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Chinese shit general
Contents
Websites to buy cheap shit
aliexpress.com (marketplace) - This is the main website /g/ uses. It has the largest selection out of any other site. Customer Support is pretty good, they will side with you if the seller made a mistake, just like Ebay. Uses Alipay for payment, meaning your CC details will not be given to the seller, just like Paypal. The main disadvantage for Americans is that unlike Paypal, it does not accept Discover cards. Or Paypal for that matter too.
banggood.com - Accepts Paypal and you can checkout without making an account. Warehouses in many countries. This site is especially cool for European /g/entooman, because of their "Netherlands direct shipping" option. It's usually much faster than China Post Air Mail, and should mean getting your goods from China to Europe in a week. The cost is barely any higher than the free shipping option.
dinodirect.com - Accepts Paypal, Sofort (German payment method). Good customer support. Are apparently scammers, buy with caution.
fasttech.com - Accepts Bitcoin and Paypal. This is possibly the only site where the customer reviews are trustworthy. Lots of reviews in English. Website is known for a wide selection of e-cig/vape products, but they also sell many other products.
en.jd.com - They often have good limited time prices on cellphones.
kaidomain.com - Accepts Paypal, good for bicycle lights and 18650 batteries. (if you're in Europe or even better The Netherlands, I'd rather use nkon.nl, they have VERY cheap Panasonic 18650 cells and they ship all around the world)
dx.com - Free shipment tracking if order value above $15.
ebay.com (marketplace) - Oftentimes the same sellers as Aliexpress selling the items for a higher price because of Ebay's popularity and the higher Ebay seller fees. But sometimes it can surprise you and have items at a lower price than Aliexpress or any of the other sites. It is worth comparing the prices between Aliexpress and Ebay just in case if you are a scrooge.
gearbest.com - Oftentimes has some of the lowest prices for the more expensive products (things like phones, tablets, action cameras etc..), but are known to often take their merry time before sending a package. The free shipping option does not come with tracking, you have to pay extra. Known to pay users for positive reviews, ergo shop with caution.
geekbuying.com - Accepts Paypal. Dropshipping option on all goods.
pandawill.com - Accepts Paypal, Skrill. Offers import tax & VAT insurance. For 5% more (10% if in the EU), they will give you a refund on the import tax & VAT cost if you show them the customs slip. This could perhaps be worth it for some expensive products like cell phones.
Each website has their advantages and drawbacks, if there are any notable ones you want to add, please let me know. There is no one-stop shop for everything.
A word on price comparison tools
There are two main direct from China price comparison websites. Pandacheck and Chinaprices. It is highly recommend NOT to use Chinaprices. About half of the stores they list are known to be outright scams or to take part in many unethical practices (refusing to repair DOA products etc...). So if you must, use https://en.pandacheck.com/ However; in general it is recommended to manually price compare or ask the thread. These comparison tools rarely find the correct lowest prices from all the different Chinese stores. It can perhaps be used to give you a rough idea of the websites who charge the most to weed them out, and then you can manually price compare to find the best prices. Be aware that all links on price comparison websites are affiliate links.
It is recommended to try out several websites, and stick with them if you've had good experiences.
Bulk orders/Wholesale
Not recommended for getting individual items. You will need to manually contact sellers and chat with them each time and possibly use wire transfers instead of CCs.
alibaba.com
dhgate.com (lots more counterfeit products compared to Alibaba)
Chinese national websites
You will probably need an agent to buy anything on there (unless you contact the seller in Chinese and negotiate international shipping with him). The commissions for agents are generally less than 8%. It might be worth it for some more expensive products. Use a translator to read product information or to enter search terms in Chinese.
taobao.com - The largest Chinese online marketplace. Owned by the Alibaba group (AliExpress). Tons of sellers and a gigantic selection. Anon's Guide to Taobao
tmall.com - Also owned by the Alibaba Group. The difference with Taobao is that T-mall does not allow small individual sellers. The only sellers on Tmall are the manufacturers themselves, large online retailers etc.. Tmall is used for buying brand name goods because they have the official company's store on there and only sell genuine products (Chinese brands such as Xiaomi, as well as foreign brands such as Nike among others.)
Shipping methods
- Seller's shipping method - Slowest option on Aliexpress. Up to two months shipping time. If you don't receive your goods after that time period you can get a refund. oftentimes untracked. Sometimes you can be pleasantly surprised and get your product in a week or two. But since the seller doesn't list the method, you'll never know.
