Has anybody ever bought an old radio from TaoBao?

[Otter's vintage]

Sorry if this is the incorrect section to ask this question. It is my birthday today and I have been searching TaoBao, which is a Chinese buying and selling site, for a vintage radio from China. I have always wanted one, but they rarely are on sites like eBay and when they are, they are usually too expensive, however, I have found several listings on TaoBao which feature at least one vintage radio for prices that seem too good to be true. Can anybody tell me what to be weary of on this site and if I should or should not try to purchase the Weixing 9101 in question? I plan to use a TaoBao agent. I just want to make sure I am going to get what is being advertised, even though I have seen other discussions elsewhere about this site and how it is perfectly safe, having never bought from it myself, and never seen anybody buy anything old from it all, I feel it best to get some advice first.

[its ur aerial]

Before you jump in with booth feet, and if you intend to use or restore it, it might be a good idea to do some technical research on the type mains supply used in main land China back in the day, it could be allsorts 110v DC shrug: or any thing.
I would imagine Hong Kong after the War was inline with the UK.
Ken G6HZG.

[G6Tanuki]

Never dealt with TaoBao, but have had decent dealings through Alibaba.

My big worry about any dealings with China is that they don't necessarily adhere to Western standards of banking/funds-escrow regulation or legal/consumer rights. If they fail to deliver, under what jurisdiction will your complaint be processed?

Pay with a Western-bank credit-card; that way you can at least try a chargeback if the goods/services are defective.

And beware that quite a few offshore suppliers *still* expect you to pay the VAT/import-taxes despite that not being legal under current UK law.

[again, what regulatory regime are you trading under?]

[Ed_Dinning]

Beware that it might be a "mock vintage" set rather like the horn gramophones that they were selling a while ago.

Try putting and ad in the wanted section, there are quite a few members in Ireland who may have a set you would like. Give some idea of the style you are after and if fully repaired or as a project set

Good luck, Ed

[Paul_RK]

No need to worry about China's mains supply in regard of the Weixing 9101, as it's a transistor set needing 6 volts DC:

https://www.radiomuseum.org/images/s...101_821406.png

Paul

[Otter's vintage]

Originally Posted by Paul_RK

No need to worry about China's mains supply in regard of the Weixing 9101, as it's a transistor set needing 6 volts DC:

https://www.radiomuseum.org/images/s...101_821406.png

Paul

I was pretty sure mainland China has 220v mains anyway.

[Otter's vintage]

Originally Posted by Ed_Dinning

Beware that it might be a "mock vintage" set rather like the horn gramophones that they were selling a while ago.

Try putting and ad in the wanted section, there are quite a few members in Ireland who may have a set you would like. Give some idea of the style you are after and if fully repaired or as a project set

Good luck, Ed

I do not want a "mock vintage set" and I do not know of any Weixing reproductions, nor do I know of any factory making vintage components or even damaged radios like the ones I have seen, knowing how WW2 reproductions are, though.... TaoBao is not only for new items, but there is no "used" filter, meaning one has to sieve through the countless thousands of crappy modern radios with bluetooth functionality to find an old one, since most products are listed with tags rather than titles, searching for specific words like the manufacturer's name or model or even the words "old" or "vintage" will not yield many results, I found that just searching "radio" gets the most genuinely vintage radios, but of course, with how broad that search is, also means a lot of searching is to be done.

I have been using ParcelUp as the agent, I have not read much about this buying agent or their reliability if there is an issue

[Otter's vintage]

Originally Posted by G6Tanuki

Never dealt with TaoBao, but have had decent dealings through Alibaba.

My big worry about any dealings with China is that they don't necessarily adhere to Western standards of banking/funds-escrow regulation or legal/consumer rights. If they fail to deliver, under what jurisdiction will your complaint be processed?

Pay with a Western-bank credit-card; that way you can at least try a chargeback if the goods/services are defective.

