You have to be careful with Ali tires because some of them are factory rejects with misaligned knobs, excess rubber (thin but tall membranes along center line most often), problems with the mold (knobs looking like someone sliced them in half and glued them back together misaligned) or warped casings/bead.
Hard to say how big a problem this is with Maxxis tires since like Shimano/SRAM parts these are often diverted from OEM supplies meant for building up bikes with at the factory, and so not rejects. But it does happen sometimes.
Once in a while you’ll find a good deal, usually on stuff like exotic fat bike tires that aren’t available in the USA (Kevlar bead Chaoyang Big Daddy for example; in the USA they’re mostly wire bead OEM only). But for high end MTB tires you’re usually better off paying the small — if any — premium to buy from European vendors like BikeInn and get something you know for sure passed QA checks at the factory and hasn’t sat on a warehouse shelf for 2-3+ years dry rotting the rubber.
