many things I haven't mentioned, and I'm not good at English, perhaps I have not expressed myself very well.
So just take this post as an overview. For more details you can just comment or DM me.
enjoy the time with your waifu/husbando.
that's all/それじゃあ/后会有期
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