Shanghai Xianchong Chemical (xianchong.com): the RC Tycoon, from its own pages and its buyers

Between 2016 and 2018 a Chinese supplier that buyers called XC was named in 147 posts in two Reddit forums where research-chemical buyers compared sellers. One account, u/chemlab123, posted its offers almost daily and signed them "Please contact xc@xianchong.com for more details."[1] Readers nicknamed the seller the Tycoon, and the owner of this site, who bought from it years earlier, wrote in 2018: "He is the RC Tycoon for a reason."[2] This dossier is built from what the company published, what its account posted, and what its buyers wrote. Its website, it turns out, never mentioned any of it.

Figure 1. One email address, two catalogues. The website never named a compound the Reddit account sold. [3]

Who they say they are, and what the record says

The domain xianchong.com was registered on August 1, 2005, and was still registered on October 11, 2026.[4] The first archived page, from January 2006, carries the name "Shanghai Xian Chong Trading" and describes it as "a professional company who specializes in the development and sales of fine chemical industry". "Our company is located in shanghai", it says, and gives the address xc@xianchong.com.[5] A Chinese page of the same month gives the company's Chinese name, 上海先崇贸易有限公司 (Shanghai Xianchong Trading Co., Ltd.), and an office at 上海市汶水路301号A-227室, Room A-227, 301 Wenshui Road.[6] The footer carries a Shanghai website filing number.

Figure 2. The first archived page, January 2006, under the name Shanghai Xian Chong Trading. Its pictures were never archived; what is left is three product series and the email address the seller used for the next twelve years. [5]

By July 2006 the English pages read "Shanghai XianChong chemical CO., LTD."[7] They listed building blocks for medicinal chemistry: indoles, pyrimidines, fluorides, piperidines, amino acids, pyrrolidines, piperazines and "Pyridine Derivatives", each with a CAS number. A page of New Products listed "2,3,4,5-Tetramethoxytoluene", "(R)-Glycerol acetonide" and four more. It was still online, unchanged, in July 2018.[8]

Figure 3. The 2006 catalogue: building blocks for medicinal chemistry, each with a CAS number. Nothing on it is a drug. [7]

Figure 4. The same old English catalogue, still online in July 2018 with the six New Products it listed in 2007. [8]

In December 2007 a new English site went up under the slogan "Art on Every Step!!". Its Building Blocks page offers intermediates "available from milligram to multi-gram amounts, can also be synthesized in larger quantities upon request".[9] The archive holds that page 70 times, and the text of the last capture, from December 2020, is identical to the first.[10][11] The Custom Synthesis page says "XianChong provides custom synthesis of compounds." and lists, among its services, "Prepare analog synthesis".[12]

Figure 5. The site from December 2007. The archive has this page 70 times to December 2020, and its text never changes. [9]

Figure 6. Custom synthesis, March 2010. The same offer, in the same words, as the business scope the Reddit account posted in 2016. [12]

The contact page moved with the company. In December 2007 it gave "Room 218, Hongkai Building", "Hongkou District".[13] In March 2010 it gave "Room 908, Zhen Yuan Building", "Pu Tuo District".[14] From June 2011 to the last capture in May 2021 it gave "108, 1/F, DaZhong Finance Tower", "ChangNing District", and a third address, "xccyb@xianchong.com".[15][16] No page gives a business registration number or mentions a psychoactive compound. A 2006 English contact page named one person, under "Marketing and Development:"; we leave the name out, because nothing ties that person to the Reddit trade.[17]

Figure 7. Three office addresses in three Shanghai districts, 2007 to 2021, all published by the company. The email address stays the same throughout. [16]

The home page that buyers reached in 2017 was a single picture and an Enter button that led to the 2007 Building Blocks page. The page title read "Shanghai Xianchong Chemical Co., Ltd".[18] The last capture of any page is from May 13, 2021. On October 11, 2026 the domain had no address in DNS, and its registrar listed name servers for domains pending renewal.[4][11]

Figure 8. The front door in October 2017, at the height of the Reddit trade: a stock-style laboratory picture and an Enter button that leads to the 2007 building-blocks page. [18]

The account that sold to Reddit is tied to the company only by what it wrote. Its first post that names the company, in August 2016, is headed "Business scope" and offers "Custom organic synthesis", "Drop shipping" and "Raw material / Intermediate / Precursor".[1] Later posts end "E-mail to xc@xianchong.com for more details." and give the website.[3] Buyers wrote to that address and received the goods; we have no document that shows who sat behind it.

