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Post by Embri on Nov 4, 2022 0:47:05 GMT
Have any tips or tricks? Questions about AliEx? Find a really good deal?
Share with your fellow Peas! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ AliExpress (AliEx) is the consumer level division of AliBaba, the Chinese based commerce giant. It's somewhat similar to eBay; shops offer goods, AliExpress serves as the platform, financial liaison between sellers / customers, and mediates issues.
Is it safe? As far as I've experienced, yes. Financial details only go to AliEx, not to the actual vendors. They accept Paypal and credit cards, both of which offer another layer of protection. If the vendor doesn't provide the promised product, there's the option to dispute for a refund.
What do they sell?
Honestly? Everything. Just the craft products alone boggles the mind. You name it, they probably have ten versions of it.
Why would you buy there?
Cost. It's mostly a value proposition. A coverplate die is around 3-6$ US on AliExpress, vs. the 30-40$ for a similar retail item. Variety is another reason - AliEx offers thousands upon thousands of different designs, not the handful of what's popular this year/month. They also often have stuff that's no longer available anywhere else (retired / sold out). Shipping is low or free, all of which makes buying there extremely popular for international crafters who don't have easy access to American craft retailers or have prohibitively high import fees in their country.
Don't they sell knockoffs of American brands? Yes. If the possibility of knockoffs / copies are not your thing, then a lot of what AliExpress has will not be your cuppa' tea. There are stores who feature only original designs and loads of generic shapes, but the majority of shops have a mix of both. Usually it's obvious which items are copies as they'll use the same promotional images, but sometimes the branding is stripped which makes it harder to tell.
Downsides? Plenty. Already mentioned the knockoffs, which may or may not be a personal ethical issue. Shipping can take a while, especially if you're in Canada or Australia. Sometimes things get damaged in the post, or you get sent the wrong thing, or your item might have quality issues. For most people it seems around 5% of items ordered don't work out. If you are exceedingly picky, that number might rise as high as 1/3. Stores can be transient, and listings often are. The thing you saw last month may well be gone today, which can be a problem if you suffer from FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out).
The search feature on AliEx itself is awful. There is no easy in-category search, the parameters are inclusive, and the algorithm heavily prioritizes featured and previously viewed items. The wishlist is a mobile bastardization that is barely helpful and a genuine pain to try and wrangle large numbers of items with. The shopping experience is far more akin to a garage sale (carboot sale / flea market) than a well organized store. Searching within individual shops works perfectly fine, but the overall market can feel chaotic. Be prepared to spend a good amount of time hunting, and leverage tools like image search, www.pricearchive.org/, and external bookmarks or saved images if you plan to shop regularly. What's this 11.11 thing? Coupons? Coins? Spend and Save? Help!
11.11 (November 11th of every year) is AliEx's "Black Friday" aka biggest sale. It starts on the 1st and runs to the 12th. There are smaller Spend & Save sales every few months that offer discounts as well, though usually not quite as good as November's (16.6%, 5$ off each 35$US up to three times). Not all shops participate in these sales! If an item is eligible, it'll have a big obvious banner like this. Other discounts and coupons will be listed in the same area below. These stack with store discounts, coin discounts, and coupons. All applicable discounts will be shown under the "Saved" entry in the cart Summary before buying.
Spend and Save discounts are special; they apply across ALL qualifying items in an order, not just one store's. It's usually worth waiting for one of these sales to get a nice little kickback, ~10% off, if you're going to meet the Spend & Save threshold anyways.
Fast Delivery - this is a site-wide upgrade for participating items. If you buy more than X$ of items listed as "Fast Delivery on orders over X$" in one order, you'll get a single bundled package of all your items with registered mail expedited shipping.
Store discounts are just that - automatic discounts or shipping upgrades that apply if you reach a certain threshold. Usually they're for X$ (spend 25$ and get 5% off), but may also be for X items (buy 5 and get 5% off). "Free shipping for orders over X$" is a common store discount, and a good incentive to buy multiple items from the same shop.
