Taobao...from China to US

In search of hubby's travel backpack for our upcoming adventures, we first looked on Amazon but most of the popular brands cost more than $100 and we didn't want to risk spending so much money on a something that we don't know about the quality. Then I found the exact same backpack that I've been using for 3 years since China Rush on Taobao for only $47 (RMB287 incl. free shipping within China). Not a bad deal and most importantly, I love my backpack and I can certainly vouch for the quality. =) So I'm gonna share the process of how a rookie like me bought something from Taobao and successfully shipped it to our home in the US. =P

Bought this Acome Santana 55L backpack on Taobao hoping that they can ship overseas.

As you can see from the timeline above, there was a time lag of about 1 month before it was shipped out from the warehouse. After I submitted my order online, the shop staff messaged me to inform me that they don't ship overseas. I didn't respond for a few weeks coz it was CNY holidays in China. When I finally replied in March asking about the status of my order, they apologized that they couldn't ship overseas and told me that I could get a full refund. I didn't want a refund coz we wanted that backpack. :P 

So I searched online for other options of shipping stuff from China to the US and found dotdotbuy (ddb). The first thing that I had to do was to get Acome to ship my backpack to an address (a warehouse) in China given by ddb. Fortunately, the staff at Acome was really cool about it and helped me change the address and recipient info immediately. The backpack was shipped out of Jiangsu and arrived at ddb's warehouse in Shenzhen within 2 days. Very efficient indeed. =)

Honestly, I didn't know how much it would cost to ship the backpack from China to US coz I would only find out after ddb received the item and checked the weight/dimension. But I decided to risk it. :P The backpack is actually not heavy but the dimension is the one that caused the shipping cost to be more expensive. The cheapest shipping option available was $37 ($216) by SAL, almost as expensive as the backpack itself...lol! Since we've never heard about SAL, we bought extra insurance for RMB12 just in case our package got lost in transit.

I was expecting to receive the package after 1 month coz we used the cheaper & slower option, but surprisingly it took only 2 weeks for the package to be shipped from China to US!

I was also able to track the package on USPS's website...not bad!

The very well wrapped-up package...the remote control to show how big the box is.

Evidence that the backpack has been through many checkpoints...haha! 
Jiangsu - Taizhou - Humen - Shenzhen - LA - Birmingham - Madison

Paid a lot more than the cost of the backpack to get it all the way here but it's worth it. Love this new backpack! My blue one looks so old and saggy beside it...lol!