OK, I took a gander at the coins discount finder and I remembered what I hated the most about it, which wasn’t even that they eat up all of extra percent-with-coins by posting a higher base price: it’s that they’re simply lying to our faces as to what percent will be covered with coins once we add to cart. You have to do the math once it’s in the cart. What I get, same as last year, is the same 1-2-3-maybe-5% as in normal offers, never more covered with coins, despite the lies they post in the Finder thing.
Like I just looked at an offer for the M15i that says 44%(!!!) with coins in the Finder, and of course when it’s in the cart it’s really 3%. But OK, maybe that was a typo on their part, let’s look at another one that says 2%, which seems better than the one in my earlier screenshot. I add this one to cart → real savings applied are 1% with coins, not 2%. Fckin liars. That’s mostly why I got used to not caring about the Discount Finder thing.
Yeah I’ve seen that myself. It’s infuriating. No idea how it’s supposed to work. Initially I thought there was a true value upper threshold but that doesn’t seem the case. AliExpress works in mysterious ways and there is just no way to fight it.
Sadly it’s going to be case by case as to which provides the better value.
I’ll give you a real life example -
I purchased an oral irrigator in this Choice sale from this specific store https://a.aliexpress.com/_EIwpiLx
Discount finder route with all available coupons & coins = €42.09 to final price of €30.78
Basket route I will leave up to you to try with all available coupons & coins = but best I could do if I still had coupons would be €43.69 to final price of €38.25
Just because it’s easy on the eyes doesn’t mean you have your flosser on the table during a date, presumably to use right there. Or maybe puff puff pass?
The workplace desk rather than drawer is pretty funny too.
Other thing to mention, which I didn’t expect to see still active: last year they introduced an ATM into the Merge Boss game where you could convert some “money bag” tokens into dollar-value coupons (aka. Shopping Credit) that were universally applicable just like the general Ali codes. It’s still on, now they show it on the “mall builder” page or whatever it’s called, but it’s still based on earning money-bags by playing Merge Boss, it’s just no longer as predictable because the money-bags are not attached to regular Merge Boss orders but are in some achievements system called “Millionaire Challenge”, also accessible on the mall builder page.
Could be worth the effort since those achievements often also give extra gold coins but since I’m swimming in coins by now I’m actually going to spend some of them on more energy to play more Merge Boss, as the ATM coupons are guaranteed discounts whereas gold coin usage is highly conditional.
What I can recommend if using this ATM is keep collecting money-bags without converting them to dollar-coupons until the last possible moment you can make your purchase, because if you get many smaller you don’t get to choose which one will apply to your next shopping cart (I think they force it to be always the smallest one), so when you need your largest one the most it could be blocked by you having to spend a bunch of smaller ones first. Just don’t get small-value coupons at the ATM if you don’t need them for anything specific, get one big one (well, largest value I can see now is $5, dunno what happens beyond that, as I’ve never collected more than 50k points in money-bags).
P.S.: These are meant for 18-30 November, so there’s plenty of time to play Merge Boss at a leisurely pace, figure out if it’s worth it for you etc., until the ATM actually starts working.
This should be the best place to ask - any tips which online store, from the popular ones, is the main distributor of Fiio products? I’m eyeing Fiio FD15 but so far I only see them on HiFiGo with more expensive (VAT) alternatives on aliexpress. I’m aiming for that below $159 final price. I have most of the brands figured out by store association but Fiio is a mystery with random shots spread across different places.
Dont need to buy from official distributors, sometimes some other stores sell products at a slightly cheaper price on ali, just gotta make sure the store has a good rating (+90% positive and I say you have no worries).
Yeah, some of those stores can even be used as “sock puppets” by reputable brands to pre-release some new products and see how they do(?) before making the official release, e.g. Tempotec: Rumors and new releases thread - #5173 by abm0
Of course official distributors are the last place to buy from, especially local ones charging way over Fiio’s web one even with shipping and taxes
So I’m left with browsing all possible places that carry it and hope for the best.
Nope, the money-bag rates are ass this time around, something like 3-4 cents per hour of play, maybe. Used to be much better. I’ll probably convert my leftover money-bags from last time to a $2 coupon and move on.
The gaming arm of the discount-fu strategy this time seems meant to be centered on Play & Earn and its Missions that have you briefly visit the other games too (perfect place to jump off to GoGo Match and get your daily coins while also earning some diamonds in Play&Earn; same for Merge Boss, same for Prize Land). Not clear yet on what coupons and savings can be redeemed from there but those should be good since this looks like their newest game. It’s accessible from the leftmost game shortcut on the Account page of the mobile app.
For Prize Land just remember to not water the tree if you happen to open the game directly since 10x watering is a Mission in Play&Earn and you’d waste the chance of getting more diamonds redeemable for codes etc.
Argh, damn, I didn’t pay attention to this part: I always disliked the scary red Buy Now button because I thought there was a chance it would instantly trigger the buy, but really there’s always the extra step where you confirm your funding source and shipping address, so there’s no real danger. Many more coin-percent offers are for real if I go this route (but of course the 44%-off Questyle M15i is still pure fiction, probably they mistyped “4.4%”).
OK then, this might be the best discount route on Ali by far, when it works.
Can confirm for Linsoul, if you’re in the EU, leave a note with your order that you want the standard YunExpress shipping method. I’ve done a lot of orders with them, never went through customs with that specific shipping method (if you go with express, you’re screwed every time)
just ordered my S08 with S&S and Tri Clarion tips to experiment around for 70$. might use my 2nd linsoul code for a dawn pro, it should still be good right? I just hope i didnt get hit with moondrop qc problem
