Prices for Taobao Shipping Increased 20-40%

Shipping Prices Increased

The cost of shipping has gone up at least 20-40% compared to the last few years. You can see this from 3 examples.

• MRC’s. In 2017 his services were around S$93 for 1cbm, which was super cheap. Fast forward to 2020, he is now charging S$160 for 1 cbm, which is an increase of 72%.
• Sfinex. They used to charge ￥36 for the first 1kg for sensitive stuff, now they charge ￥48. It’s an increase of 33%.
• Ezbuy. Ezbuy raised their currency conversion rate (RMB-SGD) and their economy shipping fees also increased to be about the same as Cainiao. Ezbuy didn’t increase by that much though.

Others like Princess, Peeka, and Oops also raised their prices. With COVID-19 impacting all industries it’s impossible to maintain their prices, so it’s not like they’re profiting either.

Taobao Prices Increased

Prices on Taobao are creeping up as well. We wrote a post on this previously and the point still stands. Taobao is not rock bottom in prices anymore.

Prices on Shopee are Very Competitive

Shopee’s prices are very competitive. They’ve sales every other day, be it 11.11, 10.10, Christmas Sale, Electronics Madness, etc. Shopee gives out cashback coupons everyday, although you can only use it on stuff that have the cashback label. Many sellers on Taobao also sell on Shopee.

Most importantly, Shopee items are generally available for free shipping. Even the stuff that ships from China comes with free shipping. Often times you can just buy 1 or 2 items and it comes to you for free. Now this is not truly free, because the sellers marked up the prices to account for shipping, but the shipping is almost always cheaper than what you can get when shipping via Taobao or third-party forwarders.

Taobao vs Shopee Prices

Comparison #1 – Laptop USB-C Charger and Cable

Take for example a laptop usb-c charger and cable.

Zmi Taobao Official Store – About S$23

If we were to buy a Zmi charger+cable (which makes good quality OEM for Xiaomi) charger for ￥89, we’d still have to

• Pay for shipping thereafter, which could cost another S$4-5.
• Pay a slight 3% fee to use Alipay.
• Key in details for shipping (if shipped through third-party forwarders).
• Wait to process the item (if shipped through third-party forwarders).

Shopee Generic Charger – About S$21

In comparison, we bought this charger from Shopee for S$20.59. It’s unbranded but appears legit. It reached us within 5 days. We also redeemed our existing Shopee coins, although that’s not really a good indicator (because you should always consider deduct cashback from the item you earned it from).

The best part is that if the item didn’t reach us or arrived damaged, we can still request a refund or replacement. In contrast, by the time Taobao stuff reaches you it’s too late, the buyer’s guarantee would’ve expired, or you’d need to spend more money to ship that replacement item again.

Comparison #2 – UGreen USB-C Cables

UGreen Taobao Official Store – About S$6 to S$7, depending on how the cost averages out with your other items

UGreen Shopee Official Store – About S$7 to S$8 (depending on cashback vouchers you use)

(Can’t be sure if they’re the exact same cables, because the Shopee listing doesn’t provide a lot of details. But they’re at least very similar, with several laptops supported.)

Taobao vs Shopee: Shopee Gives Similar Prices for Much Less Hassle

We’re not saying Shopee is always cheaper or better in quality. That’s not true – our charger from Shopee is unbranded.

But Taobao is no more the cheapest around. In fact, Shopee is cheaper for many items, especially when you only want to buy 1 or 2 pieces.

So, When Should You Buy From Shopee?

Buy from Shopee when:

• You want it  faster.
• Taobao is not much cheaper.
• It’s something more expensive and you need some guarantee for damaged items.
• You want to buy many items in small quantities and individually.
• It’s an electronics part, because often you need to ship from Taobao via expensive sensitive shipping.
• You already do a lot of shopping on Shopee.
• You’re already familiar and can get vouchers on Shopee.

After note: If you don’t have a Shopee account then consider doing us a favour and using our referral link ZACCZ222 to get $10.00 off your first purchase. Much appreciated!

༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ    ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ    ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ    ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ

Elmark just got instructed to do a fan recall for 17 models of their ceiling fans. Everyone probably has had some nightmare of ceiling fans and blades dropping down and killing the person sleeping – unfortunately this could be a reality if you’re using a faulty Elmark ceiling fan.

According to The Straits Times:

17 Elmark ceiling fan models recalled over safety issues

More than 500 units of ceiling fans from 17 models by Elmark Marketing are being recalled after checks showed they could pose safety problems.

These fans could potentially fall, electrocute someone or cause a fire, product safety agency Enterprise Singapore said yesterday.

Fan blades could also come loose when in use and cause cuts.

Although no reports of injuries have been made, Enterprise Singapore said it was alerted after an Elmark fan blade broke when in use. This prompted further checks.

Elmark is recalling the 17 fan models and has posted a notice on its website to inform customers they can trade in an affected model for a $150 voucher.

It said the 17 models were unregistered and sold without a valid safety mark as required for controlled goods under Singapore’s consumer protection regulations.

According to Elmark’s website, the company, which was established in 1988, distributes ceiling fans in Singapore and Malaysia.

The 17 recalled models are: AC 4054, E502 Aeratron, EC 888, EC 999, ED 866, EL03 Cane, EL03 Leaf, ELS 52 HHA, EL 3888 Elegant, ES 380S, ES 803, ES 803 Mini, Fanaway, Fantasy UFO 38, V6 Mini, V8 Jazz and VIP 99.

Elmark, which apologised for the recall, said the $150 voucher is valid for five years and is transferable. The company is also offering to remove affected fans for free, for customers who do not want to keep them.

Those who are unsure can take a photo of their product and send it to 9022-6365 via WhatsApp. Consumers can also check www.elmark.com.sg, call 6741-0729 or e-mail [email protected]

When contacted by The Straits Times, the Consumers Association of Singapore (Case) said between January last year and Sunday, it had received four complaints regarding Elmark ceiling fans.

“In general, consumers complained of defective parts in their ceiling fans and unsatisfactory after-sales service,” it said.

Affected consumers can also contact Case at its hotline on 6100-0315, or visit www.case.org.sg

Online sites that carry the affected Elmark fans told ST they have removed the models from their listings.

A Qoo10 spokesman said the company prefers to “err on the side of caution and does not hesitate to remove affected products” whenever it gets wind of lapses.

“A conversation can then be had with the supplier and we will reinstate the models if they are found to meet safety standards,” he added.

Anyone found guilty of supplying controlled goods that have not gone through proper tests and certification can be jailed for up to two years, fined up to $10,000, or both.

