Here is a long winded Q&A of what I’ve learned after purchasing about 20 watches on the cheap directly from Chinese sellers, bypassing DH and Ali. Don’t be alarmed at the length of the tutorial, once you do it once it is pretty easy.
I’m just going to assume since you are reading this your native language is English. And as always do your own research, this is not financial advise.
- How do I buy from China, I only speak English? Me too! Google translate is amazing. First thing you need is a buyer’s website, I am using www.sugargoo.com. Super easy to register, and I use paypal for payment.
- WTF is a sugargoo? I have no idea, but www.sugargoo.com is a website that will act as your personal shopper on China based websites. It looks like these websites sell to the people you are already buying from on DHgate and Aliexpress. Sugargoo is cutting out the middle man by buying for you direct.
- I’ve registered on sugargoo, now what? You need to find that sweet automatic “roleplay” watch all the kids are wearing now a days. First try searching on a Chinese based website like www.1688.com. Don’t even think about buying quartz either, people on this reddit will hunt you down and cut off a finger!
- How do I search www.1688.com, I only speak English? This is probably the hardest part of the whole process. If using Chrome, it usually just translates to English and you can just type in what you want. YOU WILL GET WILD PRODUCTS IN THE RESULTS! Some NSFW, so be careful.
- I found the best way to search is by downloading an image of the watch. Could be an image of the gen watch or just one you found on DH gate that is out of your price range. Just use the camera icon in the search bar and select the image.
- Another trick is to use the Google box. Go to https://translate.google.com/ and type in what you want to translate to Chinese simplified. Try ‘seamaster automatic watch’ and it comes out 海马自动腕表
- Take 海马自动腕表 and plug it into the 1688.com search bar, but make sure to switch back over to simplified Chinese translation first in Chrome. And Bam! You have a nice list of sweet Omega Seamasters to buy, but also some other weird watches pop in there too.
- I found my dream Omega Seamaster but it’s $160, I thought this was supposed to be cheaper??!! No silly goose, it’s in Yuan. That’s actually $25 (exchange rate is about 0.15)
- Oh, cool that is cheaper. Now I can look like James Bond! No you cannot. James Bond wears a real Omega and is a rich athletic, super spy, that’s slick with the ladies. YOU are buying “roleplay” watches, driving a 2009 Toyota, and can’t do a single pullup.
- All true, but I want to buy that sweet watch anyway. How? That is simple, just copy the first part of the web address of that watch from 1688.com and paste it into the sugargoo.com search engine. This is one I actually purchased, https://detail.1688.com/offer/687033449495.html.
- Sugargoo says I have to add at least two watches to my cart, why? True, you are buying wholesale so most sellers require at least two watches. I typically find a seller that has various colors of a style I like and buy two. But I have been told on this Reddit, you can message the seller through Sugargoo first and ask to buy just one to check the quality. You can also add two to the cart and remove one before the final purchase. Then message the seller through Sugargoo after purchase. Only issue is, if the seller says no, the refund goes back as a credit on Sugargoo. Buyer beware. The message system is pretty quick and you can ask via the message button for any extras from the seller like watch boxes. Sugargoo is negotiating on your behalf.
- Wow, shipping only takes 4 days. Sweet! Stop being obtuse, it only takes a few days for the seller to ship to Sugargoo. Not to you, who lives in a different hemisphere. Once Sugargoo gets your watches, they take purty pictures and post them for your enjoyment. You can then return those watches if you don’t like the quality.
- I love my Seamaster’s from the pictures, how about shipping? There are a bunch of shipping options and time frames. Just click on the watches you want shipped and hit submit parcel. You can also research shipping cost under the ‘estimate shipping’ button. I typically wait until I have several watches to ship (Sugargoo holds your items for up to 100 days) and package them together. I just received package of 8 watches for $33 in shipping to the US. Beware, if you buy boxes to go with your watches the package will be too large for the cheaper shipping options. The cheap options have been very slow due to COVID (about 4 weeks). Here is a link to a discount code for redditers: https://www.reddit.com/r/Superbuy/comments/xd30hs/superbuy_long_term_discount_code_renew_again_add/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
Pros: Very cheap alternative to DH and Ali.
Cons: Wacky search engine, required to buy more than one watch, no reviews or actual pictures from buyers attached to those reviews. Source