One nickname needs a source. The owner of this site has called this seller the RC Tycoon since 2017. In June of that year he signed off a long comment with "This message was approved by Xianchong, the RC Tycoon".[19] On r/RCSources the name was a joke about the account's volume as often as a compliment. "XC the RC spamming tycoon.", one reader answered a sample-pack post.[20] The owner's notes once merged this seller with kk-pu.com, a Nanjing seller of the same years that has its own dossier. They are two sellers.

What they sold

The website sold building blocks. The Reddit account sold something else. Between August 2016 and February 2018 its posts offered, by their own titles: "We supply Proscaline / Escaline / 3C-E / 3C-P."[21] "We supply MEM & TMA-6."[22] "2-Fluorophenylacetone for R&D purpose and NMR analysis."[23] "NSI-189 phosphate & Noopept for R&D and NMR analysis purpose."[24] "4F-MPH / 4F-EPH for R&D and NMR analysis purpose."[25] "CRL-40,940 for R&D and NMR analysis purpose."[26] And by February 2018: "4F-MPH, Isopropylphenidate, 3-FPM Powder, 3-FPM Crystal, 3C-E, 3C-P available for R&D and NMR analysis purpose."[3]

These are the compounds on the proscaline, escaline, 3C-E, MEM and TMA-6 pages, all psychedelic phenethylamines; 4F-MPH and isopropylphenidate, relatives of methylphenidate; 3-FPM, a phenmetrazine; and noopept. 3C-P, 4F-EPH, NSI-189 and CRL-40,940 have no page here. Buyers' threads add more names from price lists the seller sent by email, among them mebroqualone and 4-EMC.[27]

The sample pack of December 2017 shows how the offers were framed. "Here we would like to provide sample pack including of below chemicals", it begins, and lists 3C-P, noopept, 4F-MPH, isopropylphenidate and 3-FPM. "It is strictly applied to below certain purpose", it goes on, naming research, synthesis and pharmacology analysis, then: "Check local law of your area before order." and "Lead time: about 7 working days."[28]

Figure 9. 147 posts in two subreddits, counted by us. Two in five came from the seller's own account. [29]

The account was loud. Searching r/RCSources through the Arctic Shift archive of Reddit on October 11, 2026 for xianchong returned 120 posts, from June 2015 to February 2018; 57 were the account's own.[29] A full copy of r/safeorscamvendors (1,023 posts) has 27 that name the seller, and two of those are the account's own. One of the two, in June 2018, was a review of itself headed "xianchong - safe". A reader answered: "This sounds like something the tycoon himself would say".[30]

What buyers report

We read 62 of these threads in full, chosen for reviews, warnings, questions and the seller's own offers, and counted first-hand reports of an order, in posts and in comments. There are about 85. In about 50, the order arrived with no complaint about what it was or what it weighed. Six arrived short of items, or with substitutes the buyer had not asked for. Four buyers doubted what they got, three found it underweight, nine say the parcel never came or was seized, and 13 threads end with the buyer still waiting. Second-hand stories, about a friend's order, are not counted.

The good reports are many and short. "lab test confirm high quality", wrote a buyer whose 4F-MPH and 3-FPM reached Ohio in six days in January 2018.[31] "Product was also exceptional.", wrote another in September 2018.[32] In March 2017 a buyer of four phenethylamines found "Multiple layers of packaging to protect against the elements or snoopers." and wrote that "H1 NMR spectra were available for my compounds upon request."[33] He photographed his order under three reagents and noted that they were "unfortunately not very useful for ID purposes".[33]

Figure 10. A March 2017 order from Xianchong under reagent tests. The buyer says reagents cannot identify these compounds. Whose labels these are, he does not say; his review leaves the box for documentation unticked. [33]