Under consumer protection regulations, ceiling fans are controlled goods that must be tested and certified. They should also be registered with Enterprise Singapore and fitted with a safety mark.

Enterprise Singapore said consumers should take precautions with their ceiling fans, such as checking the suspension system and blades for cracks once every two years.

The fans should also not be installed on an unstable ceiling or in a wet or moist area.

Those who wish to report product safety issues can call Enterprise Singapore on 1800-773-3163 or send an e-mail to [email protected]

Elmark issued a Statement

Elmark issued a statement which has quite a few typos and grammatical mistakes (see below). It’s not the best, because it’s not very apologetic and quite forced. The least they can do is to provide pictures of the fans so it’s easier for consumers to see whether their fans are affected.

PRODUCT RECALL

Dear Valued Customers,
We are instructed by Enterprise Singapore to do a recall exercise, if you happen to have these models in your house,

Fanaway, Fantasy UFO38, E502 Aeratron, EC 888, EC 999, ED 866, ES 380, V8 Jazz, VIP 99, EL 3888 Elegant, ES 803 Mini, ES 803, V6 Mini, AC 4054,
ELS 52 HHA, EL 03 Cane, EL 03 Leaf

These models were not tested to specified safety standards in accordance with the Consumer Protection (Safety Requirements) Regulations by Enterprise Singapore, the Safety Authority. They were unregistered and sold without a valid Safety Mark. Customers who purchased these models are entitled to trade in your old fan for a voucher of $150. Voucher issued is valid for 3 years & can be used as a gift voucher transferrable to anyone. Please take note that voucher is valid ONLY for purchases in SINGAPORE. If you are not sure of the model, you may take a photo of your fan, whatsapp to 9022-6365, our service centre will be able to verify. Please also help to provide your receipt & warranty card as shown on purchase date, if you have lost or misplace it, you could contact us and we will assist to find your record.

We are also providing free removal services if you do not wish to keep the products. You may contact us for more details :
email: [email protected] or
call: 6741-0729 or
whatsapp only 9022-6365 (service centre)

Rest assure, Consumer Safety is Elmark’s highest priority. We are carefully monitoring for any complaints that may be related to this recall.

We apologise for all inconveniences caused.

No Injuries Reported Yet

To be fair, the reports make it clear that there weren’t any injuries or incidents that have occurred.

But potentially it could be a problem because a fan blade broke and further checks revealed potential dangers.

We’re Safe, For Now…

The fan we bought from Taobao, while not officially branded an Elmark ceiling fan, most probably is one (OEM side).

Our fans look exactly the same as an Elmark I-Cool. It does get noisy, as the middle round cap loosens slight (thus creating some clicking sound), but the integrity of the fan appears fine.

But if you’re in doubt, just do as we did and Whatsapp Elmark. They haven’t replied yet though, fingers crossed!

Update: Elmark replied that ours is not among the recalled list, so it’s all good!

Conclusion

This means that you shouldn’t be buying Elmark ceiling fans for now and the foreseeable future. Don’t risk it!

Ironically, we’re not sure if it’s the best move to take up Elmark’s voucher to buy a new Elmark ceiling fan. There could be the same safety issues again.

And as a brand Elmark is in a huge hole – the last thing you want is a fan that drops down and kills you. This is the largest product recall we’ve seen for ceiling fans.

We Use a Mesh Network

We’re using a mesh system. Mesh networks allow you to have 1 network (SSID) name across different routers and access points. If you’ve 2 routers and networks, your phone will keep disconnecting/reconnecting if you walk around. So videos pausing, downloads stopping. With mesh there’s no such disconnect (at least to the user).

Our mesh is not the traditional mesh, it’s Asus’ AiMesh. AiMesh is Asus’ technology to turn a few Asus routers into a mesh network. The benefit is you can reuse old Asus routers or get more flexibility to use them separately.

We originally considered whether to buy a traditional mesh like Google Wifi (replaced by Nest Wifi), Asus Lyra, and Linksys Velop. But we opted for this because our entire setup is still slightly cheaper and we have the flexibility of owning 3 individual routers.

Our HDB Wifi Setup

HDB Wifi setups typically only have 1 router in the DB box. We have 3 routers, but we typically only turn on 2 (main bedroom and DB box).

• DB box: 1 x RT-AC1200G+ router — Network switch, connected to ONT
• Main Bedroom: 1 x RT-AC88U router — Main AiMesh, connected via Ethernet backhaul (i.e. it gets Internet through wired connection)
• Living Room (optional): 1 x RT-AC88U router in the living room — AiMesh node, connected via WiFi

Our usage is primarily in the main bedroom, which is the size of 2 normal bedrooms. That’s why we decided to put our main router connection in the bedroom, for the best speed and signal.

Note: We can use the RT-AC88U as the switch router and main AiMesh in the DB box. We didn’t because it runs very hot and is expensive, so if we do that the router will spoil faster. So we bought a cheap AC1200G+ router from Carousell (it’s given out as a free 1 Gbps contract router by M1) to use as a switch.

Wifi Signal Strength

To give you a sense of how the Wifi signal is, we created a couple of charts by using a Wifi signal strength analyser.

Bedroom Router (AC88U)

Stronger signal strength is illustrated in darker green.

The bedroom router is great for the bedroom (obviously) and the toilets. Great signal for times when you need to watch Youtube videos while you’re taking a long dump.

The Wifi signal gets really weak when it hits the kitchen, but otherwise the whole house is covered. But this is also due to the AC88U being much more powerful in its signal strength. It can also switch between 5Ghz and 2.5Ghz automatically.

Living Room Router (AC1200G+)

Stronger signal strength is coloured in darker red.

The living room router is much weaker. There’re dead zones in the bedroom, especially where our bed is. The toilets are also a problem.

But as mentioned before, this is also due to the weakness of the router, rather than its placement.

Wifi Setup Conclusion

If you’re not a fussy user and are ok to replace your router more regularly (due to the heat generated degrading the hardware), then you only need to buy a powerful router and stick it into the DB box. 

But always estimate how much space your DB box has and whether your router can fit inside. You also need to accommodate your router and ONT, which is typically the size of a small router. The RT-AC88U is large, so it does not fit well inside for our DB box.

A toilet shower screen is nice, especially when it’s made of glass. A screen is more expensive (around $500) than a shower curtain, but they keep toilets drier. We have both, so it’s very obvious a screen works better.

It’s also something most hotels have, so it looks more atas.

Unfortunately, shower screens get a lot of water and soap marks (duh). If you’re like us, being lazy to clean it regularly, the marks harden and become very difficult to get rid of. (But if you want a natural privacy filter for your screen then this is great.)

