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Aliexpress. Good or bad for repros?


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I took the plunge and ordered my first repros from Aliexpress.  I received a shipping notice on April 1st, the day after I ordered them.  Hopefully not an April Fool. Weirdly I received a 2nd shipping notice for the same order on May 8th. I have no idea whether these will be any good as I still haven't received them 8 weeks after placing the order.  I've only ordered 3 things from China including this order.  The first 2 were from ebay for joystick extension cords.  The first order never turned up.  The 2nd time it did, after waiting another eternity.  If this Aliexpress order doesn't turn up, that makes a 2 in 3 failure to deliver rate!  It seems things from China still travel by slow boat and mostly fall into the water on the way.  What has been other people's experiences?

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I've had a mostly good experience, and have ordered heaps of stuff. You should always sort by "orders" and check the seller feedback before buying.

The only issue lately has been delays due to covid.

 

For your missing items the main thing to watch is the item close date. You only have 15 days from the item close date to lodge a dispute after that you wont get ANY help from a seller or the site.

 

As soon as the item reaches close date and it hasn't arrived lodge a dispute straight away. List the dispute reason as "Purchase Protection is running out, but package is still in transit" with a comment something like "Item never arrived"

 

Some sellers will ask you to cancel dispute. Reply politely that the item never arrived and dispute will remain open.

Also decline any nil refund or part refund offers from the seller via the dispute portal.

 

This is the only way you will get your money back.

Edited by waali
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On 5/27/2020 at 6:58 PM, insertclevernamehere said:

I took the plunge and ordered my first repros from Aliexpress.  I received a shipping notice on April 1st, the day after I ordered them.  Hopefully not an April Fool. Weirdly I received a 2nd shipping notice for the same order on May 8th. I have no idea whether these will be any good as I still haven't received them 8 weeks after placing the order.  I've only ordered 3 things from China including this order.  The first 2 were from ebay for joystick extension cords.  The first order never turned up.  The 2nd time it did, after waiting another eternity.  If this Aliexpress order doesn't turn up, that makes a 2 in 3 failure to deliver rate!  It seems things from China still travel by slow boat and mostly fall into the water on the way.  What has been other people's experiences?

 

If you use there free shipping or aliexpress cheap shipping it can take 3 months to get anything from them to us in Ontario, Canada.

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2 hours ago, Shawn said:

 

If you use there free shipping or aliexpress cheap shipping it can take 3 months to get anything from them to us in Ontario, Canada.

Ouch.  Way too long to wait.  That's later than their delivery window. So I can open a dispute for non delivery after their window has elapsed, get a refund and then potentially still get delivery?

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I am so annoyed!  62 days since I ordered my repros and 56 days since they left China and still no sign of them. The annoying thing was that the retailer sent a 2nd shipping notice email about a month after the first, which effectively extended the wait time by a month.  They just sent a third shipping email today, extending the wait time again!!!  This is a retailer that has a 94.2% positive rating too.  Why am I having such bad luck with stuff shipped from China?  That's 2 out of 3 orders that never arrived.  So annoyed, I opened a dispute today for a full refund.  If I don't have better luck next time, which won't be for a while or with the same store on aliexpress, I'm going to abandon all hope of building a Genesis collection.  The originals are too expensive and the repros never arrive. There.  Venting over.  I'm now off to stew in my own juice.?

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You can still get repros from Etsy. Maybe the shop you used closed down?

 

As for repros from AliExpress, I've only ever ordered one—Alien Soldier. I ordered it complete in box, and what I received was disappointing. The cart was a flash board in a snap-together Genesis shell (which I ended up breaking when I opened it up to look at the board). The case was different than a typical Genesis case (same height and width, but not as deep) and was kinda flimsy. I expected the manual to just be a copy of the manual for the European release, but it wasn't a copy of the official manual.

 

I didn't spend a lot on the game, so I wasn't too disappointed, but it's not something that I would display with my Genesis collection (I'm not even sure where I put it, as I can't find it, now).

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On 6/7/2020 at 9:00 AM, chicgamer said:

You can still get repros from Etsy. Maybe the shop you used closed down?

