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Alibaba hits nearly $18B in ‘Singles Day’ orders in 12 hours

nytimes.com

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Re: Alibaba hits nearly $18B in ‘Singles Day’ orders in 12 hours

#131

Post by Thorncorona »

djaychela wrote: post #19

I've only bought a few things from Alibaba over the years, but most of them have turned out to be either faulty or a typical case of 'chinese manufacturer disappointment' which has led me to being reluctant to buy anything larger/more expensive. When I was in Marrakech a couple of years ago, the guy who owned the riad we stayed in referred to many things in the souks as being "China quality", and I guess that's the p…

Of course if you're buying the cheapest stuff manufacturers are going to cut corners. When you buy more expensive stuff that is well made, like Apple products which are also manufactured in China but much more expensive, of course you're going to get something that's good. Your problem is to not go for the lowest denominator and generalize.

Re: Alibaba hits nearly $18B in ‘Singles Day’ orders in 12 hours

#132

Post by tryingagainbro »

olegkikin wrote: post #86
djaychela wrote: post #19

I've only bought a few things from Alibaba over the years, but most of them have turned out to be either faulty or a typical case of 'chinese manufacturer disappointment' which has led me to being reluctant to buy anything larger/more expensive. When I was in Marrakech a couple of years ago, the guy who owned the riad we stayed in referred to many things in the souks as being "China quality", and I guess that's the p…

You need to realize that pretty much all electronics is manufactured in China / Hong Kong these days. You can get quality things, you can get cheap crap.

The iPhone is also manufactured there, but AAPL engineers are assuring that no corners are cut

With other, no brand stuff you can expect to get what you pay for. As always.

Re: Alibaba hits nearly $18B in ‘Singles Day’ orders in 12 hours

#133

Post by disiplus »

dmoy wrote: post #110
code_duck wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the intent is to say that there are no site-wide quality standards.

Sure but then by that measure neither does Amazon. I bought a metal plant off of Amazon stand that literally had half the nuts and bolts with no threading. There's no way that passes any kind of QC.

that not true, i ordered a tv box that is clearly not as described ( i provided a prof ) , the only thing that is saving me is paypal from geekbuying. they are offering only part of the refund and shipping it back is to expensive for them.

on amazon if something is not described ( i ordered anker dongle for my macbook that did not work on the 2016 model) i get a refund right away and the shipping covered.

Re: Alibaba hits nearly $18B in ‘Singles Day’ orders in 12 hours

#134

Post by mcphage »

bonzini wrote: post #123
mcphage wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have ordered Lepin from AliExpress, which is a Lego knockoff—the sets are the same, but the prices are 25%, and the quality is 90%.

The prices are 25% because the designs are stolen. Not just from official LEGO sets but also from unsuspecting hobbyists. If you want to buy LEGO knockoffs that's fine, but there are plenty of brands that are almost as cheap as Lepin and produce original (non-stolen) designs.

> there are plenty of brands that are almost as cheap as Lepin and produce original (non-stolen) designs

Lepin does as well, just under the XingBao name.

But the joke's on the both of them—I just buy them for the pieces, not for the set designs.

Honestly if Lego just sold big boxes of bulk technic pieces (like they do for their normal blocks), I'd probably just buy those instead.

Re: Alibaba hits nearly $18B in ‘Singles Day’ orders in 12 hours

#135

Post by justrobert »

crdoconnor wrote: post #100
maxerickson wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At what percentage of the global economy do you think the US will become uninteresting? (it's currently between ¼ and ⅕ of the global economy)

Once China reverses its mercantilist policy that % will plummet and the US will suffer very high levels of inflation. That will probably happen once corruption in China becomes manageable, the Chinese stop moving their assets offshore and the US has no industrial technological advantage any more (i.e. once China can make equivalently good airplanes and microprocessors).

You mean the Chinese government will stop protecting their currency and hurt their export?

That isn't likely to happen soon even though other governments want them to float freely rather than in a price band.