Coupons are almost always store specific, and in the form of "buy X$ and get Y$ off". Pretty simple; spend that much or more in this shop and you get a discount. Check if there are usable coupons for the items in your cart with the 'Get Coupons' link to the right of the store name. If there's no 'Get Coupons' option in the cart, the store isn't offering any coupons at the moment. Most coupons are minimally valuable, <10% off and often have high price requirements, but sometimes you'll find a coupon for a couple dollars off with a low threshold.
Coins are not used by a lot of shops but give a small percentage discount (usually 1-5%) on your total purchase if present. This will be automatically applied at checkout. Coins are extremely easy to get via the Account > My Coins daily, you'll never use nearly as many as are handed out. Basically keep a few coins on hand and you'll never need worry about them again. Eligible items will be tagged like this:
What do I do if something goes wrong? If your order simply hasn't shown up, you have to wait for the expected delivery date to pass. If something is damaged, missing or flawed, a dispute can be opened immediately. Important: There is a 15 day window during which a dispute can be opened after confirming receipt of the goods or the estimated delivery date. After that, you cannot get a refund. Keep track of your orders and when they're supposed to arrive, and be proactive in handling any problems. If you open a dispute, never close it. Occasionally a seller will ask you to and promise to send a refund or replacement, but if you do this you have zero protection. Go through the official dispute process.
How do you actually find something to buy? If using the internal search, be aware you need to include something like 'metal cutting dies' or 'stamps' in your terms every time or you'll get results from all possible categories. Starting with www.pricearchive.org/ is a better option, same search rules apply. Once you've found something that looks interesting, there'll be more recommendations in the sidebar and below the listing. Or click on the name of the shop (left of the AliExpress logo) or "Store Home" on a product page to see the shop's other items. You'll need to be logged in to search shops. This hop-skipping around in a shop or between recommended products is the easiest way to browse for interesting things. Another option is to sort by Orders in a shop to see what their popular items are. Once you've spotted something desirable, it's time to scrutinize the listing. Important things to consider are not just the price, but shipping fee, store feedback rating, pictures and description. It is strongly recommended to only buy listings that either show the product on a grid mat with measurements, or list a size. Two listings may use identical pictures to advertise but have differing sizes of product. It's also a good idea to see if there are any customer reviews that mention problems. Take your time and read everything. Price comparison is difficult at best. pricearchive can sometimes drag up similar listings, as can using keywords from the original product's title or reverse image searching.
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Pea Rec'd Stores Plus = multiple recommendations. Extra notes mark shops that specialize in something, otherwise assume a variety of stamps and/or dies are offered.
Arricraft -> outline & SVG dies, also jewelry ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Coupons? Coupons! Price Archive doesn't always update its coupon page until a few days after the start of each month, but they're pretty reliable about listing every active discount coupon. Coupons are often region and product specific, so you'll have to go to the checkout page to test them with your location/items/total $. Also be aware they're showing ALL coupons that apply across the many categories of goods on AliEx. For reference most crafty goods fall under Home & Garden > Arts, Crafts & Sewing.
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Post by Embri on Nov 4, 2022 1:19:48 GMT
Haven't done a lot of bargain hunting yet but I did find this shop: www.aliexpress.com/store/900253407Which has across the board discounts (on top of the 11.11 Spend & Save / coupons) Get C$ 2.80 off orders over C$ 4.20 Get C$ 4.20 off orders over C$ 7.00 |
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pinklady
Drama Llama
Posts: 6,081 
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Post by pinklady on Nov 4, 2022 3:43:51 GMT
Oh I have a serious obsession with AE. I spend sooooo much time on their searching and adding to my cart. 😁
I’m not a fan of their clear stamps. I’ve not gotten good results stamping with them.
I mostly buy stand alone dies and gems and really don’t have any complaints. Recently, I purchased a few sets of layered stencils and they are great. Of the hundreds of dies, I’ve only had issues with a handful.