The bad reports cluster around waiting and money. In February 2017 the r/RCSources moderators moved the seller to their Caution status, giving as the reason "persistent customer service and reliability issues."[34] The moderator's reasons: "they have been accepting pre-orders and pretending they have them in stock, then refusing to return cash, only giving store credit." And in a reply: "They will hold your cash indefinitely while they wait for the MOQ to be reached. There are no refunds." He added that "XC has had special treatment because they" had been running for almost a decade.[34] Four months later a buyer wrote that "XC lies about what they have in stock".[35] As early as 2016 one reader warned: "They have an extensive history of sending impure or totally wrong chemicals."[36]

From 2018 the commonest complaint is customs. Buyers learned that the seller would not reship a parcel, in one buyer's words, if "Customs snags the pack".[37] In July 2018 one buyer wrote "I just had 2 packages seized all in the same time frame".[38] Five of the nine non-arrivals date from 2018, and each ends the same way: seized, and not reshipped.

Labels, declarations and payment

The bags carried numbers, not names. A buyer in 2017 described a "list of contents per bag labeled with numbers on the bags so customs" would not know what was inside.[34] A buyer in January 2018 posted his two bags, one marked #1 and the other #2: "This is the MP-4FH" and "Here is 3-FPM".[39] The owner of this site, writing of his own orders years earlier, remembered the same thing: "Whenever I dealt with XC, they used a numbering system."[40]

Figure 11. The label, January 2018: a number in pen. The buyer posted it as his 3-FPM. Buyers and the owner of this site describe the same system, numbered bags and a key by email. [39]

What the outside of the parcel said is the buyers' account. One 2017 parcel was declared as "some type of Phosphorous Sulphate", according to a comment quoted in a review thread.[40] In 2018 a buyer complained that "for content description he puts" "polished sand"; another reader answered that "it's supposed to mean polishing compound".[38] We have seen no photograph of a declaration.

Payment changed with the times. In January 2018 a buyer asked how to pay because the seller had "just said T/T bank transfer".[37] A week later the account posted "We can accept Bitcoin as payment method."[41] and ten days after that "Litecoin is available for payment method now."[42] Buyers reported a "25% surcharge on all cryptocurrencies" in May 2018.[43] Before any of that, by the owner's account, it was Western Union, to a name he had to ask for "because the names often changed".[44]

The owner of this site and Xianchong

The owner of this site imported research chemicals from China until his federal indictment: "I was indicted for importing bk-mdma to the United States from China on October 11, 2011."[45] In his 2016 AMA he said buyers would "send the money via Western Union to either Nanjing or Shanghai in China".[46] In 2019 he described "importing it by the boat load from Nanjing and Shanghai."[47] By his other comments, at least part of the Shanghai half was this seller.

He tells the story the same way each time. "I first learned of Xianchong back when a guy" from his Nanjing supplier moved to Shanghai and wrote to that supplier's customers with better prices.[48] In 2022: "somebody from Nanjing relocated to Shanghai".[49] He says XC "used to be one of my main suppliers".[50] On quality, he wrote "Always pretty good quality", then added that "I think some of the stuff he was selling as M1 was NOT M1".[50] M1 is methylone. Of the later trade he was less kind: "Xianchong only sells garbage now." and "XC used to be one of the best in the business, many years ago."[51] His advice to buyers in 2017: "always ask for and cross reference the CAS number to be safe", and "do not pay in advance for XC to synth something they do not regularly stock".[52] In 2022 he wrote that "I tested lots of stuff from Shanghai and it was great".[49]

Figure 12. The owner of this site on Xianchong, 2016 to 2018, as he wrote it. His account, not a record. [48]

All of this is his account. No document we found shows the move from Nanjing, and none ties this seller to kk-pu.com or to the other Nanjing site of those years, china-shun.com, which has its own dossier. We name no one in it.

Allegations: who says what, why, and what we could check

That a 4-MeO-PCP batch was poisoned. In 2015 an r/RCSources user wrote that "the last time he offered 4-MeO-PCP it was found to be tainted with cyanide", then corrected himself: "I was a bit off on my recollection but, PCC isnt much better".[53] He linked a DrugsData result. What we could check: that result, dated "Nov 27, 2011", is a sample sold as 4-MeO-PCP that contained "1-piperidinocyclohexanecarbonitrile", PCC, and the laboratory's note says "this is probably the dirtiest research chemical we" had seen.[54] The result names no seller. The connection to Xianchong is the forum's memory, and we do not make it.

That the seller put an illegal substance in a legal order. In September 2018 a post said that a friend of the author got a "love letter" from customs: "get love letter from customs about shipment contain illegal thing in country of destination".[55] A reply suggested the simpler reading: "Customs probably caught it and assumed it was Xyz instead of the anolog".[55] The post is second-hand, names no compound and no country, and was not followed up. Nothing we found supports it or rules it out.

That the seller was a scam. In January 2017 a moderator of r/safeorscamvendors removed a scam label from the account: "This company was labelled scam on Markets, but is unclear how or when that happened."[56] What we could check is the count above: most first-hand orders arrived, and most complaints are about stock, refunds and seizures.

Lab results

The seller published no certificate or spectrum in any of the account's 59 posts or on any archived page of its site. Its offers say their compounds are for "NMR analysis", and one buyer says spectra came on request.[3][33] Buyers posted reagent tests and, in a few cases, mentioned tests of their own by methods they did not name; none posted a laboratory report. Nothing on this site's lab-results pages concerns a product from this seller.

Regulatory and legal

We found no action against the seller under its company name, its domain or its Reddit account. Its names are not on the US Treasury's sanctions lists as downloaded on October 11, 2026, and a search for Justice Department and DEA releases naming it found none. Chinese records were not searched.

The compounds have a history of their own. On October 21, 2011, a DEA order temporarily placed "3,4-methylenedioxy-N-methylcathinone (methylone)" in Schedule I: "This Final Order is effective on October 21, 2011."[57] The owner of this site says he bought methylone from this seller before then.[50]

Figure 13. The order that placed methylone in Schedule I, October 2011. The owner of this site says he bought methylone from this seller before then. [57]

Most of what the account sold from 2016 is not named in the federal schedules. That does not make it legal to buy for use. The Analogue Act reads: "A controlled substance analogue shall, to the extent intended for human consumption, be treated, for the purposes of any Federal law as a controlled substance in schedule I."[58] The account's "for R&D and NMR analysis purpose" and "Check local law of your area before order." speak to that phrase, and to nothing else.[3][28] No page or post gave an age check.

Figure 14. What the record shows, drawn by us from the sources in this dossier. The orange entry is the owner's account. [11]

Still open

• Who ran it. The site names a company and three offices; no registration record was searched. China's company registry and the Shanghai website filing in the footer were not searched.
• The Reddit account's owner. It signed with the company email for two years. No post names a person.
• After 2018. No r/RCSources post after February 2018 is in the archive, and the r/safeorscamvendors threads stop in October 2018. We did not find where the seller's buyers went next.
• The old forum. A 2015 thread mentions the seller's page on safeorscam, a forum of the period. It was not searched.

Changes

• 2026-10-11: first version.

