In light of a recent job change, I find myself seeking even less costly alternatives to the hobby. (the change cost me about $300. a month average)
Mind you…this is not a rant since it was my choice for the change. So I don’t see a need to go into the thread Steven Otte recently created.
I’ve seen on Ebay, several vendors based in China that are selling signals, street lights, etc at some exceptional prices and very reasonable shipping. Most of what I’ve seen is basic and simplistic in it’s style. And that is okay.
Does anyone have any insight to these vendors? Quality. Issues in any regard.
While I have not bought trains directly from China, I have gotten other items, and most were good. The only real issues, were a couple never arrived from shipping, either never sent, or (more likely) captured by customs and not released or lost, and one item had damage, either from ruff handling during shipping or inferior workmanship… Keep in mind, that the shipping does take considerably longer than from this side of the water… The proverbial “slow boat” is really slow sometimes! However, more good than not on purchasing experiences from China/HongKong/Etc…
Edit: Same as any other sellers, the better the rating, the less of a risk you are taking…
I have bought lots of ‘trees’ and LED’s direct from China - and they arrive quite fast! Most everything else, I can buy just as cheap right here. I see lots of great ‘deals’ on software, but I suspect these are ‘pirate’ copies and may not register.
I’ve bought resistors and LEDs, when willing to wait extra weeks. All have arrived. I did avoid any HO figures (I was after unpainted) as several folks here noted significant quality differences.
I’ve bought power supplies and electronic doohickeys like a camera charger. The shipping is often free and amazingly fast, under a week. I’ve never had a problem with this stuff.
I have purchased tons of LEDs directly from China and they have all worked fine. Some people say they have experienced different brightness levels from similar LEDs in the same package but I have never had that happen, and I’ve never had a dud.
Getting a nice warm white 0603 LED is a bit hit and miss. Some of the vendors are now listing the colour rating but even the 3000K LEDs are still a bit too blue for my tastes.
One thing to beware of is that the Chinese are still pushing a lot of incandescent scale street lights. You really want to stay away from those no matter how good they may look. Some of them even carry warnings that you can’t run them for more than 30 minutes or they will melt the shrouds.
I have also purchased a few hand tools from China and so far I haven’t received any real garbage. Things like diamond cut-off wheels, larger hole punches, etc. I even took a chance on a pair of strippers for fine wire and once I cleaned up the jaws a wee bit they work great. That one I was skeptical about but I couldn’t resist the price.
As far as other electronic components, my go to source is Digi-Key in the US. Their prices are as good as the Chinese, although you do have to pay a very low shipping fee whereas often the Chinese stuff is shipped for free. I don’t think there is any question about the quality of what they offer. One point definately in their favour is that their shipping is really fast! I get my orders in two days to the door, and that is in Canada.
I have bought items direct from China as well. A great deal of lights and signals, both pre-made and electronic components, some trees, as well as a few N scale locomotives. I have a lot of professional experience with electronics, and have never seen a difference at all in components purchased from China. Usually, they are identical to components you would purchase stateside. The trees that I bought were a bust and looked like toys compared to the super trees that I make myself. As for the chance I took on cheap locos direct from China, the seller said they were new from the factory. I bought them mostly because they were painted for the BAR and finding N scale stuff in BAR colors is tough. When I recieved them, they were marked Atlas on the frames. Likely, they were made in the same factory.
I’ve purchased several batches of trees and one batch of streetlights. Some of the trees are better than others, but overall pretty nice. It seems the Chinese are learning from their mistakes as the items seem to be be evolving/improving.
I know this is an old post but I recently ordered a number of things in N scale from China which should start arriving soon. 50 pack of vehicles, container trucks for my port, 6 pack of busses with working LED lights, cars with LED lights, a CAT excavator, 100 people (which look like the paint job is horrible but they were $2.00) a large quantity of various trees, lighted street lights, And some tall city building models for my city backdrop. Things were too cheap not to gibe it a shot. I can let people know how everything looks when I get it for anyone who is still wondering about this subject.
I do buy tons of things from China and so far, everything has arrived. Mostly it comes between 2-4 weeks.
I haven’t buy locomotives or rolling stock, only trees, LEDs, streetlights, people and some small buildings.
Of course there’s a caveat, the quality is not the best, you got what you pay for. Everything has to be repainted, hence all my little people are hand painted by me. I also, put resistors on the streetlights because the bulbs melt the thing like butter.
No complaints so far if you are cautious on what you’re getting.
Actually I ordered a 100pk of sitting people awhile ago, they are indeed meh in quality (about 6 different poses) and rather poor in paint and 1:100 to boot (I knew this going in), BUT spray them w/ primer, broadly paint them (i.e skin, hair, clothes, but don’t fret buttons, belts or other such details), the usual dullcoat & wash, and they fit nicely into vehicles and passenger stock with no need to amputate or contort the bodies like actual HO scale figure often require. Inside vehicles and behind glass they work fine.
Not sure about you N-scale vehicle order, but I do recall the ‘cheap’ HO scale vehicles were often knock-off 1:100 plastruct models to detail architectual displays.
I had one of the best experiences ever ordering directly from China.
.
My youngest daughter picked out her prom dress from a seamstress in China on eBay. We sent her measurements, and in about four weeks we had the most beautiful handmade dress you have ever seen. It fit her perfectly, and it was only $100.00 total.
.
The prettiest and least expensive of all my daughter’s prom dresses.
.
I looked up the town in China on Google, and it is a tiny little village in the mountains. I’ll bet $100.00 US Dollars went a long way there.
About a month ago I ordered and received a 100pk of higher priced ($18) HO unpainted sitting and standing figures and they were the pits. I ended up tossing about half of them. I have purchased a lot of figures over the years and some are great and some are terrible, you never know until you open the package.
I have ordered a lot from China and other Asian countries. I have had nothing but positive experiences on every item I have bought. If I get a dud at some point I am still way ahead.
My son has ordered two suits and probably a dozen dress shirts from China and they are just stunning. All custom made to his measurements. Smart shopper.
I ordered two high powered 500Watt outdoor spotlights from China and they even came in the identical boxes as the ones I bought in Home Depot were in. $3.99 ea compared to $38.98 at Home Depot. Identical in every way. A little research confirmed it was the same company that supplied Home Depot.
I just recieved water filters, $15 for OEM instead of $85 stateside. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose but you risk less going to China. I do it from e-bay thru Paypal for extra protection.