Their prices have increased a lot in the last few months. I used to be able to get most of the popular dies for under $4. Now lots of dies are $5 - $7. I was always able to get free shipping but my last couple of orders did have shipping charges.
One other important thing is that I’ve been shopping there for years and knock on wood, have never had an issue with my credit card being compromised.
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Post by 950nancy on Nov 4, 2022 3:56:58 GMT
I have purchased from them, but the last two times were a bait and switch and then an order sent to an old address issue that never got resolved (no item and charged for it). They said too bad, so sad. Won't do business with them again. I only used stores that took Pay Pal because I do know people who had their CC compromised.
I will buy from some Amazon sellers that I believe are selling their merchandise, but they have the stock available and my correct address.
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Post by Embri on Nov 4, 2022 3:57:38 GMT
Yes, prices have definitely gone up post-Covid. I suspect it's shipping related - China used to get a much better international postage discount. In essence, when it comes to international mail poorer countries shoulder less of the financial cost than richer countries when there's a disparity in origin/destination. I've noticed a couple of my free shipping orders have been bounced through the United Arab Emirates recently. It's much harder to find free shipping deals these days. It's impacted my buying habits; where before I'd pick and choose one or two things from many shops, now I'm more likely to put things in my cart and wait for a sale / discounts / coupons and get a bigger order from one shop. I don't really go for stamps but I love cutting dies. Most of what I've gotten has been great. Occasionally there's one that doesn't cut right or has some other flaw but that's what refunds are for. I've got 92 things in my cart that I need to sort through and pick out exactly what I want to purchase this sale. There's a solid looking 6" T-ruler I've got my eye on, some magnetic sheeting, blending brushes, and of course a bucket load of dies!
Edit: oh that sucks 950nancy. I'd be so sad if my orders ended up somewhere else and out the cost of them too! I have had one order I couldn't get a refund for - the dispute page wouldn't let me change the refund amount to anything but 0.00 which wouldn't let it go through, but that's been my only hiccup over hundreds of items.
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Post by refugeepea on Nov 4, 2022 12:16:14 GMT
I don't really go for stamps but I love cutting dies. Most of what I've gotten has been great. Occasionally there's one that doesn't cut right or has some other flaw but that's what refunds are for. I've got 92 things in my cart that I need to sort through and pick out exactly what I want to purchase this sale. There's a solid looking 6" T-ruler I've got my eye on, some magnetic sheeting, blending brushes, and of course a bucket load of dies! I've bought quite a few stamp sets and quality is ok. I have had issues with a few; one was missing one stamp, a couple were misspelled, and one did not stamp the image at all. I'm not into detailed stamping though. I typically buy stamps with words or simple images. I use a Tim Holtz platform and have found you just don't push as hard. The Versafine Clair ink works great on them.
The search feature is maddening. I've got to the point where if I'm fine with the final price, I'm not going to keep looking for something better. I do try to stick with stores of a 90% or above rating. I'm kind of picky about what metal dies I buy since I have a cutting machine. It is old though and it's bad at cutting intricate images. I do like the nesting dies since they are so convenient to use.
I am curious if anyone has found puffy stickers that work in scrapbooking. Not the sets of kids stickers that keep popping up. I have found some hearts and stars. That took forever! I'm looking for holiday, sports, or event stickers that aren't childish looking.
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Post by positivelyreek on Nov 4, 2022 12:22:58 GMT
I have not purchased from AE, but I did recently find out that they have an app. I may download it and start browsing.
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blemon
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,579
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Post by blemon on Nov 4, 2022 14:04:07 GMT
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Post by mbanda on Nov 4, 2022 14:20:31 GMT
I just placed an order yesterday from them. I tend to stay away from the stamps (I feel they never give me a good image) and buy more dies. This time I found some layering stencils and decided to try those.