We tried glass cleaning liquids, glass wipers, and wet cloths. None worked. The water marks are still there on our toilet shower screen.

We also tried glass cleaning sponges (gifted to us by the shower screen contractor), but it was super slow to clean and after a while didn’t clean well.

Solution: CIF and Scotch Brite Non Scratch Scrub

We researched and found a great solution: use CIF and 3M Scotch Brite Non Scratch Scrub (for non-stick pans) to scrub the shower screen. It’s not abrasive so you won’t scratch your shower screen glass. At the same time it dissolves the water marks well.

Don’t use too much or press too hard though, our CIF had micro cleaning particles, so we still need to be careful.

And once you’re done you can use the glass wiper to dry the shower screen if you want to.

Problem solved! Now you can get a bright and clean shower screen just before your friends and family visit. (Of course you only clean before visits.) The marks start to harden after a few weeks, then you need to bring out the CIF and Scotch Brite again.

Taobao Shipping to Singapore – Is It Possible?

Yes! In the past, you needed to do a lot of extra work just to do Taobao shipping to Singapore – those were the days of 65daigou and other third party companies. But now there’re many options. Don’t worry if it looks complicated and is in Chinese. It’ll save you some money.

Is Shopping and Taobao Shipping Expensive?

It depends. Many things are cheap when compared to Singapore retail shops, especially home necessity items (e.g. cables, fans, flasks). Read our previous article on why you should buy stuff from Taobao instead of Ikea or local furniture shops.

But prices have also increased now when compared to 2 years ago. Things like dresses and clothes are sometimes comparable to local blog shop prices. So do your homework!

What do I buy and shop on Taobao?

You can read our reviews for stuff we’ve bought like:

Must Buys	Lights Basin and taps
So So	A cabinet Bomb shelter racks
Don't Buy	Ceiling fans

5-Step Guide to Taobao Shopping

Step 1: Find your stuff. 

1. You need to get your keyword first. This is harder than it sounds.
2. Look for the inspiration and try to hazard a guess at the Chinese keywords OR search using Chinese keywords generically OR search using English keywords and check those listings to find the corresponding Chinese words OR you can try using image search, which honestly isn’t very good.
3. Sort by amount of sales (select 销量 instead of 综合排序) – the default view 综合排序 almost never gives the best option in terms of prices, quality, and popularity.
4. Always go for the listing with the most good reviews, most reviews, most picture reviews – in that order. There’re many problems with fake Taobao reviews nowadays, so you can never be too careful.
5. If there’re many items with similar popularity, you’d want a) the more expensive one, b) the one with the better customer service, and c) the one with better bundle/quantity discounts.

Step 2: Ask more about the item.

1. At this point, you should download 阿里旺旺 and talk to the seller. You usually click on a blue bubble beside the seller’s name to activate 阿里旺旺, or a popup will emerge to ask you to either download the software or use the web interface. (Protip: the web interface sucks.)
2. Ask how the seller will package the product for delivery, whether they can do wooden crates, add bubble wrap. Ask them more about the product. Even if you’ve no questions, ask them how fast the delivery is.
3. Sometimes sellers will say certain extras (like extra light bulks or adding wooden crates [打木架]) cost more and they need to amend the prices. That means they’ll amend the prices after you 下单 (submitted the order and reached the Alipay screen where you need to key in your credit card details).

Step 3: Make your shopping as value for money as possible.

1. This is the auntie step already. (For those non-aunties, you can skip this section. But if not, let’s be super aunties and save even more money!)
2. Before you add your items to your shopping cart, ask yourself whether you’ve been shopping in a way that makes shipping efficient. The goal is always to get the best prices and quality from a few sellers.
   • By efficient we mean consolidating items in as few boxes as possible and making sure that you don’t “waste” volumetric weight.
   • For example, there’s no point buying a nail clipper from a seller, a cable from another seller, and a shoe horn from yet another one. The sellers will send you the stuff in 3 different boxes, each with tons of padding and a lot of empty space inside the box. You end up paying shipping for air from China to Singapore.
   • The solution is to buy from as few sellers as possible instead. Prices are usually very competitive so you won’t lose much by buying from only a few sellers.
   • This is something that no one really tells you, but we realised it after spending tons of time learning how to ship on Taobao.
   • Of course, if there’re no alternatives to get the best prices and quality then you should just buy from different sellers. Sometimes that happens.
3. If you want to expedite your shipping, take note where the seller ships from (within China). If you need it asap, then try to find a seller who ships from around the same province/city as the shipper’s warehouse. Otherwise, your parcel will take a few days to travel across China.
4. Don’t add to your shopping cart (购物车) first! Copy and paste the URL and item title into a word document.

Step 4: Milk your Shopback cash back.

1. Go to Shopback (caveat: shameless referral link here) and use the Chrome extension (no shameless link here). Remember to disable your Ad-Block/Ghostery/Disconnect plugins.
2. Sign in to your account on Shopback through the extension. But even if you don’t it’s quite idiot proof, nothing happens until you do.
3. Go to the product page for the item you want. Click the button that pops up:
4. If there’s no cashback there’s a pop up on the right that says this item doesn’t have cashback.
5. Click the button and you’ll see this:
6. Add the item to cart.
7. When you check your cart this should show:
8. If it’s too tiring for you, or if the cash back seems damn little (often can be less than $1), always remember: you’re $aving more money. $o don’t give up. It’ll all add up.

Step 5: It’s time to pay and buy your stuff

1. Go to the shopping cart and check out whether there’re any coupons for your items. You can collect coupons under the 优惠券 drop-down menu.
2. Make sure those with Shopback discounts show up like that:
3. Those without cashback will still show no cashback.
4. Select your items and check out (结账) so you can go to the payment screen.
5. If you’re using Taobao Global Direct or Taobao Consolidated Shipping, sometimes you’d get an error message at this stage that the item cannot ship out of China. For example if you want to buy a battery through ZTO, then the system won’t let you proceed without deleting the item.
6. Select your desired shipper. 直送 means Taobao global direct shipping and 集运 refers to consolidated shipping via third party shipping. We explain these options further below. To select something else just select 修改服务商.
7. Check your China domestic postage fee (运送方式) and whether it’s free.
8. Remember not to deselect the discounts under the 优惠方式 column or the 店铺优惠 drop-down box.
9. Remember to add in any relevant comments (e.g. design, colour, or size) in the 给买家留言 text box before you confirm the order. It’s basically anything that your shipper requires you to insert.
10. Double check your addresses before you click 下单 (place order).
11. Enter your payment details and pay!
12. If the seller says he/she needs to change the prices, then tell the seller to change the order accordingly before you pay. E.g. if they need to change the prices to add in the fees of adding a wooden crate. The seller will often ask you to 下单 and then let them know, because they need you to do that before they can amend the final price. Then you go to your 已买到的淘宝, click pay and go through with payment normally.

