General > General Technical Chat

AliEx freight costs

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EPAIII:
Amazon Prime sounded like a great idea. Pay a small yearly fee and get free delivery. I bit.

Then, fewer and fewer items qualified for the free delivery. And the ones that did had inflated prices. You could often get the same thing for less if you shopped other places and choose options like USPS instead of UPS or FedEX or other premium delivery services. Or, in some cases, just used suppliers who had well established relationships with those companies and who got good rates that they actually passed on to the customers. Amazon just raises the prices to include the shipping and you pay twice: first for Prime membership and then for the actual shipping in the inflated price.

Now I only buy from Amazon if the total price is actually a good one. I still pay for Amazon Prime because I like their video streaming channel.

As far as I can tell, Ali Express is a place for real low quality merchandise, usually from China. Bought some DPDT switches from them a while back. If I don't really rush the soldering, they self destruct. And just try to get your money back. Yea, that's gonna happen. And they are now doing the same thing with the "free" shipping. It is in the price you pay.

When I want electronic parts I go to the same places I have for decades now: DigiKey, Mouser, Newark, etc. The REAL electronic supply houses. At least the parts actually work.

YurkshireLad:
It drives me nuts when YouTube videos proclaim free or dirt cheap shipping from Amazon or China. It might be free or dirt cheap for them, but someone somewhere is paying for it somehow, and not in a positive way.

Bud:

--- Quote from: EPAIII on January 09, 2024, 08:08:51 pm ---As far as I can tell, Ali Express is a place for real low quality merchandise, usually from China. Bought some DPDT switches from them a while back. If I don't really rush the soldering, they self destruct.

--- End quote ---
Got from Ali "700mA 3W" high brightness color LEDs that burned at 200mA. Yeah... Neither Digikey nor Mouser had 300mA ones, so tried my luck with Ali but lost this time  :)

floobydust:
Those "bead" LED's need a heatsink, I've bought 1W and 3W LED's and had no troubles. Also look for the "big die" or ones with 2-4 bonding wires.

thm_w:

--- Quote from: Bud on January 09, 2024, 09:06:45 pm ---
--- Quote from: EPAIII on January 09, 2024, 08:08:51 pm ---As far as I can tell, Ali Express is a place for real low quality merchandise, usually from China. Bought some DPDT switches from them a while back. If I don't really rush the soldering, they self destruct.

--- End quote ---
Got from Ali "700mA 3W" high brightness color LEDs that burned at 200mA. Yeah... Neither Digikey nor Mouser had 300mA ones, so tried my luck with Ali but lost this time  :)

--- End quote ---

Digikey absolutely has 3W+ LEDs.
Ali ones are fine as well if you buy from a decent supplier and know what you are doing.

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