Ali Express - What the 'eck is it?

Raymond Lin said:
It’s Amazon market place minus the Amazon part.

just remember that if the product is not a Chinese brand then it’s likely a fake. At best it’s a copy, but there are real bargains, just need to do your research and be cautious and always pay with a credit card. however for Chinese “original” stuff then it’s cheaper than Amazon market place or eBay or Etsy. It’s more “direct” when bought on Aliexpress and usually cheaper.
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In other words its eBay on steroids. Righto.
 
I've bought loads of stuff from them, anything I seach for I usually sort by orders and if it has loads of orders its probably half decent.
Best item was a Prusa Mk3s clone for half the price of an original.
 
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I've brought a few bits from Aliexpress, always worked well for me! Good range of products if you don't mind waiting a bit for delivery (as opposed to next day from Amazon).
 
I got myself a smart watch from AliExpress in April, a copycat of Huawei GT4 Pro for £18. works well and the battery last more then a week and last week I ordered a drone for £20 not here yet but will see.
 
Amazon isn't much better these days. The same Chinese tat and knockoffs on all online stores/auctions.

Even Etsy, which was supposed to be for small crafters to sell hand made things, is flooded with it.
 
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"Choice" items are basically Fulfilled By AliExpress items. I've never had a problem with these.

Those with shipping fees are typically direct from the seller/factory drop shopping and can take much longer. Other than the lack of protection in packaging items tend to be as described. Items from official stores also tend to be reliable.
 
I ordered an item for one of my 3D printers for £18.55 delivered, same item is double that excl delivery ordered from Europe, on the 1st July. The item cleared customs yesterday and today I get an email from Evri saying they now have it.

All the way from China in a week and now Evri have it. Ffs.
 
AliExpress is great for weird and wacky items. I've bought a huge amount of stuff besides computer related stuff and now the missus hates me.

But it's great for buying cables, screws etc on the cheap.. and beside the long delivery times, worth it over Ebay and Amazon tbh
 
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Used it a lot over the years, it's great for <£10 electronics and bits for electronics. Most recently bought a Fiio USB C DAC, reduced from £12 to £5 delivered and some replacement mouse parts.

Have taken a risk on buying a core PC part for £135, still in shipping so will see how that turns out. Plenty of positive reviews around the web so am quite confident it was the correct call.
 
Nasher said:
Amazon isn't much better these days. The same Chinese tat and knockoffs on all online stores/auctions.

Even Etsy, which was supposed to be for small crafters to sell hand made things, is flooded with it.
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My misses orders stuff off Etsy but I’ve started to warn her away from it for stuff like draw nobs, door handles and such because it’s clearly not hand crafted or anything of the sort but some some mass produced tat sold for a mark up.
 
never had an issue with them tbh.. as others said, just be cautious with whom you're buying from.. My largest purchase was one of those pve sheet benders which uses a waterpump and electricity to heat a long wire.. can't remember the exact term. That was around £300, followed by a couple of 2.5Gb switches/pc to use as a mini firewall/pc..
 
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