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price increases

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00Garza:
Quality and variety have also increased.

coffeebreak:
Little bits and pieces are super expensive on Amazon so I get those from Ali-Ex. Some of those things aren't even available locally or on Amazon, so China is the only option. Who is going to sell me 10 pieces of tiny dust caps for $2 with free shipping? Only Ali-ex lol. On the other hand, consumables like chains, sprockets, brake pads are same or lower priced than Ali-Ex but with free 3-4 day shipping on eBay so that is my go to for those.

That being said, I do feel many items are increasingly needing paid shipping compared to earlier times.
I don't have a problem paying some amount but I steer clear of items that ask for same amount for shipping as the item itself or sometime more than the item. Moreover, what I have seen is that paid shipping is pretty useless from Ali-Ex. Most of my paid shipping items came in 3 weeks like any other free shipped item. The sellers are pretty much making money from shipping charges to make up for lower prices and just using the cheapest, slowest shipping possible that other free shipping sellers use.

Tijoe:
From my perspective, I pay the least total amount for the items I want/need balanced with how fast I need the item.  Usually the faster you get it, you typically pay a premium.   So when I look for something from Amazon, or E-bay, I often see the same items as is being sold on aliexpress. (Perhaps with a different logo on the item.)
If the item being sold on Amazon is being shipped from China, it is typically the same price as I find on Aliexpress.  If the item is stocked and shipped from the USA, I usually have to pay 5% to 10% more for the item, but I get is in 3-5 days versus 3 weeks from Aliexpress. 

If an Amazon store stocks an item, they have to increase prices some to cover their inventory and handling costs.  Sometimes, if the Amazon store, or Amazon purchased a large quantity of the item, then they get a big enough discount from the Chinese manufacturer that they can sell the item for less.   My iGSPORT iGS630 bike computer came from Amazon, on sale, for about $60 less than any Aliexpress store has it listed for, plus, 4 months later no Aliexpress store actually has them in stock.  Only the iGS620 version.

I too purchase many small bulk items from Aliexpress that I find are so much more expensive via E-bay or Amazon.   Sometimes I get a lot of 100 parts from Aliexpress, where they are the same price on Amazon for qty=10 or 25.

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