Blog

Short blog posts, journal entries, and random thoughts. Topics include a mix of personal and the world at large.

To build a reputation

I think I’ve written on here before that sometimes it’s good to buy from AliExpress. The same item being sold on Amazon is often times more expensive, so why not buy from the source? And often times - because AliExpress seems so desperate for sales - there would be coupons and discounts to easily save even more. The only downside of course is shipping. You’re not getting two days of free with AliExpress. But we can all wait for a solid discount in this economy, can’t we?

Recently I bought a thing of knee sleeves on AliExpress. The item shipped from China in about a week and half. No problems there. However, on the AliExpress app, the order never advanced past the preparation stage. After a certain date, I was to actually get a refund. For an order I actually received.

Being the standup citizen that I am, I wanted to notify AliExpress that I got the item. For orders that actually shipped with tracking, there is a button on the app to do so. But since my knee sleeves never got past the initial processing, that same button isn’t available. I’m too introverted to get on a phone, so I did the non standup thing and left it alone. The refund hit my credit card at the date promised. In my defense, it was only $15 total. How much could it cost, Michael?

It seems AliExpress is hyper protective of its reputation. Even though it features largely disposable stuff made in China, it is very much not a scam. The company really wants to make sure items get to the final destination, and has implemented all sorts of incentives for people to trust it. There’s a cash coupon if an order is delayed beyond the promised timeframe. There’s free returns if an item arrives damaged. And of course, there’s an automatic refund for customers that never receive the product.

Word on the street is AliExpress take customer complaints of vendors very seriously, too. I may not buy often on that platform, but I’ve all the confidence when I do. Due apologies that I essentially stole an item!

Buy nothing movement

I’m the type to travel light. I take what I need for everyday stuff and leave everything else behind. Visiting gifts for family? How about I give you money instead. That way I don’t have to explain to the Chinese customs personnel why there’s a dozen bottles of fish oil in my carrier. I’m not a reseller! My father’s side of the family is simply, large.

I also don’t do any shopping when I travel. That way I don’t have to lug things all the way back to the States. In this connected world of ours, what is it that we can’t buy in our home countries anyways? Remember when matcha flavored Kit Kat was something you can only buy in Japan? Not anymore. Cheers to globalization. We can buy almost anything on AliExpress.

In addition to the hassle of extra luggage - if I were the travel shopping sort of person, there’s also the extra stress of going through customs. Not that I would be smuggling in (or out) anything illegal. But it’s just so much mentally freer to not have to declare anything. What I brought into your country is exactly what I am carrying out. What I brought out of my country is exactly what I am bringing back. Easy.

This is why it is stressful to travel with my Asian mom. She likes to buy all sorts of things when we travel, and in vain I try to tame it down as best as I can. She doesn’t need to heed potential hassles of going through customs because if there’s any questions, I’m the one left holding the proverbial bag. You see, these are tea leaves, not plants… Crossing international borders is of zero consequence for my mom because she has zero skin in the game.

I’m at the age where I want life to be least stressful as possible. Purposefully adding stress by buying things on overseas trips is naturally out of the question.

Stolen goods

An often forgotten marketplace to save some money is eBay. I recently had to buy some tools, and the same brand-new pieces were cumulatively $50 cheaper on eBay. Not a bad deal for me considering the only con is that I have to wait longer for shipping. Amazon really spoils you in terms of delivery speediness.

I do wonder how it is possible for an eBay seller to undercut the official vendor. Keep in mind: eBay takes a 10% cut the transaction before money hits the seller’s account. Either the margins are that enormous, or the tools must have been acquired via not so honorable means.

Retail theft is indeed a problem. At our local Home Depot, the expensive power tools and hand tools are locked behind security cages. Otherwise that would be an easy payday for some enterprising individuals who are willing to bypass the checkout counters. The best margins are when the cost of goods sold is zero!

I’ll be honest: it’s entirely possible the brand-new tools I bought on eBay were stolen. How can a buyer know for sure? The items were sold by anonymous entity with a username somewhere in the Midwest. Due diligence surely cannot be on the buyer. We’re all just trying to save a few bucks in this economy.

Which eBay is also great if you’re okay with second hand. I bought many a used replacement part for my Golf GTI. It doesn’t make sense to pay four times more for a new tonneau cover at the dealer when a used one from eBay works just fine. It’s going to get scratched up anyways, so who cares of it comes already pre-scratched.

Right on queue

Recently I was at Whole Foods picking up an Amazon package. I like to do this for the important stuff, so the eliminate the possibility of theft when going the typical ship-to-your-front-door route. Not that I’ve ever had a package stolen, now that I think about it (knocking tremendously on wood). But when I got to have something for certain, the pickup option at Whole Foods is the method to go when shopping on Amazon.

It also helps the local Whole Foods is but a third of a mile away from me.

Ahead of me at the pickup line is a woman with a cart full items to return. There’s about a dozen things in there, and each of them have to be scanned and bagged individually. Needless to say, this process took way longer than the typical counter transaction.

The guy behind me in line was audibly upset with many groans and grunts. Come on, dude: what can be done about it? The woman with many returns have every right to the service as we do. Word on the street is Amazon actually does ban serial abusers of the return system, but that threshold has got to be high, I presume. Either way, we just got to wait. That’s like getting angry at a grocery store because the person in front has a cart full of products.

