Your best or worst purchase on Aliexpress

[gotoPzero]

I only recently discovered the joys of Aliexpress.... and my first 2 orders have arrived safe and sound. Both total tat of course. A pair of heated gloves and a bike light. Nothing exciting.

I need some inspiration.... xmas is coming and I need to disappoint several people

On the flip side, anyone found any genuinely good stuff?

[Scabutz]

I built a flight sim (well technically still am building it). All the boards, switches, encoders, screens etc were much cheaper on there. I had I think maybe one or two boards that were faulty, the rest has been absolutely fine.

Just need to plan ahead a little to take into account the delivery times.

[FreeLitres]

If you are into watches, there are some absolutely cracking Chinese watches for the ~£200 mark. Have a look at San Martin watches.

[mikef]

Xiaomi Miija sunglasses - like knock-off Raybans but less than 10% of the price

[HoHoHo]

I buy occasionally, various bike bits in quantity to sell along with my 3D printed bike parts.

I have also designed a modification for the Logitech steering gaming wheel which I have sold in thousands and my claim to fame is it’s been copied and is now sold on Ali Express.

Sod all I can do about it, as far as I’m concerned if the Chinese have copied it then I’m quite proud of that fact!

[RoadToad84]

I got an air mesh seat cover for my motorbike for about a fiver. The official branded item was £50+

I've used them a fair bit with generally positive results. Rechargeable PIR strip lights for cupboards are one of my favourite finds. Can easily get sucked down a rabbit hole on there!

[gotoPzero]

FreeLitres said:

Have a look at San Martin watches.

Ohh yeah they look quite nice you are right.

[daqinggregg]

FreeLitres said:

If you are into watches, there are some absolutely cracking Chinese watches for the ~£200 mark. Have a look at San Martin watches.

If you are into watches, there are some absolutely cracking Chinese watches for the ~£20 mark. Have a look at Megir watches.





Four years old now, starting to look a tad tatty.

[nismocat]

It is funny when people complain about China taking over this or that then buy utter ste on AliExpress!

I actually stopped using them about 12 months ago and use Lazada, as it is cheaper and a lot of the stuff is actually pretty good and made in SE Asia.

[Spare tyre]

nismocat said:

It is funny when people complain about China taking over this or that then buy utter ste on AliExpress!

I actually stopped using them about 12 months ago and use Lazada, as it is cheaper and a lot of the stuff is actually pretty good and made in SE Asia.

We really are trying not to buy stuff as well. Back in the day me and a colleague purchased loads of small trinkets from dealextreme which was a very early mass Chinese selling platform

From the hundreds of items I think I only have one thing left working which is a key ring for my trailer keys

[S6PNJ]

nismocat said:

I ..... use Lazada, as it is cheaper and a lot of the stuff is actually pretty good and made in SE Asia.

What web address do you use for it please? From a quick look, it seems there are 6 country/language specific sites, so which is best for UK please?

[FreeLitres]

daqinggregg said:

If you are into watches, there are some absolutely cracking Chinese watches for the ~£20 mark. Have a look at Megir watches.

.

I've bought quite a few watches off Aliexpress and you can indeed get watches at lower price points. The cheaper ones below £200 do still feel a bit cheap with rattly bracelets, sharp edges and mineral glass windows. When you get a San Martin in your hand, they just feel incredible. Close to Omega build quality on the bracelets, etc. (Generic Seiko automatic movements so not quite Omega levels there through.)

[Tye Green]

that's 94p including delivery and also came with 2 stainless hose clips!

[Kwackersaki]

I’ve bought a digital soldering iron just as a test piece.

I couldn’t believe they could supply and ship for under a tenner. It works ok but for how long we’ll see.

Also some UV cure epoxy for about £4 which was a third of the price for exactly the same stuff from a UK eBay seller.

I’ve just returned a CarPlay head unit for my bmw as it seemed to work intermittently. I have just realised that i wasn’t connecting or pairing it correctly with the car system!

It was £179 and not bad quality with some good features. I’d reorder but probably selling the car soon so won’t bother.

[gotoPzero]

Tye Green said:

that's 94p including delivery and also came with 2 stainless hose clips!

Thats more like it!

[Riley Blue]

For less than a fiver I bought an endoscope camera to have a look behind my car's dashboard in the hope of tracing a wiring break.

It has LED's to illuminate whatever it's looking at and a phone app to view it. Not only have I found the iffy connection but I can now peer into all manner of other places too...

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005304950892.h...

[shtu]

A Stop-Start memory device for my TT.

https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/1005003973381938.ht...

Works perfectly, turned up in a couple of weeks, about 1/3rd the price of any UK seller for the exact same item.

Someone, somewhere is losing money on that deal.

[Xenoous]

Just ordered a set of bike lights for 94p before taxes, purely to use as a secondary set of lights in conjunction with my proper set. Also ordered a winter cycling jersey, but this was a shocking £13 before taxes.

[Granadier]

On Tuesday I had my weekly tube journey to the office and saw an ad that mildly confused me and made me realise how out of touch I am with current trends.

"Shake Aliexpress to win Breo" with a picture of what looked like a bit like a hairdryer.

????

Well, I've bought a few electronics bits and pieces on Aliexpress, so I knew what that is, but I didn't know what the product was, I'd never heard of Breo, and most mysteriously of all, how do you "shake" a marketplace website? So from my point of view, it was a rather meaningless advert. But my curiosity led me to investigate what this is all about, so I now sort of understand. I haven't felt tempted to download the app or browse Aliexpress for anything to buy so far though...

[Spare tyre]

Have a look for documentaries about how the Chinese post stuff out

Brutal treatment of staff

I try really hard not to be a part of it