AliExpress has this quality of being a surprise gift for your future self. You buy stuff, forget about it, and then one day receives a pleasant surprise. This only works with cheap stuff you don't mind a lot, if it's too expensive you risk just being anxious for a long time.
This is exactly why I buy everything I can off of AliExpress. The question of "will I still want this in 4-12 weeks?" really takes the impulse out of impulse buying.
It's surprising that they are. And sometimes it's a padded envelope inside a padded envelope, both having stickers with my address on them. I've also gotten packages where the stamp says "Kazahkstan Post". Geez, I wonder what the routing is (I believe they optimize for cost)..
I once ordered such a set from AliExpress. It had silicone insulation, making it the best set I ever used because it can be soldered to anything without the insulation melting away. Perfect for prototyping.
The seller was potentially buying the product off sparkfun with a stolen credit card. In return, they receive money from you through a legitimate business transaction.
They’ve just washed money from a stolen credit card.
My last purchase was an envelope in an envelope both with my address. One had the USPS printed stamp out of NYC. I assume my orEr was palletized. Then container shipped to NYC.
That and aliexpress has cracked a nut that eBay hasn’t even figured out: consolidating shipments from different sellers in one package to minimize last mile delivery costs.
Some of these “bag in a bag” deals might be consolidation “misses”
My child has learned that when a package says “JFK” on the return address to shout “more fun stuff from China!”
But yeah, that’s what they do for a lot of shipments. Repackage and mail them from New York. Occasionally get something from Memphis, which I assume means they packed it into FedEx to start.
And any small gadget/gizmo/thing you can think of, and had no chance of finding anywhere, is probably sold by multiple sellers over there. That's also unique (or was until it was banned).
I wonder if that's what makes it slightly addictive? One of the attraction of gambling is the thrill of surprise winning, amidst the many losses that upset you. So in some ways, the cheap products of AliExpress, that sometimes surprises you with its utility or quality, with the unpredictable shipping, is akin to the popular cheap coin based slot machines in casinos.
I've purchased a couple items from AliExpress, and it's definitely an experience. In my case, it starts with calling my credit card issuer and having them turn off all fraud protection on the card for an hour, because otherwise the charges get rejected so early, they don't even show up for customer service.
The items I purchased arrived as expected when expected, although with much more tape than expected (I guess they're optimizing for ocean shipping by making sure the packages will float by themselves!)
I'd been told they use excessive tape because the quality of the cardboard packaging available is so poor that it's somewhat necessary. I don't know why getting better cardboard boxes isn't the answer in that case but perhaps there's some reason for that, too.
I was just exploring some Tablet PC on AE, and one of the sellers had posted a photo of how the tablet would be shipped - it would be without the box, directly wrapped with small-bubbles plastic wrap, then wrapped / placed inside a big-bubble plastic box-like wrap and then placed inside an envelope (obviously with a lot of tape)! Looks like they prefer and trust plastic over cardboard.
I've found that rarely is that super cheap stuff worth it. I'd rather get something engineered well and built to last than disposable chinesium that'll end up in the landfill shortly after.
Some things are just plain cheap to make, like various small electronic gadgets/adaptors/components for example. You can buy the chinesium for cheap on aliexpress or you can buy the chinesium for more on Amazon.
