There are items on AliExpress that must be a scam... mustn't they ?

[kcsl]

The only things I usually buy from China are small project boards, power converters, anything that is cheap and I'm not going to be too surprised when it's not even close to what was advertised. They are good for connectors sometimes, but never components.

Anyway, logged on this morning and saw they are selling a 150 item compact socket and tool set for around £5 and I thought that would be useful just to leave in the back of the car for emergencies.

Then I saw them selling portable generators and power banks for less than £10
This for example: "4800-Watt Portable Inverter Generator Produces Clean Power Prevent Damage Sensitive Electronics Ultra-efficient 1.9-gallon Tank".
It's £5.21 delivered.

This must be a scam but I can't think what it is. Aliexpress will refund you if there's a problem.
I'm tempted to order one just to see what happens.

What am I missing ?

Regards,
Joe

[flosigud]

May you are missing the fact that that the pricing scheme of the Chinese doesn't look like any other. There seems to constant sale.

Where do you get low level components that are not made in China? Or legacy semiconductors?

[kcsl]

I buy my components from recognised outlets that have proper supply chain audit trails (hopefully). Many of my components probably do actually originate in China, but I have comeback on the UK seller if there are issues and so far I've never had any problems. Unlike components I've purchased direct.

[Fanie]

I buy lots of things from China, mostly Temu  (https://www.temu.com/) and they usually deliver in about week.
On the more pricy or specialized items, go to jewtube and see if there is a review on the item.  Many times there are.

They don't polarity protect the PCB's, so you have to fit your own diode.  I cannot even buy a regulator chip locally for the price of a complete down / up buck converter.  Thing to remember with the Chinese is they are small people and an amp looks like two amp to them, be sure to allow for that.

The drawback we have here in Sick Africa is that the world dump their rejects here because the impression was created that Sick Africa is black and hence will be satisfied with poor quality items.  Of course some local buyers buy the most cheapest to resell for expensive.
We do have local shops which import and source for us what we want and are fair with pricing.

Almost everything you get comes from China, remember that.

I have a Chinese 15hp iron horse two wheel tractor as well as a smaller one which works well and I expect good performance from them.

Some of the Li batteries shows 15000mAh on a 18650, but expect around 2700 to 3200mAh instead.  Same with the power banks. Then you get high current 18650 cells and low current cells, observe the contact surface of it.  It's a matter of doing your homework too.

The better selling houses usually show the size of items, and you can roughly calculate what the battery bank capacity can be in terms of rated power.

Considering how many items (millions) are shipped daily, the Chinese must have one heck of a logistic system.

[Fanie]

Our PCB manufacturer is closing it's doors, conditions in Sick Africa deteriorate in this Western communist setup so the foreigners leave.  We will have to order PCB's from China from now on.

Trumpet who accuse China of doing them in is not right.  They buy stuff for very cheap and resell very expensive to every one else.

Power price is up and fuel is up also, with again newly instated power cuts, a never ending disaster looming and the controlling parasites love it.