Aliexpress Anniversary Sale
5Aliexpress is offering a Anniversary Sale promotion. Several sellers are participating, and some are offering pretty reasonable discounts. For example, Runner 250 rotors, usually about $4 a pair, are as low as $2.60/pair.
The catch is it's an "app only" promotion. If you're like me, and get frustrated trying to shop out the best deals on the wee little phone screen, here's a trick:
1. On your computer, go to Aliexpress.com and login to your account (or create an account if you don't have one).
2. Shop out the best deals. Any seller who is participating will list the "app only" discount in the product listing.
3. Add the items you want to buy to your shopping cart. They don't have to all be from the same seller. You can mix and match best prices from a number of sellers.
4. Logout of the Aliexpress website, then grab your phone or tablet and open the Aliexpress app
5. Login using the same account you use in the website. Everything you added to your cart will be there, now at the app only discounted prices.
6. Checkout using the app and save piles of dosh.
7. Send @ruouttaurmind a thank you note
BTW, don't assume just because a seller's regular non-discounted price is higher that they won't have a really great sale price. I found a few items where the seller's normal price was quite a bit more than other seller's regular price, but that seller's Anniversary Sale price was the lowest available.
A few more notes about buying on Aliexpress:
- Aliexpress is not like Banggood or GearBest. It's more like Chinese eBay. Several sellers, all competing with each other to offer the best products at the best price. As such, there are some good sellers and some bad sellers. Do your due diligence; check the seller's feedback record. Aliexpress guarantees your purchase, so you won't lose your money, but you MAY wind up waiting a really, really long time to get your goods if you choose the wrong seller. Some sellers offer guaranteed delivery dates, some do not. Take this into account when you choose which seller you buy from.
- The lowest price is not always the best deal. Some sellers offer free shipping, some do not. Often the seller with the lowest price will add on another buck or two for shipping, bringing the total back above the other sellers.
- The lowest price is STILL not always the best deal. Make sure you check the seller's estimated delivery time. Some sellers have delivery dates as much as 60 days or more. Some have delivery dates in as little as 7 days. Depending on the item, I might rather pay an extra $0.50 or $1.00 to have a 10 or 12 day guaranteed delivery date versus waiting a month or more.
- I have had items arrive from Aliexpress in as little as 4 days (my ZMR250 kit) and a couple of items took nearly two months. I've also had a couple things never show up at all. Make sure you keep an eye on your orders. Aliexpress sets timelines on making claims. In most cases you have the option of requesting an extension of that time (for example for an item with a 30 day delivery estimate). Make sure you stay on top of that stuff. Aliexpress is really, really good about NOT letting buyers get screwed, but they are not very flexible with their policies (read: not AT ALL flexible).
- 6 comments, 19 replies
- Comment
LOL all of my attempts to get to aliexpress.com were going to the ru.aliexpress.com/ru_home.htm I'm not in Russia and I don't speak Russian Thanks...finally got it to go to the English Global site.
/image Runner 250 rotors
@medz Ah. Drone parts.
I tried to find a Sunba 22x zoom analog security camera, but there weren’t any good prices. Never did see anything about an app only sale.
@medz (look at the date.)
@narfcake Why the hell this shit popping up on the front page then? If mods removed some spam, can’t they also prevent it from showing on the front page?
@medz I guess the spam moved it up. We can’t get “am I the only one” moved up on the list but spammers can get necro threads there? I demand answers, dammit!
@medz Blame
the goatyourself. You posted earlier when the spam was still up, which kept this active now.If the posts from today are deleted, this thread will move back to it’s last post date of March 30, 2016.
Cc: @sammydog01 @dave
@narfcake In my defense, I didn’t see any spam comments when I read through it. I thought the OP was a spammer because it was essentially a large wall of text advertising some stupid site for drone parts. Perhaps I clicked at the exact moment the spam comment was deleted, but before it was removed from the main page. Any way, I blame
/goat
for the mishap and for me continuing to post here.
@medz Did you just call @ruouttaurmind a spammer?
/giphy no you didnt
@sammydog01 Dammit! @medz has me figured out!
Why isn’t this
shitfine hobby items over on drone horse?@therealjrn drone.horse doesn’t exist anymore. All the threads have been moved to meh.
@RiotDemon Ahh. Alrighty then.
@therealjrn Not to mention this
shitfine hobby thread was a necro dragged up from a year and a half ago by a spammer.So we are to believe that there is no Anniversary Sale promotion?
@therealjrn There was, back when this was posted. then there was a spam post, to which I had crafted a fine pen pineapple apple pen parody response, but tc deleted the spam before i finished and posted. then @medz revived it.
this is yet another evil of spam, so i leave the goat blame free in this incident.
@therealjrn It was an excellent sale though. I grabbed tons of great bargains.
So is Aliexpress really a decent site? I’ve been hesitant to try it out
@tinamarie1974 I ordered from them a few times without issue. I think most of their stores are based out of mainland China so it might take a few weeks to arrive but it did arrive.
@tinamarie1974 Just keep in mind it will take a while to get the shipment. I have used them a few times. I buy my gym shirts from this site because it is super cheap. It takes about a month more or less. Go in with that mindset.
@michaelgj2002 What if I have to be at the gym in 24 minutes?
@therealjrn No problem. Just place your order, go get dressed, go the gym and STILL remember it will take a month for your order to arrive. I hope this helps!
@tinamarie1974 I’ve bought a lot of electronics components from AliExpress.
It does take a long time to get the stuff. ePacket shipments are the ones I like the best, because you get tracking (it’s a USPS cooperative thing). I have received stuff in under two weeks. “standard shipping” stuff has taken over two months.
They offer app purchase discounts, usually only a small amount, but discount is discount, and you can use the OP method for getting it (shop on the computer, complete order in app).
AliExpress is good about getting your money back. I have had stuff fail to appear, and once I got the wrong thing, and I got my money back. But after waiting a couple of months for late stuff, and it’s usually like $3 for 100 transistors.
Sometimes the stuff isn’t packeted all that well, but, I consider that an acceptable risk considering how little I am paying.
The reviews are a mixed bag. They are from all over the world and auto-translated to English. Often they are just whether or not they got the package and not whether the product works or not.
I’m not sure I’d buy a big ticket item, but for RGB LEDs or Arduino clones or big bags of capacitors, it’s great, as long as I am not in a hurry.
@craigthom I agree. I bought my automobile backup camera from Aliexpress and it fit my car perfectly. It was only about 10 bucks. It arrived fast and it even has lane assist. It was a great find and I’m sure it would have cost hundreds at the dealership.