China doesn't hold enough USD to hurt the US economy without hurting themselves even more seeing as the bonds are non-callable by the buyer.

Re: Alibaba hits nearly $18B in ‘Singles Day’ orders in 12 hours

#136

Post by Scoundreller »

dmoy wrote: post #108
Milner08 wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wasn't it only USB C he was finding issues with?

Benson was focusing his efforts on usbc, presumably cus it's got a higher propensity for damage, what with the higher voltage and all. I wouldn't be surprised if he could find issues with non usbc stuff too though.

> what with the higher voltage and all

I'd think the higher voltage would have fewer problems since there's less current and voltage drop... covering up for less-than-spec wire gauges.

Re: Alibaba hits nearly $18B in ‘Singles Day’ orders in 12 hours

#137

Post by Scoundreller »

geomark wrote: post #40
djaychela wrote: post #19

I've only bought a few things from Alibaba over the years, but most of them have turned out to be either faulty or a typical case of 'chinese manufacturer disappointment' which has led me to being reluctant to buy anything larger/more expensive. When I was in Marrakech a couple of years ago, the guy who owned the riad we stayed in referred to many things in the souks as being "China quality", and I guess that's the p…

Probably depends a lot on what you are buying. I've been buying electronic components, Arduino compatible boards and sensors, that kind of stuff for a while. Quality has been pretty solid with all of it, about 100 orders so far across a bunch of different merchants. I've heard that clothing can be really hit and miss.

Yes, clothing is problematic. Quality isn't great, and you need to order at least 2-3 sizes up. Even then, the sleeves might still be short: XXXL just means you're getting the overweight size, not the long-limbed size.

Re: Alibaba hits nearly $18B in ‘Singles Day’ orders in 12 hours

#138

Post by vizzah »

shalmanese wrote: post #63
lunaru wrote: post #4

Every year around this time we get the singles day news that yet another record has been broken. I'm going to guess it's going to be the same next year and the year after that since the Chinese middle class is growing (and adopting Western debt-driven spending). Not really a surprise. If anyone in the US wants to partake in the frenzy, I believe aliexpress is doing a Singles Day thing (using US timezone, so it hasn't…

It's still a hugely significant number. $18B is $13.20USD for every man, woman and child in China. Considering China's GDP is $8000USD, that's basically 60% of a single day's earnings for every person in China being spent at just one company in 12 hours. It would be the same as everyone in the US spending $100 on the same day or $32B in a single day (which is almost half of US online spending for a year).

AliExpress is huge in Russia and CIS countries and that contributes a lot to the sales volume.

Re: Alibaba hits nearly $18B in ‘Singles Day’ orders in 12 hours

#139

Post by 0xfeba »

olegkikin wrote: post #86
djaychela wrote: post #19

I've only bought a few things from Alibaba over the years, but most of them have turned out to be either faulty or a typical case of 'chinese manufacturer disappointment' which has led me to being reluctant to buy anything larger/more expensive. When I was in Marrakech a couple of years ago, the guy who owned the riad we stayed in referred to many things in the souks as being "China quality", and I guess that's the p…

You need to realize that pretty much all electronics is manufactured in China / Hong Kong these days. You can get quality things, you can get cheap crap.

But how do you discern ahead of time which is quality and which is crap?

Re: Alibaba hits nearly $18B in ‘Singles Day’ orders in 12 hours

#140

Post by Scoundreller »

geomark wrote: post #57
voltagex_ wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just out of interest, can you check a couple of prices on Dealextreme, Gearbest and Banggood to see if they're comparable?

Among the items I ordered today: HC-06: Dealextreme $5.50, Banggood $5.99, Gearbest $6.57, Aliexpress $2.58 Arduino Nano v3.0: Dealextreme $3.46, Banggood $2.77, Gearbest $4.27, Aliexpress $1.66

HC-06 is US$3.46 on Ebay. Arduino Nano v3 is US$3.29

Ebay has a pretty good return/refund policy. And then you can fall-back on Paypal too.

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