Aliexpress

[Burgerman]

I dont get Aliexpress. Most things you buy take 3 or 4 months to turn up long after you have forgotten you ordered anything.

Then 5 days ago I ordered a small boxed £18 item with free delivery and 5 days later its cleared UK customs and due for delivery tomorow.

AliExpress Standard Shipping
Tracking number WG400005446GB

Shipping to J******n, +44 07******460, xx Westlands Avenue,North East Lincolnshire,England,UK,xxxxxxxx
Customs update: Customs clearance complete
Apr 5, 05:52 AM PT: Customs clearance started
Apr 5, 05:42 AM PT: Arrived at customs
Apr 5, 05:01 AM PT: Arrived in transit country/region
Apr 4, 10:01 PM PT: Arrived at line-haul office
Apr 4, 04:39 AM PT: Left from departure country/region
Apr 3, 05:50 AM PT: Leaving from departure country/region
Apr 2, 06:45 AM PT: Customs clearance started
Apr 2, 04:18 AM PT: Handed over to line-haul
Apr 1, 02:12 PM PT: Left from departure country/region sorting center
Apr 1, 07:57 AM PT: Processing at departure country/region sorting center
Apr 1, 04:50 AM PT: Received by logistics company
Apr 1, 03:16 AM PT: The seller has shipped your package.

[martin007]

From a certain amount of money the shipments are accelerated.

[martin007]

Another option is to group orders.

[biscuit]

I don't suppose it's in anybody's interests to hold onto consignments for longer than they have to. The seller might perhaps group orders if they can, but they might not find it worthwhile unless they have say a Europe warehouse or similar.

[slomobile]

I wonder if sometimes a thing I order may have already been in transit to a warehouse in my country, but when they get my order, they just reallocate it from warehouse stock to my order.

[Burgerman]

Well not in this case I tracked its movement from china. Aliexpress is a mix of scammers, super slow delivery and the occasional decent deal with fast delivery. Its a bit like forest gumps box of chocolates. You never know what you are going to get. I mean some things are obvious scams. I almost bought a 4TB NVMe dive for £7 with 3 dollars delivery. Just to see exactly what I got...

[martin007]

I almost bought a 4TB NVMe dive for £7 with 3 dollars delivery. Just to see exactly what I got...

You would have 7 pounds less in your wallet and a shit in the package.

[Burgerman]

Yes but its fun just to see exactly what they send. You might just get what it says! If not then you get refunded anyway.

[Dan]

The Chinese government subsidizes the postage, plus, because China is still rated as a thrid world country the end delivery country pays for some of the cost.
I believe something has gone very wrong in the Chinese economy and they have mass over puduced stuff (to keep the workers working) that they can't sell. I just bought some electronic suff for home automation, a small electric air pump and a cute tiny N100 PC with Windows 11 pro for little money.

FIREBAT T8 Pro Plus Mini PC Intel Celeron N5095 N100 16GB 512GB DDR5
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005234838380.html?spm=a2g0o

PS, your harddrive must be a con. It might register as 4TB but read and write speed will be a joke.

[Burgerman]

Obviously!! Or it will be a 16G card with no cache or something that is pretending to be a 4GB drive. The chinese are very "tricky"...
Some stuff is worth buying though. CNC machined stuff, screen protectors, etc. But beware of anything memory or that can be faked.