Best of Ali-Xpress?

dbje · 2015-12-02

Hey guys, So I have been reading up and I know a lot of you guys are sourcing Ali-Xpress for cheap/affordable watches, either homage watches or just something out of the ordinary but with an OK building quality. I have been looking around on Express but I really don't know where to start looking just because of the sheer amount of watches they offer. So, please share with us your best founds or purchases on Express so we know where to start looking for a nice, very affordable watch on Express. Everything is allowed, quartz, mechanical, analog, digital you name it. It just has to be a good watch for an average WUS'er. Looking forward to your treasure finds!! Cheers!

rxmar23

· #38,101 · 2 mo ago

Speaking of crawling around in air ducts… I spent some time on AliX yesterday looking for a blue dial explorer homage. Of course it brings up every result that has any of those words in it (as far as I can attribute any logic to the results), and using quotes around the whole phrase didn’t seem to help.

I got exhausted wading through all the results that weren’t watches, then all the watches that weren’t explorers, only to lose track of what I looked at already, since there are multiple shops that list the same product.

What do the regulars here suggest for a blue dial explorer? I’d like to keep it around (or under) 100 USD.

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Sweetness00

· #38,102 · 2 mo ago

jlow28 said:
As a longtime follower of this thread I’m happy some members can navigate AE with joy and success. I tried and failed , got frustrated and gave up. I’ve done escape rooms that where easier to get through.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

It's got to be a pretty fascinating case study for retail / buying behavior. I've all but sworn off Ali-X - I don't have a problem with it really, I just don't need to be buying any more f*@king watches. Of course I can't delete the app because I gotta track my orders (arrived at departure transport hub!). So every morning I dutifully go in and rack up my coins, you know, just in case...

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mougino

· #38,103 · 2 mo ago

rxmar23 said:
Speaking of crawling around in air ducts… I spent some time on AliX yesterday looking for a blue dial explorer homage. Of course it brings up every result that has any of those words in it (as far as I can attribute any logic to the results), and using quotes around the whole phrase didn’t seem to help.

I got exhausted wading through all the results that weren’t watches, then all the watches that weren’t explorers, only to lose track of what I looked at already, since there are multiple shops that list the same product.

What do the regulars here suggest for a blue dial explorer? I’d like to keep it around (or under) 100 USD.

Honestly for a blue explorer I would really recommend the Enoksen Deco, currently at 109€, from time to time on sale for less. The price on my side of the pond includes 20% VAT so it may very well be less than $100 if ordered from the US, to be checked.

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Chronopolis

· #38,104 · 2 mo ago

rxmar23 said:
Speaking of crawling around in air ducts… I spent some time on AliX yesterday looking for a blue dial explorer homage. Of course it brings up every result that has any of those words in it (as far as I can attribute any logic to the results), and using quotes around the whole phrase didn’t seem to help.

I got exhausted wading through all the results that weren’t watches, then all the watches that weren’t explorers, only to lose track of what I looked at already, since there are multiple shops that list the same product.

What do the regulars here suggest for a blue dial explorer? I’d like to keep it around (or under) 100 USD.

At first, I (naively) thought it was their "sloppiness" to jumble up everything.
Duh! Stupid me. It was always their plan.
How very sneaky of them.

I think they would also wage war like this.
Just exhaust the "other side" -- in this case, shoppers.
The idea being, to break the shoppers' will to fight them.
Don't let them just pop in, buy one specific thing they were looking for, and leave.

Nope.
Exhaust the poop out of shoppers, so that in their frustration they get more aggressive, and they end up buying anything, or SOMETHING, and more things than they initially might have wanted.

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tmathes

· #38,105 · 2 mo ago

manchette said:
are you still believing their ranking system ? i saw some +/- 100% shops with brand new shops, = when it drops too much =>> they just create a new shop...

and also this : shop names similar to this : ab253698cd587964587893efgh
what the heck ? where does it come from ? ???

I used to until I was 'taught' otherwise. 😆

I still see a lot of 90% stores. And the ones that I've dealt with and are good sellers with less than 98%. It's a useless system.

I found one (sorta kinda) indicator of how good/bad a seller can be is how they respond to pre-sales questions. In general, if the reply is quick and relatively decent in quality, even if it takes a few tries, chances are it's a good seller. So far that indicator has been a better predictor than any AE 'ranking' or gold-star system.

