I hope this isn’t perceived as advertising… I’m quite apprehensive about making this purchase and will absolutely update with my progress if/when the console arrives.
In the meantime, if anyone out there has any experience buying through AliExpress I would love to hear from you. This is my first purchase and I feel like it’s a total gamble.
If this is somehow perceived as advertising, mods please delete immediately. I do not want to violate any rules. This community is too awesome to lose!
I ordered an iPod from Alibaba back in the day and it was most certainly not an iPod. I think they’re more reliable than back then, but who knows. It’s always a gamble ordering from those kinds of sites.
One time I ordered a PS2 kit from some janky-ass Chinese site. The kit converted it into a flip top and included a CD that would let you play burned games. After a couple months of it not showing up, I figured I got ripped off, which I half expected anyways. 3.5 months later the kit showed up at my doorstep and actually worked. Haha! I used that thing for years after making the conversion.
I order from there quite a lot. I’m not really a fan of buying Chinese stuff but all the electronics are made there whatever you do and this way I’m cutting out the man-in-the-middle dickhead types who closed all the local factories and moved production to China just to push up the share prices.
I’ve always found it to be pretty good, remember that you don’t really deal with Ali that much, rather individual shops selling their stuff on there. I’ve had problems with stuff arriving broken before but I’ve usually found their customer service to be pretty amazing, they’ll often replace stuff without much fuss. I once ordered a Bitcoin miner before realising later that it was a scam, and Ali refunded me all the money.
The two main problems are that nothing on there is good quality, it’s all just cheap Chinese stuff. The second problem is that it takes ages for everything to arrive.
AliExpress is either a scam or a great deal. There is no inbetween. I have been successful with clothing from them, and even an Xbox One wired controller that had both joysticks at the top like a WiiU Pro controller. I haven’t been scammed yet, but I do know that it can happen.
No worse than Amazon these days.
I sold most of my consoles because of emulation. The 3DS, however, is a keeper. It’s silly but I love the glasses free 3D effect so much and that cannot be achieved via emulation.
I sold most of my consoles because of emulation.
Are you even allowed to be here? I feel like that’s cause to revoke your retro gamer card.
Hehe, I used to be in the original hardware is the best way to play gang , but i came to appreciate how convenient is the Deck for emulation and the fact that most older games that I play work better on smaller screens, since they have lower resolution, sealed the deal for me. Now I only have the PS4 since it can’t be emulated for now and the 3DS since the 3D effect is so cool.
It’s a gamble with risks that your local chains who resells the same stuff usually shoulders for you. I’ve bought a lot of stuff here, including original electronics, up to ≈$2k a piece. Research is your first best friend, the second best friend is a camera you record unboxing with to prove to Ali you deserve a refund. I’m not into 3ds market, but if nothing alarmed you before you placed an order, it should be okay, I guess.
It’d be interesting to see your report after you test it.
I’ve ordered various things from AliExpress before, I’ve never had any major issues. One item was DOA, and another never arrived, but In both cases I got refunded quickly and easily.
It seems no worse than any other online marketplace now.
I assume these 3DS units are some sort of refurb. Are they Chinese region units?
It seems no worse than any other online marketplace now
True and incredibly distressing.
My question is… Why from there? 🤔
I have to admit… The prices here in the west are just so expensive. I recently opened an Ali express account for a side business and when I saw this price I just thought I’d roll the dice and see what happens. It was all circumstantial and impulsive.
Also bought mine off AliExpress. It was one of the fake pokemon shell models, so that feels a little cheap but looks nice. Otherwise the unit functions perfectly, no scratches on the screen and buttons are responsive.
