I order stuff on Aliexpress on a regular basis. Mostly electronic part’s bit also quadrocopter/drone parts, crossbow bolts and so on.
Usually, just as a rule of thumb, you can pick up stuff there for about 20-40 % less than on Amazon or Ebay or other online reseller’s.
They setbacks are
1.) increased delivery times, at least if you happen to order stuff that isn’t stocked in a „nearby“ warehouse, like for the European market, Aliexpress seller’s warehouses can be found in Poland or Great Britain for instance.
2.) Returning item’s or gettung reimbursed for stuff that is broke or incomplete can be a bit complicated or up to the level were you are messed with by the seller, who might try to offer a reduced price or will dance around your ussue for quite a long time without actually helping you out. Check out the exmaple I’ve added in this post.
Recently I had ordered a bunch of different drone camera mounts for my Mavic 2 zoom and my Mini 3 Pro.
If of these mounts I bought arrived here missing a vital part (damper section of camera mount). I contacted the seller via Aliexpress messaging, and since then it clearly feels like he’s trying to get me hopping through hoop’s ever since.
Besider such issue’s you can also run into communication problem’s, that surely arises because of translation issue’s on the seller side and another language barrier issue are surely incomplete or straight wrong item/product description’s and owner’s manuals and so on. Depending on the product you want to purchase this is actually a non-issue for low tech stuff but the more complex the stuff is you’re hunting for these low quality descriptions and manual’s can be a bug issue.
To cut through the chase, if you have time to wait for product you want to order and you’re fune with the language issues you might be just fine with such complications if you can save a few bucks by ordering there.
IMG SRC <- all images taken by screenshot in Aliexpress messaging.