Whether or not a person is capable of waiting in a queue in a calm and patient manner can reveal a great deal about their temperament. The folks who are incapable of doing so likely have a strong overlap with the population of road-raging drivers. The most trivial of inconveniences are enough to trigger an adverse reaction tantamount to grievous personal offense. We can also blame this on social media, right? (Sarcasm.) The instant and constant dopamine drip have conditioned us to be intolerant of waiting.

If you can’t be happy waiting in a line, you can’t be happy.

Black Friday strategy

It is Black Friday season. That’s right: what used to be just a single day of sales (the Friday after Thanksgiving, obviously) have stretched onto many weeks. And I hate it. REP Fitness has had a weekly rotating category since the start of November. Amazon has been doing Black Friday flash sales starting last week.

As a consumer it’s frustrating to have to be on alert over a period, instead of knowing for sure that all deals are available on the day of Black Friday. Amazon does these lightning deals where if you missed it on that particular day, it is gone. So you kind of have to scope things out ahead of time, and keep visiting the website everyday during the holiday season.

What I’ve done is add what I want to buy to the cart. On my daily visits to Amazon, I go straight to the shopping cart to see if any items are on Black Friday sale. As of writing I already knocked off two things on the list using this strategy. Black Friday discounts can be rather significant, so it’s worth waiting until the sales to buy what you want. Since the season turned autumnal I’ve been queuing up items at various vendors, waiting for the right prices to press checkout.

Of course there are no guarantees the stuff you want actually goes on sale. In that case the calculus is simple. If it’s a want, no purchase. If it’s a need, then the listed price is the listed price. Like these packs of gum. Excellent for teeth cleanliness, will buy regardless.

Happy hunting this Black Friday. The health of the U.S. economy is depending on us!

The best seating material in a car under $100,000.

Pay attention!

Due to the retail theft situation that’s been going on in the Bay Area for far too long (if you ask me), some stores around here have hired their own private security guards. However, every time I see one of these guys, they are… staring at their phone. What in the world? Aren’t you paid (pretty well, I would assume) to be vigilantly aware of the surroundings? To notice and anticipate signs of trouble before they boil over into something expensive?

To paraphrase the great Don Corleone, how a man makes a living doesn’t concern me, so long as his interest doesn’t conflict with mine. Who wouldn’t want to get paid to stare at their smartphone all day? These token store security guards are like the living equivalent of a scarecrow: looks menacing, but in reality can’t and doesn’t really do anything. Surely the enterprising criminal isn’t as dumb as a crow.

I am unfortunately a naturally sweaty person. Put me in a sauna and I am drenched within minutes. I am capable of sweating from head down to the face simply by walking to work. I wish it wasn’t so, though word on the street is botox injections can curb excessive sweating. It’s not just for immobilizing your facial musculature!

In lieu of injecting a foreign substance into my scalp, one of then best purchases I’ve made this year is this $20 portable handheld, battery-powered, fan. Anytime a bout of sweatiness comes on, out comes the little unit to cool me down instantly. I was actually inspired by Kpop singers. After their stage performances they would use these handheld fans to cool down. Not sure why it took me so long to follow suit.

The device is so wonderful that I bought two: one for the home, and one for work.

Expensive socks

I’m the type of human that sweats easily. Get me into a sauna, and within five minutes I’d be creating lakes underneath me. It is what it is, nothing I can do about genetics. At least I don’t stink when I sweat, at least not intensely enough that I notices it. Isn’t it something like if you can smell your own dankness, you must really stink?

Anyways, a problem my sweaty self creates is stinky socks. Not the feet, just the socks. There must be something in the material that causes my socks to soak up the sweat and incubate something horrible. Worse, I don't even know or remember on the packaging what my socks are made of. Some blend of cotton and polyester, most likely.

I’m the type of human who doesn’t think a lot about socks. I buy the bulk package from Costco, and when the socks wear out, it gets tosses and I buy another package. Easy, cheap, and utterly forgettable.

But not when those socks are stinking up the place! There are antiperspirant sprays and powders for the foot, though I would prefer a more natural solution before throwing chemicals at the problem. Turns out there is a sock material that’s natural, moisture-wicking, and controls odor: wool. The only downside to wool? It’s bloody expensive.

Instead of paying $20 for dozen pairs of socks, I can’t believe I paid $20 for a single pair. That’s how much it costs to buy from Darn Tough Vermont. The company’s socks was what got recommended to me by ChatGPT when I asked “what’s the best wool sock to buy that’s available on Amazon, as recommended by Reddit?” $20 is indeed very expensive for socks, but Darn Tough has an unconditional lifetime guarantee. Customers can send any damaged socks to the company in exchange for a new pair. No questions asked.

It’s entirely possible I just bought my last pairs of socks ever. Solvency of Darn Tough Vermont withstanding, of course.

As advertised, the wool material absolutely stops any foul odors. My feet are still sweating into them - again, nothing I can do about that, but I will gladly take the lack of stink. The Darn Tough socks smelled neutral even after a heavy eight hour day, right off the feet. If you share my unfortunate sweat problem, I can now provenly recommend paying a lot more for wool socks.