I do voluntary work at a youth group on a Friday evening and have a load of 11-14 year olds, mostly girls, who love doing crafts. However craft stuff can be quite pricey, especially if you are buying stuff every week. I saw an idea for a craft that I want to do with them but the best price I could find for the foam looms in the UK was £1.99 each and as I have about 12-15 regular kids, that it too expensive. However, doing a Google search threw up a site called AliExpress where I could get the same looms for 50p each. This seems to be linked to Alibaba and the stuff comes directly from China. They also gave me a joining discount so I was able to get a bulk order of 2 different types of looms including UK VAT and postage for £10.05 which should give me 2 different crafts for the new year.
If the stuff doesn’t come, then I haven’t lost too much and as it’s only worth £10 it shouldn’t attract any customs duty but I thought I would ask here is anyone has ever bought from them?
Not myself but I know plenty of people who have.
Sometimes takes a while but all is very good and safe.
Should add I am a member but yet to make an order.
I have heard good and bad reviews from them but at the same time quite a few people order CCTV cameras from them on ipcamtalk.
Read all reviews and not just trust polit as they can be fake like Amazon.
But the bottom line would be can you afford to lose the money if the items are rubbish or don't turn up?
I did pay by PayPal so that is encouraging! The stuff only cost me £10.05 including postage and VAT so it is not a big problem if it doesn’t come. My main concern at the moment is with customs. I have read conflicting information online. Some sites say you won’t have to pay customs on such a small amount while others seem to suggest you have to pay customs no matter what the price!
Yep as a few posts above, Pay Pal excepted so no worries, completely safe.
I know someone who orders all the their materials for making scratch built models from them and have never had a problem.
I also know someone who ordered disco lights from them too and said they were great.
I have ordered stuff for my car, the last thing I ordered only took 10 days but they where only small badges which came in an envelope, they will arrive into the UK quicker than Royal Mail will get to you
I thought I would update anyone who is interested on my AliExpress experience. As I mentioned when I started this post, I bought some craft supplies from AliExpress which cost me just over £10 at the beginning of December. They arrived on 21st December although the delivery date I was given was 7th January. This caused a bit of a problem as I was away for Christmas and the final part of the delivery was by Royal Mail who left the parcel under my car! My sister in law went and retrieved them and we picked them up from her yesterday when we got home! They had got very wet but were well packaged in one of those plastic parcel packs so no harm done
I am really impressed with what came and how quickly it all arrived. This has saved me a fortune and means I can do craft activities at the youth group that I would normally not be able to do as the price would prove too high for me to be able to afford to buy the stuff in the UK.
I’m already looking at getting more craft supplies for future projects as there are a lot of Friday evenings to fill at the youth group between now and Easter!
Thanks for the update Pixie. Hopefully buying from AliExpress is getting better. I've had a range of experiences where the worst would be that it takes over 3 weeks to arrive and the items I bought broke within 3 months. But I did buy products which arrived in 10 days but still did not last longer than 5 months..
Guess it really depends on the supplier on AliExpress.
I’m not sure that I would buy anything of great value however, for inexpensive stuff like kids craft materials, the prices are really tempting! The activity that I did with the foam looms that I bought was so popular that I didn’t have enough for all the kids who wanted to do it so I have ordered another 20 looms. I ordered them 10 days ago and the predicted delivery date is early February however, according to the tracking, they have arrived in the UK so it will be interesting to see how long it takes to arrive now.
Quote: Originally posted by Pixie_Hez on 16/1/2023
Thanks Gazza90
I’m not sure that I would buy anything of great value however, for inexpensive stuff like kids craft materials, the prices are really tempting! The activity that I did with the foam looms that I bought was so popular that I didn’t have enough for all the kids who wanted to do it so I have ordered another 20 looms. I ordered them 10 days ago and the predicted delivery date is early February however, according to the tracking, they have arrived in the UK so it will be interesting to see how long it takes to arrive now.
That's great stuff. You're right best to stick to the inexpensive stuff. I bought a pack of those thermal under layers because I was absolutely freezing when on a jog!