Of late, I'm trying to avoid buying direct from China.
The money saving has shrink to very little nowadays, and the entire purchasing experience becomes a total loss when you receive DOA mods or shattered tanks; or a missing item in a multiple order, followed by nonsensical customer service (can you send a video of the missing items?).
My problem is, most dealers stock new items, and then do not restock. So, if I want another mod a year after release (example, the Mirage) I must go through the hoops.
This is because the Chinese have gone into overproduction, and vape dealers struggle to avoid an excessive price drop. UK has resisted it so far, but I'm seeing more and more dealers dropping prices (after the initial launch) until the devices sells reasonably quickly; the default, so far, it has been to keep list prices undefinetively, but that is changing now toward a simplified, old-school marketing, by skipping the profit maximisation in favour of faster turnover.