Originally Posted by Camilo

The old durable, lightweight, cost equation applies.

That said, I recommend you look on EBay and buy "name brand" used stems. There's a million of them because stems are something that a lot of people experiment with and sell. I've bought and sold a gazillion used stems on Ebay. I have absolutely no worries about a name brand stem. It's easy to see if it's been crashed or damaged.

Frankly I don't worry too much about cheap generic stems either. There's several fairly common brands that are cheap (but heavy) that I have no worries about buying either. Also available on eBay.

FWIW - comparing EBay to Amazon. These days, I've found EBay to be totally reliable as far as expected shipping time. The pandemic has not affected an individual or small operator to fulfill through eBay sales. Shipping times have been totally normal. Amazon has been HORRIBLE lately. I believe the fact that they operate out of large warehouses has really degraded their fulfillment. I've had small items that should - at worst - be received in 2-5 days take 3+ weeks to arrive. Haven't seen any of that with eBay sales.