I've had a couple of issues in the past but when I notified the sellers I was given a refund. Shipping takes forever but I know that going in so I don't buy something I need for a specific time-sensitive project.
I also typically use a prepaid gift card for my transactions. I get prepaid gift cards as a rebate reward from my vet for buying flea & tick medicine and use those.
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Post by jenna on Nov 4, 2022 19:30:13 GMT
RE: payments - I use the CashApp debit card because I can add only how much I want to spend and then I can turn it 'off' if need be.
I've got some dies + stencils showing up tomorrow so while I don't need to spend money.. I'll still probably spend an hour looking lol
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Post by Embri on Nov 4, 2022 23:56:15 GMT
The search feature is maddening. I've got to the point where if I'm fine with the final price, I'm not going to keep looking for something better. I do try to stick with stores of a 90% or above rating. I'm kind of picky about what metal dies I buy since I have a cutting machine. It is old though and it's bad at cutting intricate images. I do like the nesting dies since they are so convenient to use. Tell me about it! It didn't used to be so bad - only a few years ago you could search within a category easily, or by size or keyword and have similar items show up. Now? It's a ridiculous haystack that serves up more random unrelated things than useful results. I too have an old machine - Sizzix's 'big red', and it doesn't much like really intricate dies. However it's a boss when it comes to doing lots of little things repeatedly. Not much fussed by the fact it can't do lacy busy things since that's not my style anyways, and there's loads of nice basic dies on offer. Nesting dies are awesome! I am curious if anyone has found puffy stickers that work in scrapbooking. Not the sets of kids stickers that keep popping up. I have found some hearts and stars. That took forever! I'm looking for holiday, sports, or event stickers that aren't childish looking. I haven't bought any stickers from AliEx, alas. I'll keep an eye out though! |
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teri123
New Member
Posts: 8
Nov 11, 2020 20:56:03 GMT
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Post by teri123 on Nov 5, 2022 1:05:34 GMT
I accidentally bought the exact same stamps from Heidi Swapp shop, and had forgotten that I had the Aliexpress versions. I did a side by side comparison and seriously couldn’t see a difference!
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Post by Embri on Nov 5, 2022 3:33:06 GMT
I accidentally bought the exact same stamps from Heidi Swapp shop, and had forgotten that I had the Aliexpress versions. I did a side by side comparison and seriously couldn’t see a difference! I don't have any official / knockoff pairs to compare, but my experience with functionality has been that - for cutting dies at least - they're comparable. Quality control is worse. Which makes sense, nobody is taking time to look things over carefully or package them up. |
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Post by elegantsufficiency on Nov 5, 2022 11:36:41 GMT
Any recommendations would be gratefully received for a tool or set of tools for weeding out die cuts (including a blunt pointy thing for poking through those little holes to retrieve a tiny cut shape) and suchlike. It seems to me to be exactly the kind of thing that could be found on AliExpress - I'm thinking dental tools, but the mere thought of a dentist sourcing such things through AE is enough to give me the shivers!! I'll bet one of you has the perfect answer, if I can but find it!! I've just been weeding out the stars from this die from LX Craft Store - works beautifully btw...  Thanks! |
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Post by Embri on Nov 5, 2022 11:46:43 GMT
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Post by elegantsufficiency on Nov 5, 2022 12:19:23 GMT
I'll stop now, before this gets excessive! No, don't stop! Thank you so much Embri for *exactly* what I was after!! |
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Post by tealpaperowl on Nov 5, 2022 15:52:03 GMT
I LOVE Ali! I've passed 5,000 orders. I have had great success with clear stamps and dies. I don't buy from "new" sellers though. I love their glitter, sequin mixes too. I've got a cart full waiting for the sale...
