As I get asked this every so often, I’ve decided to get around to writing a guide. The guide will be centred around pre-ordering figures, but the process is largely the same for most other items. For Chinese figure pre-orders, it’s common to pay a deposit then do a final payment when the figure releases. If you’re buying merch or for cheaper figure pre-orders you may pay in full upfront. Some sellers will offer full payment upfront for more expensive figures – it’s not my personal choice to do this, but is an option for people who prefer to get the payment over and done with.

If you find this guide useful and you’re new to Superbuy, feel free to use my affiliate link.

For this guide, “¥” refers to Chinese yuan.

Terminology

• Deposit: A small amount payable upfront to secure a preorder
• Informal deposit: A small, refundable deposit (normally ¥10) that doesn’t reserve an item, but will normally grant first dibs when pre-orders officially open. Often grants a small discount (normally ¥10) off the formal deposit.
• Formal deposit: The “official” deposit, that secures the figure.
• Final payment/Supplement/Tail: The final payment to settle the balance for a preorder
• Freight collect/SF Express: Shipping is paid on receipt of the goods
• Virtual delivery: Fake tracking number that is used to confirm delivery to lock in deposits
• Spot goods: “Ready stock” – these items are in stock and ready to buy
• Shoot: Purchase/buy. Often final payment buttons will say “don’t shoot” if you haven’t paid a deposit.

Why Superbuy?

I prefer to use a proxy for pre-ordering as Taobao can just randomly lock out accounts – I’ve gotten locked twice, so I prefer my orders to be tied to a Chinese account. I originally chose Superbuy as they have no limit to the amount of time an order is open -some Chinese proxies don’t allow for orders to be open more than 3-6 months, so if you’re looking for an alternative I’d bear this in mind.

I’ve been happy with the services Superbuy offers, and they have decent postal rates to my country. This doesn’t apply to all countries, so I’d recommend checking out their shipping calculator before purchasing. They also have a habit of tagging popular Chinese gacha game items as “famous branded” which affects postal lines to varying degrees depending on country. Most of the items I order don’t all under the “famous brand” restriction.

Ordering

First things first, find the link of the thing you want to pre-order. If you want to use Hpoi‘s main store, they will have links to their Taoabo listings on their website (n.b. 18+ items are on a different store that isn’t linked on the Hpoi site itself, but the store name is 天狗通贩). Most figure stores don’t seem to allow browsing without an account, so you may wish to register on Taobao, though I know this can be difficult for American users. If you’re using Superbuy to find things, I’d recommend forcing the “no translation mode”.

Once you’ve found what you want to pre-order, it’s time to take the link to Superbuy. Paste the link in the search box provided:

(if you’re using the app, search bar is at the top).

Continue reading “How to pre-order on Taobao using Superbuy” →