The paper crafters complete guide to buying on AliExpress

No doubt the sheer volume of mail processed by the Chinesepostal system also causes a percentage of packages to go missing, and onceitems reach their intended countries, loss, delivery to the wrong address, andagain, the risk of theft are always possible, too. Whether free or inexpensive (think, in the range of $0.25 to$3.00 USD per item or even per entire order), you may, rightfully so, wonderhow and why sellers are able to offer free, $1.00 or otherwise rock bottomshipping prices on items that are, themselves, already so reasonably priced. In general, keep in mind that while some products will be surprisingly good or high quality, not everything you’re buying on AliExpress is the Rolls Royce of the crafting world.

YouTubers

You can open a dispute on AliExpress for various reasons,including if you receive an incorrect item, if your order is damaged, if youreceive a partial order (some of your items are missing), or as discussedabove, if your order fails to arrive in the allotted delivery timeframe. Each order you place on AliExpress comes with a timeframe in which it is supposed to arrive. This varies a bit from seller to seller, but is generally anywhere from 6 to 12 (or even 16) weeks, depending on the seller and whether or not they provide what is known on AliExpress as Buyer Protection on a given order.

Never miss a post – sign up for the WCL newsletter

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.

How long does AliExpress shipping take to arrive?

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).

(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.

• The cost to do so from many countries may equal or (far) exceed what you paid for that item in the first place.
• 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.
• I have never once seen an Aliepxress seller credit the original paper crafter whose image(s) they, presumably, used without permission.

While I’ve heard plenty of US AliExpress shoppers on YouTubeand social media talk about receiving their orders in as little as 8 to 10business days, generally speaking, things aren’t that speedy – even for USbuyers. As mentioned above, each individual seller is responsiblefor packing up and shipping out orders to their own customers. If you cannot, or can’t easily, find a particular item in your country, then I would compare it to the rates that you typically see (and would personally be okay with paying) from another international source for that same kind of item. To date, I can only think of one time that I’ve been hit with customs fees on an AliExpress order.

In terms of paper crafting products, the two most common areas where aliexpress official website you’re apt to run into this on AliExpress are with acrylic stamps and metal dies. I’ve also seen some remarkably similar die cut ephemera shapes and stickers, the actual brands of which I recognized immediately. Plenty of sellers also steal and use photos of completed projects from paper crafters. These items, in theory, are not straight up knockoffs ofexisting products from other brands. In fact, sometimes the very products thatthose AliExpress shops commissioned end up being knocked off by other Alisellers.

Just ensure that you’ve activated Rakuten’s plugin or app before placing your order, as the cashback offer cannot be applied to purchases after they’ve been placed. Whether one knowingly buys a knockoff or does so inadvertently, you’re taking business away from the company that produced the original item. This issue is real however, and it goes deeper than justcarbon copying a brand’s existing designs.

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.

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.

At least not those items that are 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.