Ok la, only 5 steps what. That wasn’t too hard, eh?

6 Options for Taobao Shipping to Singapore

Don’t forget there’s a huge part after you finish shopping – you need to do Taobao shipping to Singapore. There are 6 choices. Don’t use Taobao Global Direct Shipping or Seller’s Shipping!

1. Taobao Global Direct Shipping
2. Taobao Consolidated Shipping (to Home) [Recommended]
3. Taobao Consolidated Shipping (to POPStation) [Recommended]
4. Third Party Shipping (Air) [Recommended]
5. Third Party Shipping (Sea) [Recommended]
6. Seller’s Shipping

Comparison of Options

Shipping Option	Description	Air/Sea	Cost	Speed	Convenience	Payment
Taobao Global Direct	The order you paid for is shipped out as one package to Singapore.	Air	High	High	Low	Taobao interface
Taobao Consolidated Shipping to Home	You can slowly consolidate your buys and then ship to your home in one go to Singapore.	Air	Medium	Medium	High	Taobao interface
Taobao Consolidated Shipping to POPStation	You can slowly consolidate your buys and then ship in one go to Singapore. Delivered to POPStation for collection.	Air	Medium	Medium	High	Taobao interface
Third Party Forwarder	You can slowly consolidate your buys at a China warehouse and then ship to your home in one go to Singapore.	Air/Sea	Low-Medium	Medium	High	Third party shipper's website
Seller's Shipping	Avoid this at all cost! This is the seller shipping to you direct and the price is usually insanely expensive.	Air/Sea	Super High	-	High	Taobao interf

Taobao Global Direct

The most efficient of all options.

Pros	Cons
Delivers your order asap for that one order, within 5 days from warehouse.	Usually more expensive, sometimes much more (e.g. double).
Everything is seamless. Make one order, pay for your items, and wait for them to arrive at your home.	Only get one shot at sending out your items, you make an order and that's it. If you find anything else you need to do a new shipment. But then you'd waste money, because the initial chargeable weight is always more expensive.
Pay GST only when your delivery order exceeds SGD 400.	Lack of communication. Taobao ever shipped our items without everything having arrived at the warehouse. One item was not sent out by the seller as he was waiting for us to verify (literally click confirm) order through 阿里旺旺; but Taobao shipped out the partial shipment because of their 5-day guarantee.
	Not easy to contact Taobao if anything pops up, you'll need to do it at their hours, through the website.

Taobao Consolidated Shipping to Home

Use Taobao’s consolidated shipping for small and light items like clothes or charging cables. You can slowly shop over many days and ship them to Taobao’s Cainiao warehouse, then ship them to Singapore in one go. Cainiao typically calculates the fees via volumetric or actual weight. Use the latter if the actual weight is much heavier than volumetric (e.g. dumbells).

Pros	Cons
You can consolidate your items. The forwarder automatically tracks and handles the items at their warehouse.	Cannot ship prohibited items like food, batteries, liquids, gases, knives, lights, and some plastics.
You pay GST only when it exceeds SGD 400.	Strict limitation on how big the parcels can be, especially the length of the items and combined sizes.
The fees for air shipping are also typically the lowest, even lower than third party forwarders, probably because they handle things in bulk.	(If you're ever in doubt, just check with the customer service via the Taobao website before buying the item. It sucks to have your items rejected by the warehouse. And then you have to either throw the item away or pay more to ship them back to the seller.)

Taobao Consolidated Shipping to POPStation

The same as Taobao consolidated shipping to home, except you collect from POPStations. There’re size limitations as per the POPStation limits:

Type	Size
Small	42cm (w) x 10cm (h) x 61cm (d)
Medium	42cm (w) x 23.5cm (h) x 61cm (d)
Large	42cm (w) x 37cm (h) x 61cm (d)

Third Party Sea Shipping

We’d recommend sea shipping by third party forwarders for bulky and sensitive items. Third party forwarders tend to be cheaper when it comes to sea shipping and they are more flexible. The forwarder calculates your fee based on the number of cubic metres you use up (1 x 1 x 1m). That’s regardless of the actual weight, unless you sink the ship with something super heavy like Thor’s hammer.

You can have a huge flat table which is long but flat, and still add more boxes on top of it in the ship. Which means you’d want to fill the space with heavy items. Same thing for prohibited items like batteries and knives, because these can’t go under air shipping.

We found this guy promoting his services on HWZ forums, MRC. His rates are the lowest we’ve seen. The speed of delivery for sea shipping is fine but much slower than air shipping. MRC usually shipped our stuff before we paid him, so that the sea shipping was already faster. We always texted him as and when we needed help as well. He was always able to advise us appropriately. But he was not reliable after all (we lost quite a bit of money). So we decided to stop using him.

There’re many other alternatives like Sfinex, Oops, Peeka, or 86 Ocean Freight. You can google for some reviews. We have only used Sfinex before and they were pretty fast in shipping and very responsive over WeChat. Their prices were quite good as well. You can add the lady boss on QQ: 598844064, 阿里旺旺: sfinex_cs, or WeChat: sfinex.

Normal process

The whole process to get sea shipping from third party forwarders is the same as the typical Ezbuy ship-for-me service but more complicated than Ezbuy buy-for-me:

1. You change your delivery address to the China warehouse address that the shipper gives you.
2. Add the marking that the shipper gives you in the description, if applicable. We use “请在所有包装或箱子上注明XXX,不然货仓可能会拒绝签收”. Not all shippers require this.
3. To be safe, use 阿里旺旺 to tell the sellers to indicate the marking clearly. Your parcels won’t automatically disappear if they don’t have the marking, but the chance of it going missing is greater.
4. If you bought only single items, then get the delivery tracking numbers from the Taobao system, under the 已买到的淘宝 section.
5. If you bought multiple items from the seller, the seller might ship in more than one parcel to the warehouse. Use 阿里旺旺 to ask the seller for all the delivery tracking numbers. This part is very important. If they shipped 3 items to you in 3 boxes but you only tracked 1, you lose 2 of them. The seller will not refund you as it’ll show that you received the item. The Taobao system usually shows only 1 item and we usually see at most 2 numbers. There’s nothing worse than shipping chairs and receiving only the legs.
6. Track your orders in the Taobao system or courier companies’ systems.
7. When everything is 签收 (signed for by the warehouse) in the system, you should fill in the details of your parcels either over email (like how MRC does it) or a web interface (like SFinex does it).
8. Fill up the details with the tracking numbers, shipping companies, costs of items, and short descriptions of the items. These are mainly for identifying your stuff and submitting info to the shipping company so they can pack your items.
9. Once done, MRC or the SFinex system will calculate the total fees, which will include the shipping fee, GST (which is applicable for all sea shipping), and insurance (if you opt for it).
10. Pay for it and everything’s done. For a guide on using SFinex, you can check out the section below.

