The paper crafters complete guide to buying on AliExpress_6

The paper crafters complete guide to buying on AliExpress

In the crafting world (again, please keep in mind that I’mshopping in Canadian, not US, dollars), I would say that prices are generallyabout ½ to 1/6th of the cost of similar items offered by brand namecompanies and independent retailers. While some sellers do offer (genuine) brand name goods,plenty are not branded or are sold under labels and company names used only bythe specific sellers offering certain goods. As such, it at times be tricky tomake a direct comparison between the prices charged by brands outside of Ali’splatform and those on the website itself. Making purchases during a sale is an excellent way to stretch your dollar even further.

Objectively, in a lot of cases, especially for inexpensive items, it does not make sense to ship an item back to China. The cost to do so from many countries may equal or (far) exceed what you paid for that item in the first place. Most of the time, at least 95% in my personal case, however, because I’m vigilant with the dates and ensuring that I keep track of which of my AliExpress orders have and have not arrived yet, I’ve been able to file a dispute in the allotted time frame. By andlarge, folks don’t make a point of publicly saying how many of their Ali ordersarrived and how many failed to reach them. As such, I tend to rely a bit less on the trustworthiness ofthe star rating system and more on the review comments that some buyers opt toleave for their purchases. Of course, there are products that are not offered there (Imyself have searched for several things that I was unable to find results for),but a surprising number are and it seems like more come along every week.

Think of just about any consumer good you might like –especially if it’s a general term (e.g., glitter glue instead of the brand nameproduct Stickles) – and chances are at least one person is selling some versionof it on AliExpress. AliExpress.com – often called AliExpress, or simply Ali – is a highly popular online retail site that features a huge range of consumer goods being sold by a multitude of different sellers. For some crafters, AliExpress is never going to appeal to them, others may be fairly neutral on it, and plenty adore the site. Try searching YouTube for a few keywords such as “scrapbookhaul AliExpress” or “AliExpress design team package” to check out some of thesevideos.

I’ve been burned a few times there, much as I try to keep very good track of these things for all of my purchases. I can tell you this, to date I’ve had many dozens of orders (not, items, but orders; the item count would technically be higher still, as plenty of those orders were for multiple items from the same seller) that simply did not arrive. You’ll sometimes read or watch stories about specific ordersthat failed to arrive, but again, total failed orders per customer are statsthat just aren’t made public by and large. While the metal of the dies is sometimes flimsier, it canalso be on par – or even better, occasionally – than many brand name dies thatI’ve tried. Likewise, the quality of goods offered by various seller sonAliExpress can vary dramatically.

Occasionally items may in fact cost more than you might be able to find certain similar pieces for elsewhere online or at bricks and mortar shops. The cost of goods offered on AliExpress is going to besomewhat relative to what those, or similar, items would typically cost you inyour own respective country. Alternatively, you can “buy now” for single items (or multiples of the exact same item from the same seller) for one-off purchases.

AliExpress

If your order has not arrived within the allotted deliverytime frame, you can – and should – open a dispute and request a refund on yourpurchase. Though I have had a few packages reach me in less than 2 weeks, I find that 3 weeks to 2.5 months is the norm for delivery time to my own country. This tends to be especially true of very lightweight/small sized items, a header that a lot of different types of crafting supplies fall under. One of the first things that may catch your attention on AliExpress – it might even have been what lured you to that website in the first place – is the remarkably low shipping costs offered by many sellers. For the sake of brevity, I will not go into detail about thequality of each of the items mentioned above, but I will share a few notes onsome of these products. Where a comparable craft product is available, I personally find that the cost is about 1/2 to 1/3 that of the brand name item here in Canada.

(Consider loading up your cart a few days in advance and making your purchases once the sale begins, to save time and hopefully ensure you get the items you’re after before they potentially sell out). In fact, the ability to stretch a dollar that much further is no small part of the reason why I sometimes buy certain types of paper crafting supplies from AliExpress. As well, the lower prices and free or inexpensive shipping offered by many sellers can be a serious boon to many crafter’s and their personal shopping budgets. Not everyone lives in a country with nationwide chains of craft supply stores, big box shops teeming with crafting items, much in the way of independent shops, or cores of online paper crafting retailers.

Ironically, while the vast majority of Ali’s sellers are located in China, AliExpress itself does not allow customers in Mainland China to purchase from this platform. Plenty of paper crafters shop on Ali, just as many do not(or no longer opt to do so). Unfortunately, because we might not recognize a certainproduct as being a copy of an existing design from an established brand, it ispossible to inadvertently buy a knockoff. Generally speaking though, filing a dispute, detailing theproblem and reaching an outcome that you’re comfortable with receiving from theseller is often a better and less expensive approach.

At least not those items that are aliexpress official website copies/knockoffs ofknown products from established paper crafting brands. Reading reviews and ratings is a decent way to get a sense of the quality of the merchandise and the customer service provided by a specific seller/shop on AliExpress (customers are invited to leave optional reviews and ratings between 1 and 5 stars for each of their Ali purchases). Very few sellers use the entirety of an existing brand’s name in their item titles or listings.

