So since mentioning that I order(ed) a lot of accessories and peripherals from AliExpress I've gotten like four messages from people asking for details so I figured the best thing to do is put it up as a post and just send people the link, both for ease of reference and for other people to see if they're interested.

So for starters, AliExpress is basically Chinese Amazon. You can order basically anything from there but the most cost effective things are smaller parts and pieces. The prices are usually (but not always) lower than what you'd pay domestically.

So what kinds of things can you get? For starters, don't think you're going to get things like triggers, barrels, receivers, magazines, etc. For the most part, you'll be able to get things like scope rings, rails, foregrips, slings, lasers, etc.

The majority of it will be classified as "airsoft" to get around rules about selling things for guns. It's not illegal to purchase or import, I've bought many things off there and only ever seen the angry green ICE tape twice and that was for non-gun things.

As far as customs is concerned, they're metal parts. That said you can occasionally find things like "auto sears" for sale. I highly recommend against ordering them for obvious reasons.

"But all that Chinese stuff is junk!"

Yes and no.

Some of it is genuine junk and some of it is genuinely meant for airsoft guns, there's also parts that were manufactured specifically for use on firearms. It's difficult to tell from a picture and often as a form of SEO merchants will throw every word they can think of into a product description. You should still read product descriptions carefully.

Roughly 40% of the time I ordered something that fell apart on me I went back and found out that it specifically mentioned some feature that I'd missed that, had I seen it, I wouldn't have ordered it. Read product descriptions carefully.

Also, a lot of what you'll get are called "white box products." Basically that's when a company buys a huge load of a generic consumer object, slaps their logo on it, and sells it to you for a markup. The products on AliExpress are usually being offered by the white box product manufacturers themselves or smaller local merchants selling to international customers.

Basically, what you're buying from a US company is likely to have been manufactured in China and by buying off AliExpress, you're saving the markup.

Part of the appeal is that what you're buying is much cheaper and therefore if it turns out to be poor quality you aren't out more than a few bucks.

I've gotten some very nice quality items from several sellers. I have a set of iron sights for my AR that have worked out quite well as well as a "battle belt" set up that cost me ~$40 and works fantastically versus the $100 I see similar setups selling for in the US.

"But you'll order stuff and it won't show up!"

Shipping times can be a bit agonizing, especially if you're used to Amazon Prime shipping times, but I have generally not had problems with things not arriving or having the wrong thing arrive.

When it has happened AliExpress has a very simple redress process that has never failed to refund money on products that didn't arrive or weren't what the seller promised. Better still, your payment information isn't given to individual merchants. AliExpress acts as a sort of ESCROW and will send payment to the merchant so your payment information never goes outside their own system.

The biggest thing ordering from AliExpress lets you do is road test components and get basic things like rails or attachments that aren't going to be under a lot of strain.

These parts aren't crazy cheap to buy them from someone like Magpul and it's nice to be able to see if you really do need that thing and it's worth investing money into or if you're just better off skipping it.

I've been able to test out close to a hundred peripherals and parts doing this. Some of them have been good buys and stuck with me, others I immediately regretted and tossed or gave away. I've spent a lot less money doing it this way than I otherwise might have.