Third Party Air Shipping (Sfinex)

We’ve been using Sfinex for third party air shipping as well. It’s useful for large but light parcels, because there’s an option to air ship by normal weight. We usually select the 免抛 (i.e. ship by normal weight), so we don’t have to worry about expensive volumetric weight fees. The 半抛 is usually more expensive, because they take half volumetric weight and half normal weight.

But do take note: Sfinex doesn’t prorate the weight, so they round up all weights. For example, 2.6kg will be charged as 3kg, meaning you are overcharged by 0.4kg.

The process for payment is more complicated:

1. You change your delivery address to the China warehouse address that Sfinex gives you in the members’ area.
2. If you bought only single items, then get the delivery tracking numbers from the Taobao system, under the 已买到的淘宝 section.
3. If you bought multiple items from the seller, the seller might ship in more than one parcel to the warehouse. Use 阿里旺旺 to ask the seller for all the delivery tracking numbers. Remember, this part is very important.
4. Track your orders in the Taobao system or courier companies’ systems.
5. When everything is 签收 (signed for by the warehouse) in the system, you should fill in the details of your parcels through Sfinex’s web interface (courier company, delivery tracking no, brief description, number of boxes, and value of item).
6. There’re many types of shipping options. Select the desired one. If in doubt, select 新加坡免抛.
7. Once submitted, SFinex’s system will calculate the shipping weight and fee.
8. For SFinex, you can’t pay via normal means because we don’t have a China-issued credit card. So you pay via Taobao. SFinex will send you a link to a 1 yuan dummy item on Taobao, you’d just buy the quantities needed to pay for your shipping. E.g. if your fee is RMB 120, just buy 120 of this RMB 1 item. 
9. The next step is to submit a form (similar to Ezbuy) to say how much you paid, when you paid, and upload a screenshot of the payment. They’ll verify it. What happens is you loaded your account with money, which can be used for payment.
10. The final step is to go to the air shipment orders page and click “[付款]”. This uses the money you loaded to pay for the shipment. (Ignore the part where it says 待付款, re-used the same screenshot)
11. When payment is verified and correct your stuff will be shipped out.

Prices for Taobao Shipping to Singapore

We compared the fees from the main options (excluding buy-for-me services) for Taobao shipping to Singapore. So who’s cheapest? In general, go for Taobao official air shipping forwarders if you want to ship small and light items and get it fast. If it’s heavy items, you might want to try large sea shipping from SFinex, Cainiao, or MRC, although the first 2 is not very cheap. But try to break up your purchases even if you pay more for shipping, because you will lose less money if the shipper loses your items.

Method	Shipper	Price for initial weight	Subsequent prices	Weight limitation	Size limitation	Speed of shipping	Recommended for
Air	Taobao Global Direct	Minimum ￥22, calculated at product page	￥10.50/500g	25kg	Single side not more than 80cm, height+width+depth not more than 150cm.	Fastest	Small and light stuff like clothes, cables, mats
Air	Taobao Consolidated Shipping	￥29 for 1kg	￥10.50/500g	25kg	Single side not more than 80cm, height+width+depth not more than 150cm.	Fastest	Small and light stuff like clothes, cables, mats
Air	Sfinex (actual weight shipping, no sensitive shipping fee)	￥36 for 1kg	Subsequent: ￥26 for 1.1-2 kg; ￥24 for 2.1-10kg; ￥23 for more than 10.1kg	25kg (overweight charge, exact limitation unknown)	Single side not more than 120cm, 2 sides cannot exceed 70*70cm (e.g. 90*20*20cm can, 90*80*20cm cannot). (oversize charge, exact limitation unknown)	Fast	Large and light stuff like painting, shower curtain rod, plastic containers, or sensitive equipment like electronics
Sea shipping (by weight)	Cai Niao (less than 30kg)	￥22 for 1kg	￥7.40/1.0kg	30kg	Height+width+depth not more than 180cm, and voumetric weight not more than 30kg (height X width X dept/6000	Slow	Small stuff you can afford to wait for
Sea shipping (by volume) (smaller than 1cbm)	Cai Niao (large sea shipping)	￥230 for 0 to 0.5cbm.	￥4.60/0.01cbm	500kg	Height+width+depth not more than 5m	Slowest	A lot of heavy or sensitive stuff like tables, chairs, cabinets
Sea shipping (by volume) (larger than 1cbm)	Cai Niao (large sea shipping)	￥4.60/0.01cbm	-	500kg	Height+width+depth not more than 5m	Slowest	A lot of heavy or sensitive stuff like tables, chairs, cabinets
Sea shipping (by volume)	Sfinex	￥399 (0.1 to 0.5 cbm) ￥580.0 (0.6 to 1cbm) ￥580.0/cbm (1 to 5cbm) ￥550.0/cbm (>5cbm)	-	500kg	Single side not more than 200cm; Single item not more than 50kg (chargeable otherwise); 1cbm cannot exceed 500kg	Slow	A lot of heavy or sensitive stuff like tables, chairs, cabinets
Sea shipping (by volume)	MRC shipping	$93 for 1cbm	$9.30/0.1cbm	Depends	Depends	Slow	A lot of heavy or sensitive stuff like tables, chairs, cabinets

Last-Mile Delivery to Your Home/POPStation

Last mile delivery refers to delivering your items to your doorstep, it’s the last step for Taobao shipping to Singapore. Couriers will typically deliver any time when it is convenient for them. Some give you a call before they reach, especially if you only have a few small items. A few will text the day before to arrange a time.

Both of us are working during the day, so we usually just ask the courier to leave the parcel in the HDB riser beside our flat, and Whatsapp the photo to us. But this is not doable if you’ve a huge shipment. So just watch out if you’re buying tons of stuff.

More Tips and Tricks

Because we wanted to keep this article shorter, we wrote a separate guide on Taobao tips and FAQs on shopping and shipping. Some of the tips are already hinted at above. But it’s useful to always ask whether you’re making your Taobao shopping or shipping as effective and efficient as possible.

