Can’t believe the shipping speed from Hellogiftshop. I ordered an EL01 with wooden grips off of Ebay from them on Nov 19th. It hit the states on Nov 23 and is only 2 states away from me at the moment. UNFRIGIN”“”“”“”BELIEVABLE !! And this is through China Post .
Anyone having thoughts of last minute gifts from China should give them a second look
I am not affiliated with hellogiftshop in any way whatsoever.
November 25, 2013
Depart USPS Sort Facility
HAZELWOOD, MO 63042
November 24, 2013 , 4:51 pm
Processed through USPS Sort Facility
HAZELWOOD, MO 63042
November 23, 2013 , 4:31 pm
Processed Through Sort Facility
ISC CHICAGO IL (USPS)
Origin Post is Preparing Shipment
November 20, 2013 , 3:36 pm
Processed Through Sort Facility
SHENZHEN EMS, CHINA
November 19, 2013 , 11:24 pm
Acceptance
CHINA
ETA: I understand this is from our friend “David” whom I had no contact with during ordering process. If he ships out this fast, he has earned a new customer!!
There will always be certain super fast packages from HK.
Just because someone gets a package in less than 10 days, does not mean another person might have to wait 30+ days.
Shipping time is always quite random, especially lately with the li-ion issues, and now the Christmas season..
But if this vendor consistently gets packages to you super fast over time, then he is certainly worth taking a extra look at.
One fast package does from a vendor does not mean anything. Ive gotten a package from DX in 7 days. Does that mean everyone should buy from DX if they need their package fast???
Streamer ain’t blowin’ smoke, and I ain’t no shill …. I have been getting the same service from hellogiftshop. They must want to keep their customers. I also ordered the EL01 with wooden grips from them, two of them actually, for holiday gifts. Ordered one on the 13th and got it on the 22nd. The other two orders were equally speedy.
HOWEVER, like most Chinese vendors, QC is absent or iffy. Case in point: the third el01 woody I ordered came without the display box. Not the end of the world, but it makes for a nice gift presentation. Fortunately I have a spare, so I’ll use that.
And also in keeping with the age-old Chinese retail tradition of absolutely no quality control — both by the Chinese company and the vendor — the third el01 woody I received had grips that were definitely not up to the beautiful standards of the first two. Some small chipping around the indents in the rosewood handle and milling marks. Fortunately it is unfinished rosewood (or I think it’s rosewood — smells like it) and a little sanding fixed the problem with some 600 grit.
In further topic highjacking — oil your woody: A couple drops of oil (light gun oil works great) +REALLY+ brings out the color of these (or any) rosewood grips, although a couple applications definitely darkens them, which is a good thing I think. Your hand grease will eventually do this over time, but mankey hand grease is of course much less stable than petro oil, so I think it’s better to fill the wood pores with something that has a smaller chance of degrading into who-knows-what color or finish. IMHO of course. Don’t use linseed oil; it can stay sticky for years AND doesn’t do much for protection AND it really darkens over time.
The oil will also help keep out the salt from your sweaty little digits; salt is a wood killer. Makes it swell and breaks down the cellulose walls with the sharp crsytals, and keeps doing so until it gets washed away, which isn’t likely unless you swim a couple miles with the knife in your pocket.
Finally, the woody el01 grips are pretty nice, but if you want a mirror finish, break out some 200-800 grit paper. Makes em glow. Cover the torx screws with a little masking tape (or remove them) so you don’t sand em down. PROCEED CAREFULLY. You don’t want to sand off any appreciable amount of wood here, just buffing out the surface, so if you start seeing piles of sawdust under your knife while doing this, you are using way too much of a rough grit.
They even have the delivery time estimate posted on their ebay sales pages.
Other vendors selling same items (sbc) for example, list their estimates weeks later.
That’s why I ordered from HGS
Nice. I do seem to get shipments from FT much faster than other sellers, so I definitely prefer anyone consistently faster. The big half of my BG order they split arrived after 20 days, and here I am 5 days later waiting for the other half of a single order. Also still at 25 days for a FT order that didn’t make the expedited shipping upgrade.
Racer: It’s been 23 days today waiting for Banggoods special P1A P2A etc sale. Nothing yet. No tracking and Damned slow. Only upside is hearing you got part of yours.
I remember you ordered at same time as I did.
I ended up waiting a week for the two BG orders with the P1A and P1C to come off back order and gave up and cancelled those (and bought an D25A mini from Amazon). Then BG took a larger, single order that qualified for expedited shipping and split it into two orders with only one expedited. So, out of three original orders, I got the expedited half of one order, yay!
A week ago I ordered an LB-763 knife from FT and paid the extra 53 cents for the expedited shipping, and from the tracking it looks like it’ll be here in about a week, which should put it at 2 weeks total shipping time.
Amazon is even getting slower. The Invicta watch I ordered Prime late on Friday won’t be here until tomorrow. That’s two whole business days—they are slipping.
Once the package is at the post office it's out of the seller's hands. Unless you're suggesting one seller makes sure their packages get put on a faster airplane than the ones used by other sellers, I don't really see how it's relevant.
HK Post used to be way way faster than SingPost or China Post, but not anymore. Now HKP & SGP both have transit times to the U.S. of something ridiculous like 3 weeks, China Post is currently 'the fast one'. But don't worry, it'll all be changed around again a month from now.
Don’t know about faster airplanes, but some of them may use a better courier service who get the package accepted/scanned at the PO faster and are located closer to the international airport so there are fewer ground transfers before it gets in line to get on a plane. I’ve had packages with several days between being packaged and accepted, then multiple transfers within China, too. At the destination country people who live closer to the point of entry often also get their packages faster than others who don’t. Logistics.
Well, the half of the order I got was expedited at least. But I’m a plan B kind of guy, so anything that doesn’t show up in time to give as gifts can be quickly replaced with something locally with plenty of time to spare. At least we know the 5000 mah solar USB battery packs from BG will make it into the stockings. They look nice. And this half of the order also included the $5 red Sipik clone that is actually decent quality, for my stocking of course. So the stuff I did get so far was right, and I’m happy with. And there’s still plenty of time for the other non-solar USB battery packs to arrive.
UPDATE: Item arrived today. Just 10 days folks !! I couldn’t be happier with this purchase. Just look at the scales on this EL01-D taken with my cellphone.
Beautiful scales, I’ve got two EL-01Ds and one I carry about when not in public, honestly and the other I’ve left boxed.
The scales darken with use. I put one coat of renaissance wax on the scales and they have a dark brown colouring. Not from the wax, that is colourless, but from handling.
Crappy phonecam.
The other one is much lighter.
I must add a vote for HelloGift, they have been for me reliable and quick.