So recently I've been lurking around and found a "vendor" from China, more or less the popular website TaoBao. So have anyone used this before? There're some really nice looking items, such as:

This Torreya/New Kaya board : http://www.taobao.pe/product/124748949/ ... s_stunned/

or this laser-engraved set: http://www.taobao.pe/Product/15715374667//

Or this also laser-engraved New Kaya 6cm board : http://www.taobao.pe/product/1954643376 ... le_Weiqi/#


The shipping is about the same in comparison to American base vendor and there's so much more choices.
Heck, I even found this new Yunzi that's super thick and smooth (http://www.shop-from-china.com/p-845589 ... ooden.html)

The word are translated a bit weirdly but not entirely impossible to make out.

So has anyone got any experience with China base website yet? Would you recommend buying from them, since that 6cm laser-engraved New Kaya looks sooo nice

I cannot answer your question, but your picture is too distracting to try to read your post. That constant flashing is too much.

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Still officially AGA 5d but I play so irregularly these days that I am probably only 3d or 4d over the board (but hopefully still 5d in terms of knowledge, theory and the ability to contribute).

I have no experience with the Chinese sites, but please keep in mind that buying from vendors with a public track record of handling customer complaints well (like YMI, Gogameguru.com, and Mr. Kuroki among many others) is sort of an insurance for when things go wrong.
I don't like it either, but you might want to get yourself checked out if it is causing actual dizziness.

I buy things on Taobao all the time (including some Go material). works great.
it's basically a bigger version of Amazon + ebay + paypal all in one.
You can find everything you can think of, there is good custommer service, incredibly fast shipping.
Only catch is that you have to be IN China. (some basic chinese skill would be nice too)
Setting up an account only works with Chinese phone number.
paying is difficoult without alipay (which requires chinese id number) and, 99% wont ship outside China.

There are agents you can use, but I never did that.

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Laurens
Go school: freegame's Teaching School
Author of: The Next Move a book for 15-3kyu players.

@Freegame

what a shame! *sigh* and that engraved board was sooo nice...oh well...thanks for your input

The site you linked to is actually an agent. Like I wrote I never used an agent because I live in China and use the "original" taobao.com site (not a .pe).

EDIT: I looked up the laser ingraved board on taobao.com. it's 520CNY (around $83) also it's 5.6kg

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Laurens
Go school: freegame's Teaching School
Author of: The Next Move a book for 15-3kyu players.

Well, I know that China is buying up a lot of the USA, but I did not know that the entire Netherlands had been bought by China.

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Still officially AGA 5d but I play so irregularly these days that I am probably only 3d or 4d over the board (but hopefully still 5d in terms of knowledge, theory and the ability to contribute).

Wait, so if it's an agent, is it safe or no? *

Because then it's kinda like Amazon right?/

hehe, have not been on 19x19 in a loooong time, and never updated my profile. Weird thing is that I used to play a lot of Go, then when I moved to China I kind of quit. Only played once with a French and a Swedish guy here in Shanghai (I think one of them runs the gobase or another similar website)

@ TheCatLver
I dont know if it's safe or not, like I wrote I never used an agent before.

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Laurens
Go school: freegame's Teaching School
Author of: The Next Move a book for 15-3kyu players.

The agent acts on your behalf. Usually if your agent is reputable, their services should be acceptable. I've used an agent to buy things from Japan many times. Haven't tried it in China yet unless you count weiqi friends in China as agents. Anyways, the main problem is whether you trust the original seller. Kind of like ebay in that regards.

As to agents, the main thing they do is to help you get something you can't get directly from a seller in another country. They also help you consolidate purchases from different sellers before they reship in one package to you to try to help you save money on shipping. You should check their policies regarding their fees, foreign exchange rates, their warehouse locations, etc. Also read about what they do when item gets lost or damaged during shipping. They usually won't be paying you much in such situations. My agent's policy is about 3X the shipping as the maximum payout in such situations.

Usually you pay a lot for the privilege of using the agent and the double (or more) shipping but of course it implies you really really want to buy whatever you intend to buy. So my advice is not to try to buy cheap items through an agent because you will find it not so cheap when you finally get the total bill. Any pray it doesn't get lost or damaged during shipping.

What I mean by "double (or more) shipping" is that you pay for shipment once from the seller to the agent warehouse in the foreign country and a second time to your address.

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http://tchan001.wordpress.com
A blog on Asian go books, go sightings, and interesting tidbits
Go is such a beautiful game.

TheCatLver, for the love of God please remove that flashing picture, or I, and perhaps others too, will censor you so I don't see it.

I already did.

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Still officially AGA 5d but I play so irregularly these days that I am probably only 3d or 4d over the board (but hopefully still 5d in terms of knowledge, theory and the ability to contribute).

All right, all right, fine. I personally find it to be my best work but I guess some of you can't handle the new-age adhd-ness So now I stole somebody cat as my avatar and it's on you