Taobao Resellers Are Ripping You Off.

As a member of the lolita fashion community for the past two years, I have witnessed the rise of Taobao and Taobao resellers. For those of you who aren't familiar with the website, Taobao is like the Chinese version of Amazon. They've got everything you could possibly want, for (usually) cheap prices. Unfortunately, they don't ship directly overseas. To purchase something off Taobao, you'll need to use a shopping service or a Taobao reseller.

Thanks to some well meaning (but very much misguided) people in the community, many newcomers (or seasoned veterans) believe that purchasing an item from a reseller is cheaper than buying through a shopping service.

That couldn't be farther from the truth.

Yes. Taobao resellers are ripping you off.

All it takes to prove my point is internet access, an item, and about five minutes of your time.

I've found an OP on five of the most popular Taobao reseller websites and compared the prices for you.

In order to compare prices, all details have been kept constant. Each dress was selected in a size S and in the wine colorway. No additional items were added, and I have linked the listings under each photo so you can check for yourself.

The dress I chose was the Flower Fairy OP from the brand Magic Tea Party.
Let's look at the results.

Taobao Resellers

1) My Lolita Dress

My Lolita Dress Link

As you can see here, MLD has this dress listed for $84.99. This is an average price range for most items from this brand. Keep in mind that this price does not include shipping.

With shipping, this OP would cost $113.49.

With that in mind, let's move on to the next website.

  2) Glitzy Wonderland

 If we head over to Glitzy Wonderland, you'll be able to find the exact same dress, but at a different price.

Glitzy Wonderland Link

Here's the dress --- just $9 more. Now, this item is on sale currently, but let's also keep in mind the original price. It was originally listed for $119.00, but is currently on sale for $94.00

 One good thing about Glitzy Wonderland is that they do offer free shipping. If you chose the free shipping option, your final total will be $94.00, which is cheaper than purchasing it from My Lolita dress.

3) Lolita Wardrobe

If we look on Lolita Wardrobe, we'll find the same dress, but cheaper than the last two. 

Lolita Wardrobe Link

This dress is now $82.99, which is two dollars cheaper than the price on My Lolita Dress

 Once shipping is calculated, your total comes out to be $111.49, which is just a little bit cheaper than My Lolita Dress.

4) Clobba

Clobba Online Link

The OP on Clobba is $85.95. This one is right in the middle range of all the other reseller websites we've seen today

Like other websites, Clobba offers multiple types of shipping. If we go with the cheapest, it brings our total out to $102.95. Of the listings we've looked at so far, this one ends up being the second cheapest.

5) Devilinspired

If you watch Lovely Lor's videos, you might remember hearing about this shop. They've sponsored her videos for quite a while and also send her free gifts. Now, I personally have nothing against Lor and enjoy watching her content, but this Taobao reseller is AWFUL. Their prices are consistently higher than all other resellers, and often double the price of the original item straight off Taobao. You'll see what I mean in just a second.

Devilinspired Link

This listing is the most expensive, even though it's for the same exact dress!

Once you add in shipping, your total from Devilinspired comes out to be $142.30.
.
That's a $48 difference between the most expensive and the cheapest reseller.

If you're not mad yet, just give me a second.

Using a Shopping Service

For some reason, many people are scared of shopping services. In fact, I was one of those people! I put off using a SS for quite a long time because it seemed scary and complicated. 

Actually, shopping services are just as easy to use as resellers!

My personal favorite Taobao shopping service is Spreenow. Just find the item you want on Taobao, copy the link, and paste it in the Spreenow's website! Let's go ahead and do that now.

Taobao Link

Here's the original Taobao link. 

With a little help from google, we can easily convert Yuan to USD, revealing that the original price of the dress is $59.52. Of course, that doesn't include shipping or SS fees, but we'll take a look at those in just a minute.

If we head over to Spreenow, we are able to pull up the Taobao link in their search function.

When using a shopping service, you do have to pay for domestic shipping. Spreenow almost always shows this in the teal box below the price. 15 yuan is roughly about $2.25

A quick glance at Spreenow's service fee page will show you that they only charge a 10% commission. 

Spreenow also has a shipping calculator! The weight of the item is .8 kg, which can be found on the Taobao page, but is also listed on several of the reseller pages. Plugging that in will reveal the different shipping options and prices.

 Once again, I chose the cheapest possible shipping time.

Our final total brings us to $78.96. 

That includes SS fees, domestic shipping, international shipping, AND your item. Even compared to the cheapest reseller, that's $15 cheaper.

I made a quick little chart to compare everything.

Our most expensive reseller, Devilinspired, is 180% more expensive than using a shopping service.

And we're telling newcomers that this is the cheapest option???

That this is 'easier'? and will 'save them money in the long run?'

Truthfully, I doubt that this misinformation is being purposefully spread by those in the community. Most likely, these ideas come from the resellers themselves and are spread by well meaning community members who have no experience with Taobao.

It's time to shut these ideas down once and for all, and protect newcomers from getting ripped off. Just as we preach about the horrors of milanoo, so should we also warn newbies about Taobao resellers.

I hope everyone learned something today! If you've ever purchased anything off Taobao, let me know in the comments below!

See you soon!

~RoseQuartzRoyalty