I have been in RC Cars for a relatively short time, but one thing I hear, from the community, is that there are some places that are good deals to buy cars, parts and accessories from. One such is Banggood, a Chinese market of pretty much any good you might want to buy. Batteries, chargers, geegaws and some surprisingly high quality vehicles are all on offer and pretty reasonably priced.
Back in late March, I had considered buying a Traxxas e-Revo for my birthday, and the consensus was that the ZOP Power LIPO batteries are the hot ticket. So, I ordered the batteries, and a few other goodies (LiPo checker, a wand for my old GoPro, some battery maintenance parts, etc).
Price was fair – ok, that’s a lie, the prices were great. Shipping was “free” by their “Ocean” service, presumably on a cargo carrier. I could have opted for air freight, and a 4 day delivery guarantee … for about 3X the cost of what I bought. Uh, that would be a big fat negative.
Shipment times were listed as 25 – 35 business days. I took that to be anywhere from a month to two months.
Reality is, my simple order was broken into 4 parcels. All shipped on April 1 (order date was March 29).
1 was shipped from a US cache of product, and I got it within a week. Cool
1 was the pair of batteries I ordered. Arrived June 10.
2 were the electrical geegaws and the GoPro stick. They arrived June 17 and 18 respectively.
That means that the batteries took 70 days, or 10 weeks. The outer estimate was 7 weeks (35 business days = 7 business weeks).
So, an additional 3 weeks to arrive.
At first I was upset, as it is longer than the estimate. But, then I realized, that it came by boat to the Port of Washington, then got sent via US Post. With the covid disruptions to the world’s supply lines, I have to say that is pretty solid.
I will just have to prioritize. Order things I do not need immediately, consolidate into larger orders, and then push the button.
For the record, every item I ordered and received was outstanding in both quality and fit and finish. Obviously, I haven’t used the batteries yet (I did end up ordering the 6s vehicle to run them in, but it is an Arrma Mojave 6S that will arrive in early July) but based on what I hear from the community, I am certain that they will be solid performers.
So, I will push the button on the items in my cart. Parts mostly, supplies that will come in handy.
And when I need something more urgently, I will just visit the (scant) local hobby shops, or order from Amain or Amazon.