Bad experiences

We have also suffered losses throughout our Taobao journey. There are also bad experiences for Taobao shipping to Singapore: one shipper lost our whole parcel (Last Mile Delivery Pte Ltd) and another one lost a few items (MRC from Hardwarezone Forums). Life does suck sometimes.

Too Long; Didn’t Read

Use third party sea shipping for large furniture and things you can afford to wait. Go for Taobao’s consolidated shipping to home for small and light items, or if you really need it fast. Use Oops/Peeka/Ezbuy Buy-for-Me services if your Chinese is D7-standard, but you’ll need to pay more. Never use Taobao global direct or Cainiao sea shipping.

What’s next?

Did you find our guide useful for your Taobao shipping to Singapore? Let us know about your success in the comments below!

If you’ve encountered any problems, you can head over to our new guide on Taobao tips and FAQs on shopping and shipping.

We’ve also written guides on buying Taobao lights, buying Taobao taps, review on our Taobao cabinet, review on Taobao ceiling fans. But that’s not to say everything went well, here’s our rant about our experience with our shipper losing our stuff that we mentioned above.

Buying wooden Taobao photo frames

Wooden photo frames are expensive in Singapore. There’s a shop at Esplanade, Poster Hub, that sells framed posters. Those cost a bomb because they sell original posters (e.g. this Joker poster costs SGD130 with a 27″x40″ frame).

We went to DIY – we bought the wooden frames and posters (the 牛皮纸, dirty and retro kind) from Taobao. Those were really cheap, each frame was about SGD4 and each poster about SGD1.50 (excluding shipping). All in, 6 frames cost less than half of the poster sold at Poster Hub.

Warning signs

We shipped them via sea shipping, so there wasn’t a problem with shipping cost.

When the wooden Taobao photo frames came there were some warning signs. They came in a cardboard box that looked damaged and torn.

There were some dents and scratches on the Taobao photo frames when we took them out of the Styrofoam covers. The wood wasn’t the best. The acrylic surface wasn’t the best, they weren’t very clear (not ‘shiny’) and there were scratches as well. The result was that the pictures inside didn’t look very vibrant and eye-popping. But thankfully our posters were the retro kind and weren’t vibrant in the first place.

For the price though, it’s hard to complain.

Everything went well for a while…

Nothing to complain there for the better part of a few months. Or maybe there were problems but we didn’t notice. We don’t really know.

Until we noticed a bug infestation on our walls…

One night we randomly noticed several tiny ant-like insects on the wall, just walking about.

Fuck our lives. It’s like those times when you’re about to sleep or do something good, and a giant cockroach or lizard walks in front of you. Then you’ve to chase it. Move stuff around. Kill it. Sweat. Clean up. Get insomnia after that from the workout.

They looked like ants, except ants liked to walk with purpose and grouped up. These ‘ants’ were just chilling and walking. They didn’t bite either when we picked some up.

Having looked closer, we realised there were a lot of them. We couldn’t figure out why they were there. We investigated further and realised they were coming from the Taobao photo frames. After taking them down, we saw many more on the wall.

They were mainly on the fibreboard that supports the pictures. The ones at the back of the photo frames. The bugs were just crawling all over.

Nope, not termites

We thought at first that these were termites, since they were attracted to wood and didn’t really look like normal ants. We Googled and didn’t think they look like termites either.

They were booklice

We found out subsequently that they were booklice. These little shits were all over the place because they eat mould and mildew, which grow well in high humidity. They were attracted to mould growing on the fibreboard and the small seams on the Taobao photo frames. Those are common actually, just like how leather boots often get mould on the surface.

At least they didn’t bite.

To get rid of the problem, we dumped all the photo frames. It wasn’t an expensive loss, but it did leave the house empty. Not to mention, the walls were brownish, after being stained by the fibreboard.

Verdict

In all, the Taobao wooden frames and posters were very cheap. But they came at a price. Because the wood and fibreboard used was lousy, it grew mouldy very fast. This attracted a lot of booklice.

The frame and fibreboard also dirtied the wall, so that sucked as well. On hindsight, we probably wouldn’t buy the wooden frames again.

Strangely enough, we have one last Taobao wooden frame in the bedroom that sits on the bedroom aircon ledge window. That window has lots of sunlight (even through the frosted glass) and heat. And unsurprisingly the frame hasn’t had any booklice or mould.

Neither of us has ever done this before, so we went by trial and error. We succeeded so we get to write this tutorial.

Before we begin, you need to realise that this is not for you if you’ve a fluorescent light bulb (see our guide here on the differences).

Step 1: Make sure no one turns on the light while you work!

Very important, don’t let anyone turn on the light while you’re working. Else, you’ll become bak kwa.

Step 2: Pull the downlight

Don’t turn the light like we first tried. Grip both sides of the recessed downlight and pull it down. Dust and random crap will drop down, so wear your dirty clothes (before bathing, of course) when you do so.

You might need to put in some force as the clips lock the light in place. But don’t pull so hard that your whole ceiling comes down!

Step 3: Unscrew the screws that hold 2 wires

Unscrew to loosen the wires and take out the faulty LED light.

Step 4: Admire the shit that dropped and contemplate the clean-up that lies ahead

No, really, take some time to absorb the fact that you’re now dirty, smelly, and have to clean up later.

Meanwhile, bring out your replacement light bulb.

Step 5: Cut the rubber wire insulation, if necessary

The blue and brown wires need to go into their respective holes. If the insulation is preventing the wires from splitting, then you need to cut the insulation so the wires can be free to go in.

Step 6: Put the wires into their respective coloured holes and tighten the screws

Self explanatory. Don’t mix up the order of the wires – always go back to the same colours.

Step 7: Put the LED light bulb back into the hole

Stuff it back. To do that, pull the clips up so the LED light bulb fits into the hole.

Step 8: Turn on the lights and see if it worked out

Of course it works. A change of ceiling LED light. Not bad huh?

Buying our washing machine without installation

We bought our washing machine before renovation finished. We wanted to take advantage of LiveUp cashback by Lazada (non referral link, needed to put this for the nice SEO), which made it much cheaper than traditional stores like Gain City, which can hold your purchase for you until your home is ready.

Shops on Lazada don’t hold your order, they deliver ASAP because they have inventory/warehousing costs to pay if they store it for you.

So we bought our fridge and washing machine 2 months before our home was ready. The cashback was good, on top of the cash rebates via credit card.

But there was no installation, even though it’d have been free. We had no home so we couldn’t install it. We didn’t think it’d be a problem until we moved in.