 

As for repros from AliExpress, I've only ever ordered one—Alien Soldier. I ordered it complete in box, and what I received was disappointing. The cart was a flash board in a snap-together Genesis shell (which I ended up breaking when I opened it up to look at the board). The case was different than a typical Genesis case (same height and width, but not as deep) and was kinda flimsy. I expected the manual to just be a copy of the manual for the European release, but it wasn't a copy of the official manual.

 

I didn't spend a lot on the game, so I wasn't too disappointed, but it's not something that I would display with my Genesis collection (I'm not even sure where I put it, as I can't find it, now).

Maybe it found it's way into the trash, that's usually what I do, so I don't have to get disgusted every time I see it. ?

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  • 1 month later...

AliI bought a Sega Mega Man cart a few years back.  It worked but the label never stayed in right and the plastic on the cart felt really cheap.  While it's neat getting a mega man cart for less than $10, I have no sense of pride of owning it because of how crappy it looks and feels.  

 

I going to say "don't but from AliExpress".  They don't give a poop about copyright laws. I don't think this is a big deal then selling a 30 year old game that's not for sale anymore. But you can buy newer Sega games there and that hurts newer developers.

 

Honestly "F" AliExpress.

 

https://m.aliexpress.com/wholesale/xenocrisis.html?channel=direct&searchType=mainSearch

 

https://m.aliexpress.com/wholesale/Sega+Tanglewood.html?channel=direct&keywords=Sega+Tanglewood

 

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From my experience, repros from AliExpress are all over the place.

My copy of Zelda Minish cap looks stunningly genuine (except the cart shell is translucent green, which is cool and pretty Zelda esque but was never a thing).

I ordered Super GnG and Super Metroid on SNES. The shells are certainly not original but they looks solid enough; sticker reproductions is low quality and weird (one looks like a mismatch of the US and Euro one).

I got Majora's Mask on N64, boxed. While the cart itself is very good, the box is cheap, made of thin cardboard, and the manual repro is a joke, glossy paper with poorly, blurry reproductions of parts of the originam manual.

The worst I got were 2 Megadrive games (admitedly, they were sold for cheap) which came boxed. The boxes themselves, while not up to Sega standards, are decent and useable. The cover reproduction is decent. If you look close, you can still tell it's laser-printed, but it's certainly better than what I could have done myself - and it's glossy paper.

The carts, on the other hand... One of the shell snapped in half when I tried to remove it FROM THE BOX. Yes, it's that bad.

The plastic is weirdly matte and nothing like regular carts, and most importantly, they are slightly too thick and hardly fit in the console. And the sticker reproduction is just passable.

 

Overall... As I said, it's all over the place. Generally, I found out that GB repros are the best, probably because they have been manufacturing the shells for decades and the stickers being smaller, the smuding of poor scanners and cheap laser printers isn't as noticeable.

 

Let's not forget that AliExpress is not a monolithic entity but a front-end for various shops, so there is no central quality check, and due to the very illegal nature of those repros, there are no shops that stay long enough to establish an aspect of reliability and quality.

Edited by CatPix
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The 2 repros I ordered took over 3 months to reach me but I got them eventually and the quality is decent.  I had already made a refund claim for non receipt of goods and got the full refund before the repros arrived.  I therefore essentially got them for free.  Next time I will be more patient.

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Oh man, I've been waiting for my order from aliexpress for more than a year ahah. I applied for a refund, but nothing has changed. Only after a few months I realized that it was an unverified seller who often cheats. Thank God my friend advised me to read a few useful articles on AliExpress English, thanks to which I now know how to search for products on aliexpress and process my order. Unfortunately there are a lot of people like me who don't get an order from aliexpress and don't understand what they did wrong.

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If you are still looking for some quality made Sega repros that are made here in North America you can find them for a decent price. Paying $40 and $50 on Etsy is silly though. $20 to $25 a pop should get you some quality cartridges without issue. Those $5 and $10 ones from Aliexpress get you exactly what $5 would. Low end crap.

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