I hope this isn’t perceived as advertising… I’m quite apprehensive about making this purchase and will absolutely update with my progress if/when the console arrives.
In the meantime, if anyone out there has any experience buying through AliExpress I would love to hear from you. This is my first purchase and I feel like it’s a total gamble.
If this is somehow perceived as advertising, mods please delete immediately. I do not want to violate any rules. This community is too awesome to lose!
AliExpress is either a scam or a great deal. There is no inbetween. I have been successful with clothing from them, and even an Xbox One wired controller that had both joysticks at the top like a WiiU Pro controller. I haven’t been scammed yet, but I do know that it can happen.
No worse than Amazon these days.
If the price is too good to be true it’s probably a scam, otherwise it’s not in my experience
Also bought mine off AliExpress. It was one of the fake pokemon shell models, so that feels a little cheap but looks nice. Otherwise the unit functions perfectly, no scratches on the screen and buttons are responsive.
My question is… Why from there? 🤔
I have to admit… The prices here in the west are just so expensive. I recently opened an Ali express account for a side business and when I saw this price I just thought I’d roll the dice and see what happens. It was all circumstantial and impulsive.
I sold most of my consoles because of emulation. The 3DS, however, is a keeper. It’s silly but I love the glasses free 3D effect so much and that cannot be achieved via emulation.
I sold most of my consoles because of emulation.
Are you even allowed to be here? I feel like that’s cause to revoke your retro gamer card.
Hehe, I used to be in the original hardware is the best way to play gang , but i came to appreciate how convenient is the Deck for emulation and the fact that most older games that I play work better on smaller screens, since they have lower resolution, sealed the deal for me. Now I only have the PS4 since it can’t be emulated for now and the 3DS since the 3D effect is so cool.
I don’t trust AliEx any more after I took the loss of 3 orders for ~$60 in 2020. When I called, they hung up on me at random every time. After the 3rd try I washed my hands and walked away. Stealing from me once is on them, twice would be my own fault. Prior to that experience I spent a few thousand dollars on the platform for odds and ends.
I expect something like this to be an emulator and nowhere near the quality of a real Nintendo product, but I could be wrong. I would buy used or a homebrew project that is well documented and might cost a little more.
Did you charge it back through your bank? Very easy to do in the UK at least
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In fairness, I very much doubt a chargeback would even get so far as a human.
From what I’ve seen with other companies across different continents, a chargeback triggers an automatic account ban with whichever retailer and that’s that.
I’ve ordered various things from AliExpress before, I’ve never had any major issues. One item was DOA, and another never arrived, but In both cases I got refunded quickly and easily.
It seems no worse than any other online marketplace now.
I assume these 3DS units are some sort of refurb. Are they Chinese region units?
Yeah, I’ve had a few sellers among a lot of orders try to pull a fast one, but by-and-large they’ve been good and the few that arrived bad I did get refunded for. The main thing I’d say is to be careful of things that plug in but don’t meet electrical code in your country (Amazon is getting bad for this as well) as that’s definitely some janky stuff you can find
It seems no worse than any other online marketplace now
True and incredibly distressing.
I’ve bought a lot from AliExpress. Most of it was just random little things but I did order two CPUs in the past a 3600 and a 5700x. Both showed up in a few weeks and both were as advertised thankfully!
I got my 3ds LL from ali. works as expected and can play JP and US regions. its also white and it was pretty cleaned up when i received it. ive played through star fox a few times and I am halfway through OOT. approaching a year of ownership.
Ive bought a few handhelds and only had a DSi go bunk on me.
at this point amazon, etsy and other large online retailers/resellers serve the same stuff as aliexpress does, just with better shipping and return policy.
Did you softmod it to be able to play US and JP games? By default it shouldn’t be able to do this as all 3DS systems are region locked.
they must have done it or the system they refurbed had it done. i thought i initially when i was buying it i was getting a 3ds xl but arrived as an ll
It’s a gamble with risks that your local chains who resells the same stuff usually shoulders for you. I’ve bought a lot of stuff here, including original electronics, up to ≈$2k a piece. Research is your first best friend, the second best friend is a camera you record unboxing with to prove to Ali you deserve a refund. I’m not into 3ds market, but if nothing alarmed you before you placed an order, it should be okay, I guess.
It’d be interesting to see your report after you test it.
It’d be interesting to see your report after you test it.
report after testing
“I don’t know how it got this out of hand, but somehow the entire city is now on fire.”
Have fun with your half-brick or whatever you’ll get in the package.
3DS with broken off top screen ❌️
1DS ❌️
Newly minted Gameboy Super Advance ✅️
Hell yea hope the purchase ends up being legit 🤞 Bought mine not far from that price this winter off an independent seller.
Great handheld for enjoying all of what 2d emulation has to offer, so many titles so little time
I’ve bought a bunch of stuff, but never anything important or particularly expensive. Random crap like LED strip lights, screws, bearings, and springs for 3D printing projects, or even filaments. Never had any issues, but I’d still be apprehensive buying something more expensive.
I see tonnes of Chinese sellers refurbing Gameboys
Generally the PCBs are OEM from Japan. Everything else though…
I bought a 2DS on AliExpress. It was fine, original shell but a little scratched up. JP model. One dead pixel.
$211CAD so about $150USD. I’d do it again, I didn’t end up using it much as I had plans for it that didn’t pan out but I had no issues with it.
Report back on how it turns out.
I absolutely plan to report on how it turns out. So far, it sounds like I’ve made a mistake, but everyone here will know soon enough!
I’ve had good luck with ali so far. But it’s helped to buy from reputable sellers. Some of them seem sketchy AF.