Some are excellent, on par with various mainstream brands, others are what might be termed “dollar store” quality (that isn’t to say, terrible, but by the same token, unlikely to usurp the best polymer stamps anytime soon), and others are can be a bit subpar. That may happen one day, and I do tend to play it safe in terms of what I’ll put through my die cutting machine in the first place, but so far it has not and I think that says something about the quality of the dies I’ve purchased from AliExpress. To date, I’ve not had any of the AliExpress metal dies that I’ve purchased break on me, damage my cutting plates beyond the normal wear and tear of metal dies, jam my machine (a Sizzix Big Shot), or completely fail to cut a shape from the material that I partnered a given die with. Keep in mind, as with all overseas/international purchases, you may be hit with customs, import and other postal service related fees when your order reaches you in your respective country.

In general, especially these days, I like to use AliExpress as a source for various types of generic products that are very unlikely to be knockoffs of existing brand name goods. No one, not even the biggest and best known names in thescrapbooking and card making industry can possibly know every product that isreleased by every single paper crafting brand in the world. In some instances, buyers (especially if they’re new to paper crafting and/or to AliExpress) may have no idea that the item they’re purchasing is a copy. Some will use, how shall we say, creative wording to alert potential customers that what they’re offering is a knockoff product of an existing brand. I wish that I could tell you otherwise, but the cold, hard truth is that there is no shortage of sellers on AliExpress who sell items that are either remarkably similar looking (at best) or blatant copies (at worst) of existing products.

That is saying a lot because Canada Post has a seriously low threshold before which postal system users are smacked with hefty customers and import fees. Make sure when you’re checking out, that you’ve only selected the items that you wish to buy at that point in time. I’d love to conduct a poll of thousands of AliExpress buyers from around the world asking them how they first found out about this website and what their initial purchases were.

Even if this does relatively little to the bottom line of certain companies, that doesn’t make it any less detrimental in the grander scheme of things. Plus, there are plenty of smaller paper crafting companies out that that need every sale they can get to help keep them afloat. It is up to you and your personal ethics as to how you wish toproceed with using (or not) the product or products in question in your owncrafting.

Still, after so many orders that simply did not arrive, I’ve grown warier of buying from AliExpress and am finding that I tend to purchase more and more from Ali sellers that I’ve had reliable delivery results from in the past. Comparing them to the cutting quality, ease of release,ability to cut through various types of thin materials (paper, cardstock, verylight felt, etc), overall quality of the die cut shape that is created, and soforth of brand name dies, honestly, in most cases I’ve been fairly impressed. As someone who lives in Canada, a vast country with over 35 million inhabitants, yet a shockingly small number of both online and real-world sources for crafting products, there was an immediate allure to the near-endless virtual aisles, so to speak, of goods on offer at AliExpress. This tends to be less of an issue with very inexpensiveAliExpress orders, especially since many sellers declare (whether it’sfactually accurate or not) an incredibly low value on the packages that theymail out to their customers. While a small number of payment options do exist on Ali, most of the time international customers are apt to pay for their purchases directly with a credit card.

There is a handy add to cart feature that allows you to place up to a maximum of 100 items at a time (be they from the same seller or a multitude of different sellers) to your AliExpress shopping cart. But for the millions upon millions of people – plenty of paper crafters included – who use it every day, it can be a handy, enjoyable way to score some fun finds at reasonable prices. In addition, some of the bigger and often more legit (as in, they do not tend to sell knockoff items) AliExpress sellers, such as KS Crafts have their own YouTube channels as well, which can be a great way to find out about new products that these sellers are releasing. Whether you favour scrapbooking, card making, paper crafting swaps, junk journaling, mixed media, or just about any other kind of paper craft, chances are there’s at least one or two YouTubers who have created videos pertaining to that topic and AliExpress.

How AliExpress helps the paper crafting world

That said, objectively, I found the reasonable prices offered by many sellers appealing and after giving serious consideration to the pros and cons of AliExpress, opted to give it a go. From kitchenware to Halloween costumes, pet supplies to teethingrings, there is a seemingly endless array of retail products on offer from thelegions of sellers on AliExpress. Buyers purchase items for the prices show (though sometimes in-site coupons can be applied to orders), sometimes playing little to nothing for shipping (much more on that later in this post).

• Even if this does relatively little to the bottom line of certain companies, that doesn’t make it any less detrimental in the grander scheme of things.
• Whether one knowingly buys a knockoff or does so inadvertently, you’re taking business away from the company that produced the original item.
• Unfortunately, because we might not recognize a certainproduct as being a copy of an existing design from an established brand, it ispossible to inadvertently buy a knockoff.

That isn’t possible for me to do, but I can tell you about my own buying experiences and let you more about how to get started with purchasing from this popular e-commerce website. Most postal and courier services are operating at reduced capacityand some have temporarily suspended various operations for the time being. You may have stopped buying online or are only doing so foritems that are strictly necessary (food, toiletries, etc).