Basically you are dealing with individuals or agents who buy from the local Chinese manufactures and sell at a low margin.
The Chinese influx is making it hard for UK companies to deal on Ebay, and that is one of the reasons i wont be going back on ebay anytime soon.

you have made a saving, but not by as much as you think.
You were most likely lucky and not cought with the VAT and the Duty, if your were the cost would have been higher than buying from the UK.
This is a risk you take at point of order, and you dont know how much it will cost you till it is delivered.
Dealing with china is getting better all the time, but you maybe unlucky, if you have a faulty item, because they would expect you to ship it back to them for them to replace, and shipping 10KG and 1 meter long will cost you more than you are willing to pay.

Quote Originally Posted by Jeremy View Post
Generally speaking, I've also found that buying from Chinese vendors has been a pretty good experience.

I purchased some SBR16 supported rails and linear bearings from a Chinese vendor via eBay and am also well pleased. The total price for two 800mm rails, two 1000mm rails and eight carriages with linear bearings fitted was about £154, including postage. The parts arrived very quickly (a week quicker than some other parts ordered from MD at the same time). They were also exactly as ordered, packed well and of good quality.

I've now purchased about two dozen items from China and so far have always recieved really good service.

Jeremy