Ali Express- anyone have experience ordering?

[pinehilljoe]

Ali express has some reasonable prices and sales for black Friday, anyone have experience ordering from them? The Tamiya Lancaster is on sale.

 

[fubar57]

I see a lot of good deals there, ie free shipping which usually kills me. Seen a Tamiya 1:48 P-51B on the about 45$ with shipping and was about to buy it. I checked ebay and found one for 39$ish and free shipping and bought that one. Still, a lot of deals on Ali

 

[Snautzer01]

Just make sure about spelling on the box, because of ....

 

[pinehilljoe]

I'm looking at a Tameya 1/48 Lankastor

 

[Donivanp]

I've bought a couple Ming F/A-18 kits from them. It's a long quiet lead time but to comes in. Keep an eye on the shipping. Great price can be offset by shipping. It can take two, three months to get it.

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

Once. Around six years ago, when I was repairing guitars as a side hustle, I ordered and received a set of guitar saddles for a customer. Took about a week to arrive, understandable as they were coming from Shanghai and still within the ETA.

They worked fine, but I don't know the quality of the metal -- it was a budget Strat and my customer didn't want to spend $100 on MiA stuff.

 

[pinehilljoe]

I see a lot of good deals there, ie free shipping which usually kills me. Seen a Tamiya 1:48 P-51B on the about 45$ with shipping and was about to buy it. I checked ebay and found one for 39$ish and free shipping and bought that one. Still, a lot of deals on Ali

You're right, you get can the same kits on ebay, for about the same price, ebay seems like a better choice.

 

[Donivanp]

You're right, you can the same kits on ebay, for about the same price, ebay seems like a better choice.

It's been my experience. Ali gets your eye with a great price but the shipping brings it way up. Evilbay it's easier to get a complete picture and in most cases it's been my experiences that I get it quickly.

 

[fubar57]

You're right, you get can the same kits on ebay, for about the same price, ebay seems like a better choice.

A lot of people aren't aware of an important option eBay has. They ask me how I got my kit so cheap after they had scrolled many pages, got bored and picked one more expensive. Arrow is pointing to the default setting; note the price of the first hit. Last night I bought this for the same price, free shipping....

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Click the drop box and select this setting. Note that a kit doesn't show up but all the wonderful goodies you can add. They are the lowest.....

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Now we take a short scroll. One thing to watch is the buyers rating; I bypass at lower than 98%. Note the saving over the first price. If you don't mind spending extra pennies, go with the higher ratings. Hope this helps....

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[pinehilljoe]

Another way I've done well is if I find a kit on eBay, look at all the other listings the Seller has, if there is another kit I kind of want, I contact the seller about combining shipping and or making a lower "make offer" on the second, nearly all seller's I've purchased from recently are open to this. I picked up ten 1/48 kits this way, saved what I think was a considerable amount. The Seller was selling her late husbands collection. I also picked up Monogram's B-29 and B-24J bundled for $140 delivered by contacting the seller.

My goal is not to have my wife do the same with my collection one day, I plan to build them.

 

[pinehilljoe]

A lot of people aren't aware of an important option eBay has. They ask me how I got my kit so cheap after they had scrolled many pages, got bored and picked one more expensive. Arrow is pointing to the default setting; note the price of the first hit. Last night I bought this for the same price, free shipping....

View attachment 807048
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Click the drop box and select this setting. Note that a kit doesn't show up but all the wonderful goodies you can add. They are the lowest.....

View attachment 807050
​

Now we take a short scroll. One thing to watch is the buyers rating; I bypass at lower than 98%. Note the saving over the first price. If you don't mind spending extra pennies, go with the higher ratings. Hope this helps....

View attachment 807051





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Darn it, I was about to Bid on those!