aliexpress is great in mexico, ive ordered CPUs, motherboards and other pc components without any issue. The only issue is that shipping takes longer, for obvious reasons.
Something to keep in mind is that whatever product you like in amazon or whatever is highly likely coming from aliexpress or other sites from china.
Something to keep in mind is that whatever product you like in amazon or whatever is highly likely coming from aliexpress or other sites from china.
A lot of times when you buy something made in China in the Polish site Allegro you can see that the seller is Polish shop, but the delivery time is 20+ days meaning you still order it from China but with an extra middleman.
Ugh i hate when that happens.
Shipping is a pain because we need to find a third party shipper.
The potential for market arbitrage is there.
Edit: I thought you meant taobao.
Re Aliexpress, it’s great but read what you’re getting carefully.
It used to be a cheaper more scammy version of Amazon. Now it’s just a cheaper version of Amazon.
If it’s something I can wait a few weeks for I will go with Ali. You can find stuff for like up to 5x cheaper there.
Ali, Amazon, and even Etsy are all plagued with drop shippers now so if you are after cheap mass-produced generic stuff, check all three and see who has cheapest. At least that is what I do.
It’s more reliable than Amazon now IMO, and cheaper. Better selection. They knowingly sell fake memory cards. There are tricks to not getting scammed. Don’t buy from no-name stores, stores run by the brand you’re buying are more reliable for expensive stuff like electronics and bike parts.
That’s not reliable though oftentimes. Parts from no name stores get “mixed” with brand stores much like Amazon, so it’s a massive gamble if you get a real product or a knockoff scam.
Good way to save money, but I don’t like the interface and app-focus of the e-commerce site (some features are locked and only available via the bloated 100MB+ app that I don’t want wasting storage on my phone), and it is very difficult to search without getting results from previous items you searched for and no longer care about. Selecting different sorting options sometimes yields no results, which is really annoying. The site also seems to not like Firefox, especially when the browser is configured to block trackers and prevent fingerprinting. I wish I could sort items by “price + shipping: low to high” like I can on eBay, but as other people have said, you will find various generic shops that are actually scams, so you need to be careful and find the direct manufacturer’s store to avoid going through trouble. From what I read, AliExpress’s return policy and money back guarantee is even better than eBay’s. Also, during major sales, sellers will often skyrocket their prices, so it’s good to use a tool like Pricearchive to see the price history on the item (you need to know the item in advance and enter it on the website so it logs the history, and then you have to wait for weeks or months before a sale to see if the price goes down enough to meet your budget). The sales can be worth it as the coupons can knock off the cost by a few more bucks than if you waited for the item during a non-sale when it was lower in price. I like that I am supporting Chinese businesses, though keep in mind Alibaba has R&D centers in Israel. Not sure why.
I ordered some soldering equipment during this last holiday, and I wanted some of NorthridgeFix’s items, but I found the equivalent products for much cheaper on AliExpress and was able to save a lot of money. However, NF does quality checks on all of his items and also gets custom orders of the products he finds from sellers on AliExpress to adjust the tool to match the best features of all of the others he tested, which is why his items cost more. I tried to look for items that were likely not among these custom improved products, and I believe I made the right choices.
I once messaged a seller requesting them to ask Xi to liberate us but my message was blocked by AliExpress for containing political matter.
Once I bought those knee sleeves for squatting which were decent.
Another time I bought something I can’t remember, the item was shipped to India but our postal services did not deliver it to me. Don’t know if I was rused by the seller or I got unfortunate.
Aliexpress is explicitly banned in India. It was most likely seized by customs, the postal office, or you got really unlucky.
This is a common problem and you can look it up. The vast majority of Alieexpress items get seized by the authorities in India.
Dang that sucks.
Whenever I need vacuum tubes in bulk, that’s where I go
Dogshit
