Both @rsim and I bought a bunch of stuff on Taobao early last year. It is fun, cheap but has more risk than ebay or aliexpress (although think aliexpress is mostly people buying on taobao and sending to you - the ordering times are sooooo long for some things).
I can’t paste into this text box on my ipad (apple your sw quality is worse than ms these days).
It is worth reading Shopping TaoBao: Our first steps – Dangerous Prototypes this was my gateway drug.
The tldr version is
- shop on taobao.com using google chrome with translate on.
- laugh at the crazy translations (all the items translate to baby)
- use google translate to work out the chinese characters for search keywords
(I have a little collection I will post here later) - most brands and part numbers are still in english so stuff like arduino and ws2812 work well.
- use sort by popularity to buy from seelers that other people have bought from (don’t necessarily choose the cheapest, taobao seems very unregulated, lots of scams).
More
- china is metric so search for 2.54mm, 3.81mm etc rather than 0.1" etc
- think about what you’ll be using the parts for and if low quality is appropriate or safe
- steer clear of mains powered stuff as china is 220v (unless you know you can mod it - eg. the solder paste dispensers are easily modded, the transformer is centre tapped).
How it works
- this is based on my experience, taobao has since started taking credit cards directly so it might be possible to find someone who will do just the shipping side and we/you can do the buying ourselves.
- you paste the taobao url into the agents web site, they calculate the donestic shipping and add 10% commision. The domestic shipping is usually about 15CNY (about $US3)
- You are best to buy as much as you can from one seller to minimise the domestic shipping. Like ebay there are links on each item to view the other items a seller offers.
- you pay the cost of goods, domestic shipping and commision and the aget buys the stuff for you, They will help you with stuff like colour selection and quantity (sometime - I bought some stuff that was per 100 that I thought was per 1, it wa so cheap it didn’t matter)
- the stuff arrives at the agent, they repack it (poorly unfortunately, I did have some damaged stuff)
- the agent weights it and gives you options on the international shipping
-.expect to pay 0.5 - 1 times the purchase price for international shipping - they will suggest a customs value, I am usually honest, I’ve received $250 worth and paid no duty.
Here are somethings I’ve bought
Parts
http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=13250146027
http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=13188395039
http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=3024511146
http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=12561129153
Tools
http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=13188395039
Boards
http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=8814778355
Here are my keywords (they are by experimentation, I have no idea what they say).
LED 点阵 - Led Matrix
led 环 - Led ring
切磨套 - cutting sets (dremel etc)
路继电器 - relay
风扇 - cooling fan
镀锡线 - tinned wire
镊子 - tweezers
螺丝孔 usb - screw holes usb
橡胶脚垫 - rubber feet
针 - pin (as in header)
长插针排 - long pin female header
N95 电池 触片 - N95 battery contacts
按键 - button
七段数码管 LED - 7 segment display
表面贴装 - surface mount
开关 贴片轻触 - smd tact switch
开关 - switch
拨动开关 - toggle switch
