For Chinese Pens -- Ebay? Taobao? Alipay?

[bobje]

Most of the Chinese pens I own have been purchased on eBay. There are a few sellers I use most frequently because they've been extremely reliable. One seller, "jewelrymathematics", used to contribute to FPN. But almost all of my Chinese pen transactions on eBay have been positive, regardless of seller, and particularly when they have extremely high satisfaction ratings. During the last year I've become more comfortable with Rakuten when purchasing inks from Japan. But I have had a difficult time understanding Taobao, and have not yet tried to experiment with Alipay. Even with an English-language intermediary, such as Mr. Taobao, the Taobao service seems difficult to navigate.

 

What has been your experience with the purchase of Chinese pens? Who has a high comfort level with Taobao? Advice? What about Alipay? I'm placing the thread on this forum because the question focuses specifically on the Chinese pen purchasing experience, not on all marketplaces in general.

 

 

[lgsoltek]

Bob invited me to this thread. As a Chinese I use Taobao frequently, but rarely to buy Chinese pens, since I'm not very fond of them. I have only two Jinhao (in order to fit with a Zebra G nib). Here's my two cents about buying on Taobao.

 

My general idea is that I don't think it'd be a very practical idea for international customers to buy on Taobao. As I talked with Bob in PM, there're some constraints for international customers.

 

First of all is payment. I think this is the biggest issue. If you want to pay, normally you need to have a Chinese bank account (debit card) or an Alipay account (consider it as a Chinese version of PayPal). Very few sellers accept credit cards, not even those issued by Chinese banks (because Taobao demands a service fee for credit cards so sellers aren't willing to accept credit cards), let alone international ones. Someone else may need to chime in on this because I personally don't have any experience of trying to pay with international credit cards on Taobao of course.

 

There's also the shipping problem, since most of the sellers wouldn't bother to ship internationally. I think international shipping fee are usually very high and if you buy only a few things, it's not worth it. The shipping would cost way much more than the pen itself, even though the pen is very cheap! Shipping by mail (as letters? flat rate? I'm not sure) might cost less but sellers normally won't bother to go to the postal office for that. If you want to buy ink that'd be even more difficult. Some couriers don't accept liquid.

 

Then there's that service problem. (Unfortunately) China is quite notorious for its fake goods and knock-offs. You need to be quite experienced to be able to tell the honest sellers from the dishonest ones. I suppose this would be a big problem for international customers if there's sales dispute.

What I think is a good way for international customers to buy from Taobao is that you know someone or you have a friend who lives in China. If they are willing to, they can purchase for you and send you the merchandise by post. Of course if you want to buy only one or two pens I think the total cost might be lower if you get them from eBay.

 

Anyway as a native Chinese I don't have much trouble using Taobao, and of course someone else from overseas with more experience with Taobao can give us a clearer idea.

 

PS. Alipay (or "China version of Paypal") is not really very easy to use. I have some friends and collegues who refuse to use it just because it's too complicated. Also I think you'll need a Chinese bank account in order to use Alipay, but I'm not 100% sure.

[amarjit]

I used to buy from ebay but shifted to buying from Aliexpress. As of now my experience was good. There were few instances where there were no deliveries made but full amount of refunded. sometimes few seller delayed refunding but soon or later they do refund on non deliveries.

[Frozz]

I just bought a few demonstrators from Taobao 2 weeks ago and yes to everything Lgsoltek said but in addition although some sellers do not accept credit cards and demand only account deposit from a china bank (yes i used to do it this way using my Bank of China account) but now Taobao offers any payment from credit cards even international one and of course there is a service fee NOT from taobao but from your financial institute (simply your CC Bank), in my case its around 3% and taobao will settle with the seller whichever method they want.

 

Then there is the "seller won't ship international orders" issue which taobao will also solve for you if you opt for the so-called "use taobao combine shipping" whereby it utilize taobao warehouse as a hub that seller ship to (domestically) and taobao themself will ship international to you.

 

One to note for is that there is a plenty of knock-off on the site so a word of advice is to shop carefully and cautiously better yet do communicate with the seller if you are able to.

 

It does prove a little difficult to navigate if you are unable to read chinese but should not be a problem for those who do.

As I do understand Chinese as i am chinese, it is somewhat fun and enjoying shopping/browsing experience through taobao and it's amazing deals.

[kmeredith923]

I used to buy from ebay but shifted to buying from Aliexpress. As of now my experience was good. There were few instances where there were no deliveries made but full amount of refunded. sometimes few seller delayed refunding but soon or later they do refund on non deliveries.

I have purchased probably 15 pens on Aliexpress. They are insanely cheap and are more often than not no shipping charges. I have had 2 issues that were handled immediately with refunds in my bank account within 3 days. One was the wrong color pen sent and one was the wrong pen entirely.

It's extremely easy to use, pretty much exactly like eBay. They have a buyer protection service in case of issues and they display seller ratings. My thoughts have pretty much been "at this price, even if it is a knockoff, I'll get a refund and have a (bleep) pen or at worst be out a couple of dollars". It seems worth it to me.

[garyc]

Bob, I'm just curious to know what advantages there would be to buying from these alternatives to eBay, at least for a buyer in the US/Europe. The range of pens from China (at least on eBay) appears to be fairly limited, there are many sellers of exactly the same product and competition must be so strong as prices are rock bottom. In many cases, the price of a pen plus shipping from China is less than the internal postage price alone for a small packet in a western country. I can only imagine it can't be because you are looking for even cheaper pens but rather you are looking for more varieties or different pens available on these different markets.