References

1. "Business scope", a post by u/chemlab123, r/RCSources — Reddit, 2016-08-17, read through the Arctic Shift archive — anecdotal report, not evidence
2. "Xianchong: SAFE and HONEST" (with a comment by u/saintpetejackboy, this site's owner), r/safeorscamvendors — Reddit, 2018-09-26, read through the Arctic Shift archive — anecdotal report, not evidence
3. "4F-MPH, Isopropylphenidate, 3-FPM Powder, 3-FPM Crystal, 3C-E, 3C-P", a post by u/chemlab123, r/RCSources — Reddit, 2018-02-01, read through the Arctic Shift archive — anecdotal report, not evidence
4. RDAP record for xianchong.com in the .com registry, read 2026-10-11 — Verisign
5. xianchong.com home page, archived 2006-01-09 — Wayback Machine
6. xianchong.com Chinese contact page, archived 2006-02-09 — Wayback Machine
7. xianchong.com English product page, archived 2006-07-19 — Wayback Machine
8. xianchong.com New Products page, archived 2018-07-14 — Wayback Machine
9. xianchong.com Building Blocks, archived 2007-12-15 — Wayback Machine
10. xianchong.com Building Blocks, archived 2020-12-02 — Wayback Machine
11. Wayback Machine capture index for xianchong.com — Internet Archive
12. xianchong.com Custom Synthesis, archived 2010-03-01 — Wayback Machine
13. xianchong.com Contact Us, archived 2007-12-17 — Wayback Machine
14. xianchong.com Contact Us, archived 2010-03-01 — Wayback Machine
15. xianchong.com Contact Us, archived 2011-06-30 — Wayback Machine
16. xianchong.com Contact Us, archived 2021-05-13 — Wayback Machine
17. xianchong.com English contact page, archived 2006-07-19 — Wayback Machine
18. xianchong.com home page, archived 2017-10-20 — Wayback Machine
19. Comment by u/saintpetejackboy (this site's owner), r/RCSources — Reddit, 2017-06-19, read through the Arctic Shift archive — anecdotal report, not evidence
20. "Sample pack", a post by u/chemlab123, r/RCSources — Reddit, 2017-07-02, read through the Arctic Shift archive — anecdotal report, not evidence
21. "Proscaline / Escaline / 3C-E / 3C-P", a post by u/chemlab123, r/RCSources — Reddit, 2016-08-23, read through the Arctic Shift archive — anecdotal report, not evidence
22. "MEM & TMA-6", a post by u/chemlab123, r/RCSources — Reddit, 2016-08-25, read through the Arctic Shift archive — anecdotal report, not evidence
23. "2-Fluorophenylacetone", a post by u/chemlab123, r/RCSources — Reddit, 2017-05-26, read through the Arctic Shift archive — anecdotal report, not evidence
24. "NSI-189 phosphate & Noopept", a post by u/chemlab123, r/RCSources — Reddit, 2017-06-02, read through the Arctic Shift archive — anecdotal report, not evidence
25. "4F-MPH / 4F-EPH", a post by u/chemlab123, r/RCSources — Reddit, 2017-06-17, read through the Arctic Shift archive — anecdotal report, not evidence
26. "CRL-40,940", a post by u/chemlab123, r/RCSources — Reddit, 2017-08-15, read through the Arctic Shift archive — anecdotal report, not evidence
27. "[Review] XianChong Sampler", r/RCSources — Reddit, 2017-01-23, read through the Arctic Shift archive — anecdotal report, not evidence
28. "Sample pack", a post by u/chemlab123, r/RCSources — Reddit, 2017-12-27, read through the Arctic Shift archive — anecdotal report, not evidence
29. Arctic Shift archive of Reddit: r/RCSources posts matching xianchong (120 posts, 2015-06-21 to 2018-02-23), searched 2026-10-11 — Arctic Shift
30. "xianchong - safe", a post by u/chemlab123, r/safeorscamvendors — Reddit, 2018-06-04, read through the Arctic Shift archive — anecdotal report, not evidence
31. "Xianchong review", r/RCSources — Reddit, 2018-01-11, read through the Arctic Shift archive — anecdotal report, not evidence
32. "Xianchong - SAFE", r/safeorscamvendors — Reddit, 2018-09-03, read through the Arctic Shift archive — anecdotal report, not evidence
33. "[Vendor Review] Shanghai Xianchong Chemical Co., Ltd", r/RCSources — Reddit, 2017-03-14, read through the Arctic Shift archive — anecdotal report, not evidence
34. "Xianchong vendor status downgrade", r/RCSources moderator post (with comments by u/saintpetejackboy, this site's owner) — Reddit, 2017-02-16, read through the Arctic Shift archive — anecdotal report, not evidence
