I bought a few small dollar value items back in Oct/Nov '24 and still waiting for delivery......

I agree too many unknowns here, especially for safety critical items. I wouldn’t buy anything that could potentially burn down my home, electrocute me or cause a crash just to save money - and really that’s pretty much the only reason people shop on Aliexpress.

I have to say just saving money is not the only reason people shop there. International trade is complex and at times annoying. Take Shimano for example. Back in the day you could buy Shimano from Chain Reaction Cycles and Wiggle with free shipping over $99 US. That was amazing, because they were all good, original products going out the door at what must have been a tiny margin being made up for with sheer volume. It was cheaper to buy Shimano retail from CRC than bike shops would pay for wholesale Shimano from distributors and so there was a huge stink from the US retail market, with bitter invective flowing on the Internet and some real hatred for CRC. Shimano had to change their policy, and thereafter, you could not buy Shimano online from outside of the EU, so CRC and Wiggle could no longer ship to the US or Asia.

US bike shops rejoiced I guess? Thing is, they really hurt consumers in some markets other than the US. People in the US never seem to stop to think that not everyone else has the same access to products that they do, and that other markets, like South Korea, have much lower priority for Shimano to send products to. Here in Korea, you look at the local distributor's website and often see 75% of stuff sold out, with only the vaguest of answers as to when things will be available, if they will be available and if they can be ordered. But you know what? Unlike the big online retailers in Europe, you can buy the thing you need to complete the groupset you bought at full retail price from the local Korean distributor from Aliexpress.

There? It's not just price. It's that Aliexpress often has the thing you need available for sale, unlike the official sales channel in the country in which you reside. I get that people might look down on Aliexpress and those who purchase from the site as being cheap, but the motivation to buy from Chinese online sellers is not always solely price.

I only started buying at AliExpress after getting my bike in October figuring it was all Chinese anyway. I will admit the first few things I ordered were more or less a test run. They stopped one order after the seller gave a faulty tracking number, they caught it not me. So the company itself appears to try and protect the customer.

Everything I've bought so far has been as described and worth the shipping time and cost. Nothing wrong with the quality that I can tell. I will continue to order there unless they give me a reason not to. I still shop around and surprisingly found a few items a better deal through Walmart than AliExpress, Amazon or E-bay. My front rack was less than half the price delivered from Walmart. Same exact rack! It was around $30 versus $79. 26x4 Fat tire bike

Agree that one has to be judicious in purchases. I would buy nothing that I would plug in or charge and steer clear of any item (bike or otherwise) that failure could cause harm.

This evening I installed two tire valves bought from Ali for about thirty five cents each in my new Hunt carbon 44 mm rims. The quality appears fine. Also used a digital micrometer bought from Ali for $5 today to find widths on some items. Good accuracy

I will buy items from Aliexpress that I can’t find anywhere else. Two recent items:

• a computer + GoPro mount for the new bike’s integrated bars
• Xpedo pedals that even the manufacturer site said were sold out