- Sweden Post, Wishpost, Swisspost, Singapore Post - Generally piss slow and untracked. These are often the default free shipping methods on many websites.
- China Post Registered Air Mail - generally 1-2 weeks. tracked.
- China Post Ground - the method usually used when the seller lists "seller's shipping method". Can take over a month.
- EMS (Express Mail Service) - expensive but should get there within a week.
- SAL (Surface Air Lifted) - week and a half to two weeks. Generally a bit cheaper than EMS.
- DHL and Fedex - very quick, very expensive.
- ePacket - only available to people in America. Generally much faster than China Post, and oftentimes free.
Use info about these shipping methods to help you decide which seller you want to purchase from. For example if a seller sells a product for 20 cents more and offers China Post Registered Air Mail instead of the unknown "seller's shipping method".
Recommended tracking site:
- 17track.net - Sometimes it will fuck up, but generally it should automatically find the shipping method so you don't have to manually input it.
Things that are NOT recommended to buy
Sunglasses though there are many good fakes, many do not have UV coatings.This is wrong, most Chinese sunglasses and prescription glasses are perfectly fine. It doesn't cost $100 to make proper sunglasses, it's just that in the US we are used to the horrible monopoly from Luxottica, a company making a majority of world's famous sunglasses brands. They have an insane markup. Even the cheapest of Chinese glasses have UV coatings, and even if they didn't glass inherently blocks out most UV rays anyway.
Either way it can't be worse than NOT wearing sunglasses, so go for it. Stop paying the ridiculous markups for glasses.
Here's a video if you want to learn more about Luxottica
- US/German/etc - branded headphones. They will be fake.
- Memory cards and USB sticks can be bought with caution, but many don't have their advertised capacity. Run h2testw or a similar program to make sure you get what you're paying for. Speed ratings may be inflated, try to buy from reputable Chinese brands (ask around on the threads for more info)
- Anything that goes in your ass.
- Anything that goes on your dick or vagina.
- "Cool" and "Trendy" Asian fashion clothes e.g. Yesstyle clothes. You'll look like a faggot. Things like socks, ties, T-shirts and panties are generally fine. Some /csg/ posters like to buy replica clothing (aka fakes), so ask around.
- Plant seeds. Not only will customs seize the shipment, but most seeds you see on Aliexpress etc. are not what they claim to be. unless it's a plant with very obvious shaped seeds, don't bother. You'll end up with seeds for a random weed.
- Food. Sellers will markup Chinese food 10 fold and sell it to dumb Laowais. Also, mouth cancer.
- Batteries that claim ridiculous mAh ratings. Enjoy your Ultra(house)Fire™ and sand filled batteries! Panasonic/LG/brand name 18650 batteries are good though.
- Hiking Boots and equipment. Quality and reliability are the key factors for such things, you just can't be sure enough when ordering equipment that your life could depend on from China.
- Mini cooper condoms or any condoms in general. $1 saved for $1 million in raising a child.
General buying tips
IF IT SOUNDS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, then it very well could be. Ask in the thread for feedback.
- Payment: Use Paypal or Alipay if it's an option, or purchase with a prepaid Visa. Find out when your money back deadline is so you can always request a refund if things go bad. The advantage of Paypal or Alipay is that you won't be sharing your CC details with random Chinese businesses, and they provide you with an added layer of protection in the form of disputes in case a website tries to fuck you over.
- Alipay on Aliexpress should be safe enough, too. Preferable for sellers (and in turn, buyers) due to lower / no fees.
- Buying clothes: Chinese clothes sizes are different to US sizes, and are usually smaller. Be cautions if there are no measurements on clothing to judge its true size. Read feedback to try to get an idea on sizing. Compare the measurements on the listing to those of current clothes you own.
- Use H2testw to verify the volume of storage media like memory cards and USB drives.
- - The UI language can be switched between German and English.
Recommended brands
Other knicknacks
- Mangos
- Screwdrivers
- Panties
- Controllers
- Android devices
- Cables
- Camera accessories
- Cycling goods
- Anything that's relatively easy to manufacture. The copy/unbranded item will be just as good.
- Adapters
- ExpressPort cards
- Borescope cameras
- Endoscopes
External links
Approved reviewers:
