Thanks for the tip MickeyRat! How does escrow work in such a situation?
Neither Alibaba nor Ali express actually sell things. They put you in touch with Chinese vendors that do. The way the escrow works is you make the payment to alibaba, they inform the vendor that they have received your payment and the vendor ships. When you receive the item, you release the payment to the vendor. I can't say how the dispute resolution process would work in the event there is one.
One thing that is true about either site. They are loaded with knock offs. Some of those are decent quality but, if you see a Provari or a Rolex watch on there, you can be pretty sure it's not genuine.