Our washing machine installation guide

Without further ado, here’s our totally pro guide on washing machine installation, to do what everyone gets professionals to do instead. Because DIY is more satki.

Step 1: Remove the box and move the washing machine to the service yard

Straight forward enough. Actually we asked our ID for help, they were super nice to oblige.

Step 2: Remove the transit bolts at the back

Washing machines ship with some transit bolts at the back. Remove those.

Replace them with caps provided.

Step 3: Adjusting the washing machine feet

This is also an easy step. Just make sure the washing machine is level by screwing/loosening the 4 feet.

Step 4: Connect the washing machine pipe to the washing machine

Self explanatory. Our (Hitachi) washing machine pipe already had a mesh filter that either saves water or filters sediments.

Step 5: Get an adapter for the tap

The new service yard taps are the worst. They have a weird shape, so the typical washing machine hose doesn’t fit. Don’t jam your tap into the hose!

They also have water saving features, which is stupid because washing machines use the same amount of water regardless. They just take longer if the tap flows slowly, which causes more electricity consumption. HDB if you’re reading this, this is genuine feedback!

We rushed down to the 五金店 / hardware store to see if we could find something. We brought the whole pipe down, which was a good move because there’re a lot of adapters. Just test those available with the permission of the store owner.

We finally bought the correct one, which could fit if we removed the mesh filter. Luckily the adapter wasn’t too expensive.

Step 6: Screw the damn adapter in place

We didn’t take photos of the process because all 4 of our hands were busy. But you need to be careful when tightening the screws.

There’re 4 screws, at the 12, 3, 6, 9 o’clock positions. You need to tighten the screws in pairs, do them bit by bit. Tighten too much of any screw and the adapter becomes imbalanced and leaks water.

We had to do this for 15-20 mins. Very stressful. But finally we got it done.

Step 7: Put the washing machine drain hose into the discharge drain

Put the only drain hose left, the one where soap water is discharged, into the discharge drain. Of course, you’ll need to uncap the discharge drain before insertion.

Lesson Learnt

Morale of the story – make sure you get someone to do the installation for you to save a couple of hours’ worth of backache and sore arms.

Or if for some reason you want to DIY install your washing machine, then read our guide and get cracking!

Taobao was super cheap

Most people caught on to the fact that Taobao was cheap around 2015 to 2017.

Indeed, things were cheap on Taobao. We published several articles gushing about cheap furniture (e.g. general guide, taps, ceiling fans) and appliances, compared it favourably to Ikea.

If you bought Taobao stuff for your whole whole, half the items might arrive spoilt or turn rusty within a year, but you would have a super cheap house.

Even though there were unhappy episodes, those were due to shipping disasters where we lost a few shipments and non-existent helplines.

But things have changed. They’re not that cheap now.

Warning signs that Chinese manufacturers are going upmarket

The warning signs are there that China has been moving up the value chain. They’ve been there for some time, especially rising labour costs.

China is no longer the world’s low cost manufacturer. Labour costs are rising (e.g. Japanese concerns). Chinese companies are even turning into MNCs / Trans-National Companies and setting up shop in other countries like Bangladesh.

Taobao also opened a physical store at Funan. What the heck?! In a retail environment where most shops find it hard to survive, we’ve a Chinese ecommerce platform that “offer(s) a wide range of products available from Taobao that are specially curated for Singapore shoppers, covering categories such as furniture, household items, textiles and fashion.”

And ok la, we also published an article on stuff that’re not cheap, like our moon lights and cabinet.

Anecdotal evidence from our Taobao purchases

Not every item would be more expensive. Some might be cheaper, such as during sales periods. But in general prices have been rising for some items we buy.

“Gamer” Mouse (+72%)

We used to buy it for RMB 13.90 for the enhanced version of a “gamer” mouse (inverted commas because it’s probably lacking in the quality of an actual gamer mouse). This wasn’t a special sale price. Back then it was really very cheap, SGD 3 for a mouse is cheap anywhere. SGD 3 for a gamer mouse is insane.

When we tried to buy it again this month, it jumped to RMB 23.80 (72% increase). Even the basic version is RMB 15.10 – higher price for a lousier product.

Neti Pot (+35%)

For some reason Shopee or Qoo10 can be cheaper. A cheap neti pot on Shopee sells for SGD 2.66 without shipping.

A cheap Taobao seller sells for more, i.e. SGD 3.60, without the shipping cost.

Hangers (+4%)

The price of nice, thick hangers similar to those Ikea used to sell increased a little. It was RMB 57 for a pack of 50 hangers.

It’s now RMB 59 for a pack of 50 hangers. A small increase that you won’t notice unless you look closely.

USB Type C Cable (+14%)

Although sale prices can vary, we used to buy the USB type C cables at RMB 13.90 for 3.

It fluctuates, typically upwards, and is now RMB 15.90 even on promotion.

Bathroom Tap (+18%)

Our bathroom tap increased in price, from RMB 288 to RMB 330 (increased 18%).

Clothes Hook (+21%)

Our clothes hook increased in price from RMB 114 to RMB 138 (increased 21%). That said, this might be due to differences in promotional prices, although we doubt it, because 女王价 weren’t fantastic.

Animal Stool (-10%)

Some items do drop in prices. For instance, the cow and elephant stools we bought dropped from RMB 99 to RMB 89, because they added more colours and reduced the prices for the original colours.

Conclusion – you can still buy, but don’t assume Taobao prices are always cheap or constant

The aim of this post was to show that Taobao prices are not always cheap, they’re not always constant. They can go up.

Do your homework and make sure you don’t buy something that’s not that cheap. Might as well go to the 五金店 / hardware store / Ikea and buy whatever you need at a cheaper price.

Caveat: this is not a rigorous scientific study, we cherry picked the examples above. Many shops have kept their prices or lowered those. Like the prices for the animal stools.

These Taobao bathroom accessories were very cheap, especially taps.

Everything we bought was 304 stainless steel (SUS304). It’s made up of around 18–20% chromium  and 8–10.5% nickel. In practical terms, household items are commonly made of SUS304. It’s more resistant to corrosion and more expensive than another popular grade, 430 stainless steel, because of the inclusion of nickel.

Note: All prices quoted here exclude shipping.

Rainshower (花洒)

We bought a basic rainshower set from Taobao, which cost around SGD 60. It’s a Tmall seller and one of the top results when you search for the rainshower. We liked that the seller claimed it didn’t contain lead and wouldn’t rust.