 

For Japanese pens, both new and vintage, I can see that eBay/Amazon may not be the best source as prices appear to be much higher than those on local online markets. This doesn't really seem to apply to Chinese pens where, as I say, competition appears to have driven prices really low (eg the 99c Jinhao X450).

Edited April 16, 2016 by garyc

[bobje]

Gary, that's a good point. Prices are already so low on Chinese pens on eBay anyway. My question is probably more about whether there are additional Chinese market offerings on Taobao that don't exist on eBay, and about competitive alternatives.

[garyc]

This could very well be true - on another thread the Baoer BE-717A was mentioned (a Waterman clone), but there only seems to be one seller of this on eBay (and he doesn't ship to the UK). From that you could conclude not everything is widely advertised on eBay and what does appear on eBay may only be a small selection of locally available pens. It would be interesting to know if this is indeed the case.

[bobje]

I know there are dip pen nibs available on Taobao that are not available on eBay.

[hbdk]

I have bought a few times from Aliexpress - really a bad experience; ordered 3 - one arrived, ordered 2 none arrived, no communication from sellers and so on and so forth. Buying from reputable sellers on the Bay (like jewelrymathematics, mentag and others) has been a much better experience.

[Sasha Royale]

I have bought dozens of Chinese (PRC) fountain pens from Ebay. Regardless of the seller, experiences have been generally good. I realize that I am ultimately dealing with the Chinese government. Low-end Chinese fp's are semi-consistent. Higher end models seem to be the same, with more "bling", and gaudy exteriors. I have no experience with higher end models, as I am unwilling to risk more than a few dollars. My most expensive purchase was a Jinhao 159, in 2013,

for $6 .

[TimTheZaj]

The biggest advantage to shopping on taobao is that there are many pens, often vintage where taobao is the only source, such as the older golden star 26 and 28s, hero 100s, etc. Not only this but there are many spare or custom parts for these pens and the prices are really cheap. For example, there was a thread a while back of custom parts for the hero 100 that turned it into a piston demonstrator. I do not speak Chinese, so I use chrome as it has the translate function, and use Mistertao as an agent (no affiliation bla, bla, bla...). For all jinhao and modern Chinese pens, I would stick to eBay.

As with aliexpres, there are seller reputation counters, and if it seems too good to be true, it probably is, even taking in to account the much lower prices (hero 100 for 24$).

[cubfanbob]

eBay seller "jewelrymathematics" is uniformly excellent.

[bobje]

Bob, fully agree on jewelrymathematics.

 

Tim, would you consider writing a tutorial on using Taobao?

[ian1964]

Aliexpress is a very good site.I don't use Alipay, I use my normal credit card and to date have been impressed by the quality and service.I have total confidence in Aliexpress and I buy all sorts but mostly Electronics and Jewelry. All good stuff. Having said that though, it is obvious that many Fountain Pen sellers also sell via Ebay and so the price difference for pens is pretty much negligible. As for Ebay I have bought a lot of pens from "xiongfu1990" and "jewelrymathematics" all have been of good quality.

[filedog]

Just wanted to mention dhgate.com. Many listings on ebay just say "standard shipping". I'm happy to pay a buck or 2 more for USPS epacket. Dhagte has many more listings with epacket as an option. I have ordered from them several times, with no issues. Same rule as ebay, choose a seller with good feedback. They have escrow, and a resolution center. Prices are not as low as ebay, but shipping speed can be faster. My last order was in my hands in 9 days.

[nibfiend]

I purchased a 90's WingSung fountain pen on ebay. The pen finally arrived and isn't bad -- not quite as flexible a nib as a Noodler and a little scratchy at first but attractive and nice enough for the price.

Edited May 13, 2016 by Nibfiend

[PenPaper52]

 

Have been buying on Aliexpress for more than e year now. Not one single problem!

Craft stuff, tools for jewellery making, wire, travel notebooks and pens!

 

 

Stay safe!

 

Rita

[Mech-for-i]

For one , I do agree with the above, but I also caution that Taobao is primarily a home market product and unless you can communicate in Chinese, it can be ( in fair amount of cases ) difficult to liaise with the seller. And eBay as well as AliExpress already fulfill the role quite well. TaoBao World, AFAIK, also come in English but many seller still are home market oriented. I do not think the extra extra effort is warranted unless you absolutely need that single specific model very bad.

 

For me and those who known the language ( and living in a vicinity that we have local Taobao service , including online payment, fright service etc ) , sure the Taobao allow more options but also I must say the same cautious approach apply, you want to find reputable seller before committing. The better option would be their other shopping portal, the Tmall, which deals with registered business exclusively. I think both of their shopping portal ( int'l version ) accept some form of online payment that's pertain to the region but you really should check the details.

 

That said, I've done enough proxy shopping for others on Taobao, and in fact Taobao had a service to find proxy buyers ( though I've never need that and never try it ). Some of the forwarder also had service of similar nature

[matteob]

I would stick with ebay as those sellers are pitching to an international audience. I have never had an issue with any Chinese vendor on ebay: they have all been reliable. I don't knoe the other sites. I have not used Ratuken as I cannot understand Japanese. I have used J-Subculture in Japan and they are excellent. I got a Platinum 3776 for half the UK price and it arrived within a week. I don't know much about Chinese pens though and what is rare and what is not. If I knew what I wanted I would get a Chinese student friend to look for me when he went home.

Edited January 12, 2017 by matteob