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CPTX

· #38,106 · 2 mo ago

I see some nice blue dial “explorers” for around $150-180 (Baltany) and a nice more expensive San Martin , but not at or below $100.

Watch Analog watch Clock Font Terrestrial plant

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john_marston

· #38,107 · 2 mo ago

rxmar23 said:
Speaking of crawling around in air ducts… I spent some time on AliX yesterday looking for a blue dial explorer homage. Of course it brings up every result that has any of those words in it (as far as I can attribute any logic to the results), and using quotes around the whole phrase didn’t seem to help.

I got exhausted wading through all the results that weren’t watches, then all the watches that weren’t explorers, only to lose track of what I looked at already, since there are multiple shops that list the same product.

What do the regulars here suggest for a blue dial explorer? I’d like to keep it around (or under) 100 USD.

Considering they’re one of the biggest selling platforms out there, their search software is shockingly bad.

I still use AliX for simple Chinese products (that are almost 2x the price on eBay or Amazon). But really depends on the type of product. Sometimes ‘buy cheap; buy twice’ also holds true.

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peatnick

· #38,108 · 2 mo ago

Is it possible that even though AliExpress has an English language presence we see that they use search algorithms developed and optimized for Chinese characters?

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TempusHertz

· #38,109 · 2 mo ago

Springy Watch said:
Looks like AliExpress is making discounts very complicated these days. I had a coupon, a seller's discount, some coins, and the "buy and save" AliEx discount, which came to a total of about $40 on a watch that was about $280. All looked good in my basket, until I tried actually actually paying and got the weird message "you have exceeded the maximum discount" and I couldn't buy the watch. That's a first for me on AliExpress.

That happened to me, and I chalked it up to the seller's item-specific discounts being tallied up (down?) and the result being below the "spend $220 or more and get $40 off" cutoff.

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TempusHertz

· #38,110 · 2 mo ago

Cogumelo said:
I couldn't resist these discounts and coupons. This will be my first San Martin and also my first bronze watch. View attachment 17341213

Methinks yer gonna like it.

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TempusHertz

· #38,111 · 2 mo ago

rxmar23 said:
Speaking of crawling around in air ducts… I spent some time on AliX yesterday looking for a blue dial explorer homage. Of course it brings up every result that has any of those words in it (as far as I can attribute any logic to the results), and using quotes around the whole phrase didn’t seem to help.

I got exhausted wading through all the results that weren’t watches, then all the watches that weren’t explorers, only to lose track of what I looked at already, since there are multiple shops that list the same product.

What do the regulars here suggest for a blue dial explorer? I’d like to keep it around (or under) 100 USD.

How about this?

I like the 3-6-9 dials better, but they don't seem to have the 3-6-9 in blue.

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rxmar23

· #38,112 · 2 mo ago

TempusHertz said:
How about this?

View attachment 17342522

I like the 3-6-9 dials better, but they don't seem to have the 3-6-9 in blue.

That’s my problem, I like the traditional 3-6-9 dial but it’s predominantly available in black.

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saman2012

· #38,113 · 2 mo ago

john_marston said:
Considering they’re one of the biggest selling platforms out there, their search software is shockingly bad.

I still use AliX for simple Chinese products (that are almost 2x the price on eBay or Amazon). But really depends on the type of product. Sometimes ‘buy cheap; buy twice’ also holds true.

I think the search function has got noticeably worse since I started using Ali a couple of years ago, particularly in the last 12 months or so.

It started with the removal of the ability to reliably sort by number of orders, and recently it seems absolutely determined to show you stuff other than the precise search term you put in. Only to finally remember the name of the store where you saw it, track down the store (by itself a nightmare) and then lo and behold…. There’s the item described exactly as in your search term.
I’m told some people have success searching logged out in an incognito window to avoid the algorithm recognising you and thinking it knows you better than you know yourself.

I know the whole thing is designed to game you and make you buy crap you don’t need, but it’s getting almost unworkable.

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JojX

· #38,114 · 2 mo ago

Some random selection of like 30 watches to keep the ball rolling. Some presenting great bang for the buck. The most important criterion I’ve used is the the price must not exceed 100 USD (at least not much). I understand the pricing will vary from country to country. A little bit of everything from quartz to auto to mechanical to chrono, stainless steel, bronze or titanium, acrylic, mineral, sapphire, logo, sterile, on a strap or bracelet, ranging from 36 to 42 in diameter. I would probably go for some but life’s too short to enjoy them all. Happy browsing.

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