Has anyone ever bought grow equipment from alibaba?
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Not yetā¦.been lurking on Alibaba for yearsā¦
Looking into LED lighting for the new licensed growā¦about to pull the trigger!
Basically removing the middle man and saving a bunch of cash!!
Alaskagrown
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i have done quite a bit of business with meiju via alibaba. no regrets, would recommend. kingbrite is legit too
i cant speak for any other companies though. all i can recommend here is that you research anyone you are considering doing business with thoroughly. great deals can be had on alibaba, but theres a lot of junk out there too
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Did a couple buys from Kingbrite, very satisifed. Bought second LED from them recently, directly paid to a Paypal address they provided me, and they shipped to my door the same day. EU stock too, so avoided import and VAT taxes. Unbeatable prices even compared to DIY - around 100ā¬ for a 240W QB with Samsung 301H + Epistar and dimmable Meanwell driver!
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Why are the prices lower than anywhere else even though weāre not buying in bulk?
I donāt understand it
Edit: so I did some research and it seems itās because this stuff is made with cheap labor, and over head in China apparently. Child labor maybe 
. Seems like you donāt save much after the extreme shipping cost but Iāll have to look around more. I live in the US so Iām obviously not on the same continent. This is about the only time I wish I lived in EU lol. But Someone mentioned Ali express would be better for single orders.
But on a side note saw a pretty eye opening post
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Alibaba is fine if you donāt mind 4-8 weeks shipping (pre pandemic) on whatever you buy, itās essentially Chinaās version of Amazon. Canāt even imagine what shopping times would be like NOW, but you pay shipping costs directly to manufacturers on everything and sometimes customs costs if itās large enough, thatās why itās so cheap
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I bought a few quantum boards from kingbrite. They were great at first but after a couple years of use they started to flicker on and off and I checked the power draw with my meter and they were pulling significantly less watts. Iād save up and buy something better imo.
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Yeah so there are always going to be giant shipping costs on this site correct?
Iām looking around on Ali express atm. Trying to wrap my head around this whole thing. Figuring out if you can save anything even after shipping costsā¦ or just straight up find one with cheap shipping.
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Made in China. Yeah I gotta do some research on all this. Like I always do with everythingā¦ so thatās good. I appreciate that input.
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Out of interest, how many years did you get from your Kingbrite lights? Iām in second year with my first one, so far so goodā¦
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Kingbrite has some models in US stock, you should check their Alibaba page. Possible that other reputable Alibaba LED companies like Meiju and GeekBest have too, but I havenāt checked.
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Oh alright Iāll check it out then thank you.
Honestly if the lights lasted 3 years and started flickering Iād be fine with that. A nice low ground floor investment to get me going.
The technology will probably be substantially upgraded by then anyways.
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Best thing to do if youāre interested in getting lights from Ali is to find the ones you like and send an āinquiryā and say youāre interested. They respond really fast and then you can ask what their best price is including shipping and sometimes they have stock in the US and Europe so ship times can be quick. About a week. I think it took 7 days to get mine. I think i ended up paying $150 per 250watt board. However I asked if they ship discreetly and she told me yes of course. Showed up on my doorstep in boxes that said LED PLANT LIGHTS in giant fuckin letters haha. So they tell you what you want to hear. If youāre on a budget I totally get it and you can prolly get a few years out of them.
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Got about 2.5 years out of them. Still have 1 that works great but I think that one is Meiju. I figured if a lot of the US companies source their parts from China, why not just get one made in China. But now that Iāve upgraded to better lights I can see that the Chinese companies for the most part use cheaper parts and they pay their employees shit Iām sure.
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Thatās another thing.
Iāve been away for a few years and this whole led thing is new to me. Those little red and blue leds were just coming out when I had left lol.
So I donāt really know what Iām looking for.
I just want a quality light, with a footprint that covers a 5x5 as good or better than an 1k hps. Bang for the buck would be ideal too.
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Iād go with this lightā¦
Use code HORT10 for an extra 10% off. I found that code online and used it yesterday for an hlg Blackbird.
Orrrr go to horticulture lighting groups website and check out their refurbished light page. You can get the scorpion Rspec.
And use code DUDE for a discount.
Thatās just my opinion haha but Iāve been around the block a few times with leds and bang for your buck those are it.
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Dude you are my fucking dude 
! I appreciate all the support on this.
Lemme check these bad boys out.
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Iāve ordered a bunch of stuff from AliExpress for the 3D printers (pre-pandemic). Always amazed me how I could get an item here (say an ESP32 board), from AliExpress, and my cost (for the item AND shipping) was less than the shipping alone if I just shipped the item in the US myself.
Didnāt have many issues really. Canāt talk recently or about grow stuff, but the quality I got from AliExpress was always good.
Alibaba is more for bulk purchases, where AliExpress is more for individual small purchasesā¦
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No problem! Iām not sponsored or an affiliate in any wayā¦ I just research a lot and stumbled across those. Also the neocision light has an insane warranty which is part of the reason I recently bought two of them. Plus free shipping, they arrived in 3 days
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I appreciate it and I hope you donāt mind if I pick your brain in the future. Iāll probably end up looking around on my own as I tend to go down rabbit holes.
But damn these leds are still hella expensive. And it seems like hps kits have gone way down.
Since Iāll probably only be doing 1-2 lights to begin with i can just run HPS with no heat issues and then transition into leds when I can do a bigger set up. And then use the 1k kits for veg. Just gotta make sure I get the right ballasts to swap to mh.
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