While Taobao can be a treasure trove, an important warning is that around 90% of the brand-name items are fakes. As long as you're not after brand names, there are a lot of great bargains. If you want to buy geniune imported goods, better use T-Mall or JD.com. Neither of which will 100% guarantee you authentic goods, but the chance of getting fakes is much lower because sellers have to put up large deposits before selling.
It's not so much about appearance as about safety. Do you want your replacement laptop power supply to burn up? Are you sure that chocolate was made to the same standards as those of the brand owner? Even for clothing, North Fakes are highly unlikely to live up to the quality of the real deal.
I bought an extra laptop power supply for my Macbook Pro from Taobao. It cost 16 USD, and works well and looks like the original. It's probably of reasonable quality, but without the big brand behind it, I don't feel comfortable leaving it on unattended.
I've never thought to buy chocolate from Taobao, and I probably never will, unless it's from the official Tmall store of the brand owner, e.g. http://godiva.tmall.com/
I heard about a guy who bought a fake North Face jacket from the Silk Market or Yaxiu or somewhere similar. It rained a few days later and the jacket was soaked through :(
I had a fake Lenovo power supply burn on me. Couldn't tell it was a fake except by the price being pretty low.
I purchased "Toblerone" chocolate on Taobao and it came unboxed (just a foil wrapper) and didn't taste the same.
I've seen fake clothing that lasted for years and was probably worth the price paid, but I've also seen too many items fall apart. Personally, I won't buy fakes, but I will by Chinese brands if the reviews are good. We have a few items with Chinese names, like a blender and juicer, that were half the price of other brands but quality is quite decent.