The actual product was almost identical to what we saw in the photos. The price is really unbeatable. At SGD 70, it looks about the same as the rainshower set we saw at Royal Fanco. The Royal Fanco set cost 3 times more and wasn’t made of stainless steel.

Unfortunately like the water pressure from the rainshower isn’t the best. We live on a high floor, so our water pressure for all outlets is already bad as it is. We can’t be sure whether this rainshower worsens the problem, but so far it seems like it does (rainshower, hand shower, and tap). The water flow from the tap is much lesser as compared to the other taps.

Some parts of the pole rusted. Though they were easily scratched off by hand, it isn’t ideal. The rust can spread and cause much more damage to the rainshower. So much for the seller claiming that this wouldn’t rust. We subsequently learnt from Taobao sellers that they based their claims on the Chinese climate – which is typically much less humid than our tropical environment where 80% humidity is common.

After a month of usage, we realised that the shower head was very brittle. If you’re someone who likes to tilt the angle of the shower head, then you shouldn’t buy this. The base of the shower head is very weak. This might be because it’s made of plastic inside. You can possibly break the base if you use some force to pull the shower head downwards. A gap opened up and water leaked in the video below. We had to adjust our usage pattern to gently adjust the angle of the shower head instead of yanking it down. You definitely won’t need to worry about this if you buy from reputable brands like Grohe.

One of the two rainshowers had a problem where the shower head stand kept sliding down. Although it should’ve been locked (by turning the knob), it still slid down. It was frustrating. Every time we put the shower head back, it would slide down. We got the seller to send a replacement to us, which we then had to pay to ship it to Singapore. The worst thing is that you can’t just replace the shower head stand. We had to get our ID to take out the whole pole and replace the stand. Talk about hassle.

There was also an inconvenience we encountered with the knob, which controls where the water comes out of. Even though we turn off the tap lever, turning the knob makes water still come out of the tap. This happens because the knob is in between the default positions, e.g. it’ll leak if you turn it to be in between shower head and tap. It’s alright most of the time. It’s only a minor inconvenience to have water coming out for a second when we turn the knob. However, it gets frustrating when water keeps coming out because we accidentally turned the knob halfway.

Verdict: It’s super cheap, which makes it still worth all the hassle of dealing with the crap it gave us.

Bathroom Taps (台上/下盆卫生间水龙头)

We bought taps that weren’t the typical ones you see everywhere. They weren’t cheap, all things considered. The common toilet one cost around SGD 59 and the master bedroom one cost around SGD 67. They’re much cheaper than what you buy locally. However, if you compare them to other Taobao taps, these are the luxurious, atas ones.

Both taps work alright.

The common toilet tap is longer than normal taps. This makes it a little harder to wash our faces. But we just had to get used to it.

There’s a small issue with the master bedroom tap. It doesn’t stop the water flow immediately after you turn it off. There’s always a second of delay. Maybe it’s because of the V shape of the tap. But that’s alright.

The bigger problem was with the accessories that came with the 2nd tap. They rusted. We couldn’t replace them without removing the entire pedestal basin, which was impossible to do without a plumber. It’s probably because water dripped when we were turning off the tap.

We originally thought the components came from the pedestal basin. When we eventually approached the Taobao seller, they said it was too bad but the rust wouldn’t affect the tap.

We subsequently used sandpaper to sand away the rusty parts. It was very difficult because the space was tight, but we managed as best as we could. We then added some metal polish to the surface. It’s not clear whether the metal polish works though.

Verdict: Good buy. The taps were cheap, worked well, and looked nice. But the accessories might rust.

Bathroom Shelves (三角浴室置物架)

Our shelves were also SUS304 and cost around SGD 21. Strangely, the shop seems to have disappeared. It cost much more than other shelves on Taobao, which generally look like what it is below. Not nice.

So we paid extra to buy the ones we got.

Unfortunately the shelves rust very easily. They rust on the main surface, grooves, sides. Everywhere.

We’re not sure if it’s because of Singapore’s humid weather, the soap, or the water from showering. But it definitely sucks to have the shelves continuously rust. We managed to use white vinegar to wipe away some of the rust, but the rest has been very persistent.

The worst thing is the shop has disappeared, so we can’t buy shelves to replace the ones we have now. We need to drill new holes if we get other shelves, which we can’t do ourselves.

Worst outcome ever.

Verdict: Don’t buy. Not worth it.

Bathroom Towel Rack （活动旋转毛巾杆毛巾架）

We bought an unconventional clothes rack. These racks are typically nailed to the back of the door, but we decided we wanted something more flexible that could fold behind the door if needed. We found it for around SGD 18 each, which is a bit pricey. It’s also not the prettiest. But we bought it anyway because it’s very unique. And it fits our needs perfectly.

The actual item looks exactly the same as the picture and works perfectly. It hasn’t rusted, which is very good.

Verdict: A little pricey, but worth the price. Not the prettiest when installed though.

Bathroom Toilet Roll Holder (卷纸架)

We bought our SUS304 toilet roll holders off Taobao, this is how they supposedly looked like:

We got the glue version that doesn’t require screws for around SGD 9, although we ended up using screws because it’s more sturdy. It’s very cheap. We also like that it allows us to put a phone there is we need to.

There’re some problems with the toilet roll holder, though they’re not major. The whole thing is quite flimsy, especially for the stick that goes through the toilet roll. There has been some minor rusting, but we wiped it away. The stainless steel surface attracts a lot of water marks, but we can’t control that. It’s also not perfectly parallel to the ground, but we’re not complaining.

Verdict: Cheap and good buy.

Bidet (妇洗器喷枪)

We decided to buy something different for our bidets. People usually bought round shaped bidets, so we opted for boxy ones. They probably don’t fit our eclipse theme as well as round ones, but it’s a small matter. They cost around SGD 22.

We got the 1m water pipes instead of 1.5m. The rationale is to keep it at the optimum length. Too long, it’ll be unsightly and the pipes will end up on the floor. Too short, it becomes difficult to use. Since we didn’t need to use the bidet to wash the toilet, we opted for 1m.

They look good and work as how bidets should be. It’s comfortable to use, despite the boxy look.

Verdict: Average buy. Around the same price from local shops, but probably better in quality.

Kitchen Tap (洗菜盆仿古台盆冷热龙头)

We bought the kitchen tap shown below. It was a steal, at about a fifth of the price of a similar tap bought locally.

What a gem! It works as intended, looks great, and swivels smoothly. At this price point it’s a no-brainer. The slight inconvenience is the lever sometimes comes loose and we need to screw it back in. But if that’s the only negative thing to say then it’s truly one of the biggest bargain ever.

Verdict: Must buy!