35. "Xianchong Reliability", r/RCSources — Reddit, 2017-06-18, read through the Arctic Shift archive — anecdotal report, not evidence
36. "Can anyone verify or vouch for xianchong.com?", r/RCSources — Reddit, 2016-06-21, read through the Arctic Shift archive — anecdotal report, not evidence
37. "payment method for Tycoon/Xianchong?", r/RCSources — Reddit, 2018-01-13, read through the Arctic Shift archive — anecdotal report, not evidence
38. "Xianchong: safe", r/safeorscamvendors — Reddit, 2018-07-10, read through the Arctic Shift archive — anecdotal report, not evidence
39. "xianchong review 4f-MPH and 3-fpm powder", r/RCSources — Reddit, 2018-01-05, read through the Arctic Shift archive — anecdotal report, not evidence
40. Comments in "[Vendor Review] for Xianchong Chemical Co." (with a comment by u/saintpetejackboy, this site's owner), r/RCSources — Reddit, 2017-03-14 to 2017-03-15, read through the Arctic Shift archive — anecdotal report, not evidence
41. "Bitcoin payment method is available.", a post by u/chemlab123, r/RCSources — Reddit, 2018-01-16, read through the Arctic Shift archive — anecdotal report, not evidence
42. "Litecoin available", a post by u/chemlab123, r/RCSources — Reddit, 2018-01-26, read through the Arctic Shift archive — anecdotal report, not evidence
43. "Xianchong safe", r/safeorscamvendors — Reddit, 2018-05-09, read through the Arctic Shift archive — anecdotal report, not evidence
44. Comment by u/saintpetejackboy (this site's owner) in "payment method for Tycoon/Xianchong?", r/RCSources — Reddit, 2018-01-20, read through the Arctic Shift archive — anecdotal report, not evidence
45. Comment by u/saintpetejackboy (this site's owner) in an r/keto thread — Reddit, 2017-05-24, read through the Arctic Shift archive — anecdotal report, not evidence
46. IamA just released from federal prison in the United States, ask me anything! (r/IAmA thread by u/saintpetejackboy, this site's owner) — Reddit, 2016-10-07, read through the Arctic Shift archive — anecdotal report, not evidence
47. Comments by u/saintpetejackboy (this site's owner) in an r/ExCons thread — Reddit, 2019-05-13, read through the Arctic Shift archive — anecdotal report, not evidence
48. Comments by u/saintpetejackboy (this site's owner) in "Xianchong vendor status downgrade", r/RCSources — Reddit, 2017-02-16, read through the Arctic Shift archive — anecdotal report, not evidence
49. Comment by u/saintpetejackboy (this site's owner), r/researchchemicals — Reddit, 2022-04-17, read through the Arctic Shift archive — anecdotal report, not evidence
50. Comment by u/saintpetejackboy (this site's owner) in "Is XC still legit?", r/RCSources — Reddit, 2016-10-12, read through the Arctic Shift archive — anecdotal report, not evidence
51. Comment by u/saintpetejackboy (this site's owner), r/RCSources — Reddit, 2017-08-15, read through the Arctic Shift archive — anecdotal report, not evidence
52. "Xianchong Review" (with a comment by u/saintpetejackboy, this site's owner), r/RCSources — Reddit, 2017-12-18, read through the Arctic Shift archive — anecdotal report, not evidence
53. "Any experiences with xianchong.com's 3-MeO-2-Oxo-PCPy or 2-Chloro-2-Oxo-PCPy?", r/RCSources — Reddit, 2015-06-21, read through the Arctic Shift archive — anecdotal report, not evidence
54. DrugsData (formerly EcstasyData) test result 2339, a sample sold as 4-methoxy-PCP, archived — Wayback Machine
55. "xianchong - not safe (read post)", r/safeorscamvendors — Reddit, 2018-09-26, read through the Arctic Shift archive — anecdotal report, not evidence
56. "xianchong", r/safeorscamvendors moderator post — Reddit, 2017-01-09, read through the Arctic Shift archive — anecdotal report, not evidence
57. Schedules of Controlled Substances: Temporary Placement of Three Synthetic Cathinones Into Schedule I (76 FR 65371) — Drug Enforcement Administration, Federal Register, 2011-10-21
58. 21 U.S. Code § 813. Treatment of controlled substance analogues — Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School