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pinklady
Drama Llama
Posts: 6,081
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Post by pinklady on Nov 5, 2022 15:58:59 GMT
I LOVE Ali! I've passed 5,000 orders. I have had great success with clear stamps and dies. I don't buy from "new" sellers though. I love their glitter, sequin mixes too. I've got a cart full waiting for the sale... Who are your go to sellers for stamps and dies? |
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Katie Beth
Shy Member
Posts: 33
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Post by Katie Beth on Nov 5, 2022 18:35:54 GMT
I would love to know some of your favorite sellers. I am always looking for new stamps and dies!!
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Post by tealpaperowl on Nov 5, 2022 19:52:22 GMT
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Post by tealpaperowl on Nov 5, 2022 19:54:21 GMT
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Katie Beth
Shy Member
Posts: 33
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Post by Katie Beth on Nov 5, 2022 20:01:29 GMT
Thank you, tealpaperowl. The links do work!! I will spend some time checking them out.
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Post by Embri on Nov 5, 2022 20:48:53 GMT
A few more (there are dozens in my list) Tossed your links up in the first post and added some of my own, tealpaperowl. Always good to have! Spotted another 'pokey tool' along the way. This one's got a coupon (T29ZYKNU4WBJ), but there's a shipping fee. |
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Post by Embri on Nov 12, 2022 4:04:29 GMT
I caved, I wanted more stuff. Bought another order because I found this coupon that worked and knocked 10$Can off my order which made it too tasty to resist. Overall quite happy with all the things I picked up this sale. My collection overall is starting to feel robust enough to do almost everything I ask of it.
I picked out:
Snow border/edge lines, two different angel wing sets, a large narwhal, a set of nested starry cloud windows, potion bottles, strawberries and chocolate/icing, two sets of sweets/cookies two sets of hummingbirds, some word dies, mushrooms and ferns, a dinosaur, a very big fence, shark, large outlined lowercase letters, stitched clouds, snowflake scatter pattern, nesting A7 rectangles, an icing/cake frame, wave/water borders x3.
11SUPERS7 -> 7$US off a 45$US order. I used this coupon and it worked. Expires at the end of the 11.11 sale, so you only have about a day left to use it.
11SUPERS11 -> this one is 11$US off a 70$US order.
11SUPERS16 -> 16$US off a 110$US order.
Didn't have enough stuff to qualify & test either of the bigger discounts but they're probably good. Smallest coupon is the best % off.
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behappy
New Member
Posts: 7
Oct 30, 2022 3:44:42 GMT
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Post by behappy on Nov 12, 2022 15:40:46 GMT
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blemon
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,579
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Post by blemon on Nov 12, 2022 15:49:38 GMT
I can't get that link to work. It's like it's formatted for a different kind of device than a computer. Everything is huge and there is some sort of message pinned to the bottom of my screen so I can only see a tiny portion of the items I'm trying to scroll through. When I search for the shop name, I can't get to the shop. When I search for the exact items that I can see at the top of their page, they do not come up. Who are their IT people? Seriously. What a disaster. |
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blemon
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,579
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Post by blemon on Nov 12, 2022 15:52:04 GMT
Ok, here's what I ended up doing. Trying a new browser did not work.
I followed them because I could do that.
Then I closed the window, opened a new one and in my account I could look at my followers. Now I can see the shop.
So odd.
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FurryP
Drama Llama
To pea or not to pea...
Posts: 7,288
Site Supporter
Jun 26, 2014 19:58:26 GMT
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Post by FurryP on Nov 12, 2022 19:12:43 GMT
Ok, here's what I ended up doing. Trying a new browser did not work. I followed them because I could do that. Then I closed the window, opened a new one and in my account I could look at my followers. Now I can see the shop. So odd. When you see that "m" at the beginning of the link, it means it is the mobile link. If you take the "m" and the dot out and refresh it should bring you the the regular site, so you can view properly on the computer. It happens when people link from their mobile device. |
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Post by Embri on Nov 12, 2022 20:50:33 GMT
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blemon
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,579
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Post by blemon on Nov 12, 2022 22:26:36 GMT
Ha! I had no idea. Thank you for teaching me something new. That is awesome.
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