It's probably the number one question I get asked on my Facebook page (It's Not Lego) and on my blogs, "Who are the best Aliexpress sellers?". Well, I can't say definitively who are the best sellers or stores on Aliexpress, but I can tell you which ones I personally have had positive experiences with.
I make anywhere between 5 to 10 purchases a month from AliExpress, and for the most part it takes about a month to two months for my orders to arrive in my country. Hence, the reason why my blog post title lists the month of October 2016, these are the purchases I try to reconcile at this time which is the beginning of January 2017.
Typically if I haven't received my order after 5 or 6 weeks, I will contact the seller to inquire on the item shipment status. At which point the seller will usually agree to extend Purchase Protection. At the six to seven week interval mark, if I still haven't received my item, I will start the Dispute process.
The AliExpress Dispute process gives about one week between Buyer and Seller to sort out any issues. If the item arrives before or during this period, I cancel the dispute and the money is released to the seller from the custody of Aliexpress.
Aliexpress will then take another week to review the disputed case and provide judgement if nothing has been resolved after one week. At this point, a period of 2 months will have passed by the time AliExpress passes judgement.
If the item has not arrived and the tracking number is invalid or has not been updated since leaving China, usually Aliexpress will side with the buyer and the purchase cost plus shipping will be refunded to the buyer. If Aliexpress can prove that the item was tracked to the receiving country, then you would not get your refund, because the seller fulfilled his obligations to send your item.
I will review my list of Aliexpress purchases at the end of each month and give you some idea which sellers show up consistently on my Top 5 Best Sellers list. Maybe at the end of 2017, I will be able to create a Top Ten Best Sellers/Stores on AliExpress List.
In October 2016, I placed 10 purchase orders for bootleg and knockoff brick sets and minifigures. At the time of this writing, I have successfully received 7 of those orders, with 3 orders still outstanding.
I have not yet raised any disputes for any October 2016 purchases yet, but if I don't get the remaining 3 orders next week, I will initiate my dispute process.
The criteria is pretty simple to make my Top 5 Stores list:
1. offer a wide selection of bricksets and/or minifigures at decent prices
2. be responsive to messages
3. ship within a reasonable timeframe (for my country, that's one to two months)
4. don't lie and say item shipped when it hasn't
5. don't give me a bogus tracking number
So, for the month of October 2016, my top 5 sellers/stores (in no particular order) on Aliexpress were:
1. Biscuit's ToyLand Store
2. Toy World Store
3. Big Cabbage
4. WAN MU XING Trading Co., Ltd Store
5. Hamtoys
Please note that my AliExpress experience may or may not differ from your own purchase experience. I have no affiliation to Aliexpress nor the sellers or stores listed there. Please do your own research and due diligence before making any purchases on AliExpress.
