A reader from Australia has written in to warn us of a bad experience he had shopping with Taobao Agent yoybuy.com. Before we detail the complaint, let us say that to our knowledge yoybuy does a mostly decent job serving their customers (thanks for the reports from two satisfied yoybuy customers in the comments).

The complaint says that yoybuy took the buyer’s order and sent him a cheaper version of the product. The buyer had found a good vendor for his products on Taobao, and had been satisfied with previous orders, and even though he requested that yoybuy use that vendor, they did not, and the result was inferior products.

If you have worked with Taobao agents before, let us know about your experiences!

Scandal!

Taobao has instituted a site-wide ban on products that are sold on TV(中文). This comes after the expose TV program ‘315 night show’ revealed that the Study Pillow - the pillow that makes you smart – might not actually work as described in their TV commercial. 

After close consideration, I think that this product probably/definately does work. Just check out all this science:

That’s science! I recognize science when I see it. And that is definitely science. Do you want further proof that this is completely real science? Check this out:

That’s right. It’s a foreign expert. China recently banned the use of fake experts in TV ads, but that ban doesn’t seem to have stuck too well. And who can blame the advertisers? Who is going to buy any product without a foreign expert behind it?

This weekend I saw one for a product that helps people stop smoking. It was a mouth spray that made cigarettes taste bad. If it managed to make Chinese cigarettes taste worse than they already are, it really is a miracle product.

To prove that smoking really is bad for you, they put two mice in a box filled with concentrated smoke from 60 cigarettes. Surprise! The mice died. The in-studio audience was shocked at this development and gave an audible gasp.

Animal lovers in the US would probably get pretty pissed if they saw that happen. But if it convinces someone to stop smoking, then those mice are going to mousey heaven. Like little rodent versions of Yul Brenner giving a stop-smoking message from beyond the grave. 

You can still find them on Taobao, for a limited time. The Study Pillow - 235rmb.  Update: its been taken down. And if you try to search for 学习枕 you will be redirected to the general shopping portal. 

If you want to see a wacky Chinese TV ad in motion, check out this recent post on Mark’s China Blog.

Rouge R&D scientists are sneaking out top-secret Crimson Strike Team prototypes and selling them on the international black market. How? You guessed it: Taobao.

In anticipation of the upcoming GI Joe live-action movie, Rise of the Cobra, toy-collector supernerds are keeping track of any potential development on the action-figure scene. And they have found some interesting leads on Taobao. First in early February, there were sightings of new action figures for the new movie. The action figures were in-packaging and looked very clean and legit. Toy manufacturer Hasbro since asked that those images be removed from their fan website. That’s a pretty good indicator that they were the real deal.

Now another figure has appeared that fans are speculating is a vintage-themed repaint of a figure from GI Joe’s Crimson Strike Team. I found that info on TheTerrorDrome.com, which is what I was going to call TaobaoFieldGuide before I discovered that the name was already taken.  The entire GI Joe universe seems to be full of great names.

If you are a fan of awesome guides, you can also check out their tutorials on how to boil the paint off your GI Joe’s for customizing, or cutting up the hands to get more articulation out of the fingers. These just seem like a good excuse to play out torture scenarios with your little toy friends. What sickos!

Is Taobao a not-so-secret conduit between rogue toy factory R&D staff and rabid superfans?

Update: iTunes stuff is back

It seems like those hacked iTunes gift cards were mostly removed from Taobao in a system-wide sweep. Well, mostly except for some rogue listings which are quickly catching sales before they are found and shut down. At time of writing, there was a sprint of listings all from the same Seller. 

He must type really fast. Once Taobao finds these, they will likely disappear too. 

There are other listings selling an iTunes store account number for the US or for China.  These will help you if you are trying to buy some region-locked iPhone applications. or something like that. Remember, if it says 帐号, it is an account number!

If you still want to dig around Taobao for iTunes stuff, you will run across these eyeglasses. 

Or if you are interested in owning some rare collectibles, try these collectible iTunes branded Coca-Cola cans from Italy, which will cost you 200rmb (like $25) for some reason.

Chinese hackers threatening US interests!

I’ve been seeing a lot of chatter on Twitter about iTunes gift cards on Taobao. Apparently some Chinese hackers cracked the iTunes gift-card algorithm, and were able to generate codes themselves. These sold and now continue to sell for pennies on the dollar – $200 worth of iTunes credit is available for less than $3.

There was similar Twitter chatter about a month ago, when these cheap cards first surfaced. But that chatter abruptly ended when people discovered that their cards did not work. We’re not sure what the current status is – if they do or don’t work.

Apple is likely hot on the case looking to close this loophole, if it is not already closed. One commenter speculated that they would invalidate ALL their gift cards, asking those who purchased real ones to trade them in, offering slightly more money for the trouble.

If you want to pull some Apple-related mischief, we encourage you instead to create your own DIY MacBook for Less than 3000rmb. Now that’s a steal! More good info on the iTunes gift card hoodwinkery at AppleInsider.