And beware that quite a few offshore suppliers *still* expect you to pay the VAT/import-taxes despite that not being legal under current UK law.

[again, what regulatory regime are you trading under?]

I have had things from China before with no issues, so it would be a first if there was anything wrong. UK law does not apply to me.

[avocollector]

If you can ask the seller a few questions and see if you get a prompt, reasonable and full response that would indicate they can likely be reasonably trusted. Also ask for photos of the back of the set etc to ensure you are getting the real thing - any doubts click once on the image to bring it up alone and use a right click which will find any identical pictures on the internet which will show you if it's been copied. As people advise use a credit card to pay if possible so you can get a chargeback if the item does not arrive or is not what you bought. Beyond that it tends to be in the lap of the Gods although to be fair I've bought umpteen new things from China (Ali Baba, Ali Express etc) and only once had nothing arrived (For $6.00) but no used items. Hope those thoughts help.

[Otter's vintage]

Well, I already assumed that this thread was dead and bought it. So, now, can you explain the whole "not getting anything" business? Since I've paid around €40 so far, using an agent, meaning I still need to pay them another €40 or so. If there was any chance of me not getting my item, that's money I'm never going to see again. The particular listing I bought from seemed to use "generic" images of "old radios" and had two buying options, "Normal Use" and "Random Delivery", which mean nothing to me, obviously poorly translated by ParcelUp. You talk about messaging the seller, I don't speak chinese and I wouldn't be able to even navigate to the message box on TaoBao because of that, I didn't see any option to message the seller on parcelup, but the translated description said "Perfectists can contact us to choose to choose", which is probably a poor translation of "You can contact us to choose a specific set", and "Random Deliver" is likely just a "random" old radio they have available. The listing also states "All items are genuine antique objects from the 70 and 80 and can have flaws", so I'd assume they aren't just using images of vintage radios to sell a crappy modern "retro" thing, but I'll have to wait until Halloween to find out if my buy was good or if I'm going to wish I never gave away my money.

[Electronpusher0]

Best of luck.
Please let us know the outcome.

Peter

[Richard_FM]

I heard the Chinese made the same designs of radios for many years when they were trying to be self sufficient & not reliant on imported designs. I'm not sure if they were valve or early transistor sets.

[avocollector]

Originally Posted by Otter's vintage

Well, I already assumed that this thread was dead and bought it. So, now, can you explain the whole "not getting anything" business? Since I've paid around €40 so far, using an agent, meaning I still need to pay them another €40 or so. If there was any chance of me not getting my item, that's money I'm never going to see again. The particular listing I bought from seemed to use "generic" images of "old radios" and had two buying options, "Normal Use" and "Random Delivery", which mean nothing to me, obviously poorly translated by ParcelUp. You talk about messaging the seller, I don't speak chinese and I wouldn't be able to even navigate to the message box on TaoBao because of that, I didn't see any option to message the seller on parcelup, but the translated description said "Perfectists can contact us to choose to choose", which is probably a poor translation of "You can contact us to choose a specific set", and "Random Deliver" is likely just a "random" old radio they have available. The listing also states "All items are genuine antique objects from the 70 and 80 and can have flaws", so I'd assume they aren't just using images of vintage radios to sell a crappy modern "retro" thing, but I'll have to wait until Halloween to find out if my buy was good or if I'm going to wish I never gave away my money.

The language barrier can be a real problem but I've used google translate to supplement my meagre knowledge of Mandarin. Just copy the symbols on the site and paste them in the google box - it worked for a used digital frequency unit I bought recently which was all marked in chinese including the buttons. However be warned it can give you some pretty weird translations at times of asian languages.

Likewise if they have a message function you can use google to translate English into modern standard chinese to send them a query. Most Chinese retailers I've come across are only too happy to answer queries and help you if you reach out. As for the risk - well you take that when you buy anything off anybody but you can also reduce it by asking around on social media forums first - bad boys usually get outed pretty quickly.