On Tue, 19 Sep 2017 08:02:44 -0700, Joerg
wrote:

On 2017-09-19 07:06, wrote:
I'm pretty sensitive to component prices since I have to build
everything up from scratch.

One thing that has become clear lately is that buying from an on-line
store directly is becoming cheaper than buying from Ebay or Amazon.


Not always. Often the shipping costs are high unless you exceed a fairly
high Dollar amount. One bike shop had that limit at $150 so I bought the
tube via EBay. Same price but free shipping.

Then there are the auctions. I got a pair of Mr.Tuffy road bike tire
liners for $1.25 plus $3.99 shipping. That's imposible at an online store.

Or the brake pads from China, $2/pair and free ship. As I have always
said the postage fees are grossly lopsided between Asia and the US and
that is one of the core reasosn for our trade deficit. Except that most
politicians (except manybe one ...) do not understand that.

Check aliexpress.com, dx.com and other Chinese sellers. Some of it's
OK and cheap, some not. I've had good luck with cycling shorts,
decent fabrid, stitching looks OK and good pad and waistband.

On the other hand, battery capacity and light lumen claims are
inflated by 50-1000 %. If I get a battery pack and capacity is 75% of
the listing I count it as a good one. And some 18650 cells have a
tiny cell inside along with flour filler. There's a video floating
around with a continuous shot of someone disassembling one.