ebay vs direct to bike co vs aliexpress

[stuartH]

Hi there,  i'm new.

i've stumbled along to this site as i was interested in getting a new frame for my 29er.



this is my current bike and it was bought as a bullet proof trail bike (it currently has dh tyres on it!). i've since bought a full suspension 27.5 bike for this purpose.

My aim now is to make budget xc bike for fire roads and blasts through woodland.  i can see that there are lots of options for buying frames.  The 2 biggest obstacles i have at the moment are 1) trust  and 2) price.
Is there much different from buying on ebay versus aliexpress or even direct through the website.
i'm not really a fan of negotiation and would rather know what the cost is and get it doen with minimum fuss.

can anyone give me some opinions please?  also i'm based in the UK so if there are any catches (customs charges) please let me know about them too!

thanks

[bxcc]

Welcome StuartH.

ebay, AliExpress or direct from a vendors site all work fine. I was hesitant on AliExpress at first too but they seem to be more buyer oriented than ebay is. I've had great luck with both though so I don't think you can go wrong either way.

Price is easy to see and is clearly stated. Trust on the other hand, is not as you won't know if you can trust the vendor until after they have your money. If trusting the vendor and product are at the top of your list, go with Peter at XMCarbonspeed.cn. His old site, XMCarbonspeed.com has more of his products available but he doesn't have prices on that site. I normally message him on Facebook to figure out pricing and what I want to purchase and then he sends me an invoice through PayPal. It's pretty straight forward and I've made many purchases with him this way. As for frame prices, he is generally a bit more than other vendors, normally in the $400 to $600 range for a frame shipped to the United States. But you're paying for the service with Peter as he is great to deal with and definitely takes care of his customers.

I hope that helped some.

[lRaphl]

From what I could read about chinese frames and Europe buyers, a lot of people seems to say that unpainted frame go through pretty easy but painted frames are hitted with VAT (19% I think). I don't know if UK is part of thoses places but you better check this out before just in case.

As for trust, I never pay before getting pictures of the frame ready to be shipped. I don't care if it takes one more week to get it just because of that. I prefer to do a little inspection before shipping. Last time, I was able to catch a mistake from Iplay. The dropout was QR instead of 12x142. They corrected it before shipping.

You don't want to negociate but you don't have to work that hard to get a little better price or some goodies added free like a rear axle, a headset and spare hanger. Just ask nicely if it's included in the quote for the frame. Something harder to do through ebay/aliexpress.

Good luck!

[MTB2223]

Last week I received a couple of rims from Peter (XMCarbonSpeed). He sent the rims by JY Express to the Netherlands to avoid custom taxes. And really, it works, no custom taxes this time. That saved me approximately 50 euro.

[carbonazza]

@lRaphl, an unpainted frame can, if you are lucky, save you from a 48.5% antidumping( only a few EU countries enforce it, UK doesn’t seem so ) but not the VAT of about 20% and import taxes ~4%, which are our usual taxes in the EU

@MTB2223, good to know there are options for us poor EU hobbyist builders

[Calvino]

Though i can't speak for ebay or directly from the producers website, i had a very pleasant experience with aliexpress. My 29er frame cost me stupidly low 220€ from Thrust. QR, though the dropouts can be changed to work with thru axles, which are sent together with the frame. You also get a starnut for the headset, the headset bearings, seat clamp and other bits and bops.
Paid via Sofort(which is working via the bank account and very safe. Is very popular with German and Austrian online bikeshops because they get their money very fast)
Took about 1.5 months to arrive, though i had to pay 20% import taxes in Austria and the general fee of at least 10€ which was 72€ in total, so the frame cost went up to just under 300€. Still ridicilously cheap. You can opt for some "special"kind of shipment which costs about 50€ or sth and that should help to clear the border without paying any taxes. This would only be effective if the frame costs more than 300€.
Or you can also tell the seller to declare the frame to have a lower value than the actual one. Might work, but not always since the guys at the border know how much a chinese frame costs by now

[d36]

Ebay > aliexpress > bike co

Aliexpress has buyer protection but its not as good as ebay.
You can also get cash back from places like cashrewards (5% off essentially)

If I can find the same frame on aliexpress I will go this way from now on

[Kaben Bikes]

Last week I received a couple of rims from Peter (XMCarbonSpeed). He sent the rims by JY Express to the Netherlands to avoid custom taxes. And really, it works, no custom taxes this time. That saved me approximately 50 euro.
How much the shipping cost using JY Express?

[MTB2223]

Last week I received a couple of rims from Peter (XMCarbonSpeed). He sent the rims by JY Express to the Netherlands to avoid custom taxes. And really, it works, no custom taxes this time. That saved me approximately 50 euro.
How much the shipping cost using JY Express?
95USD