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LET me tell you about my wallet. It is brown, made of synthetic and has stamped on it the words Pi Deng Bao. It was advertised as “genuine leather” and cost $7. And it’s part of my new addiction.

I bought it on AliExpress, a Chinese website where mainly Chinese goods are advertised by mainly Chinese manufacturers and sold at extremely Chinese prices.

The website is as huge as it is diverse. You could buy a “super slim” cover for your smartphone for $0.41 or a “handpainted” painting of a monkey listening to music for $87.21 (I got the former but not the latter).

AliExpress is the consumer offshoot of Alibaba — the Chinese eBay. But where Alibaba focuses on selling business to business — often in bulk lots of 10,000 items — on AliExpress you can buy one thing at a time.

The prices are crazy.

I don’t understand how 56 cents can cover the delivery guy for driving to my house, getting out of his car, opening the van, getting the package, and coming to my door or letter box. Let alone all the stuff that came before, like, actually manufacturing the item, wrapping it and flying it from China to Australia.

But the prices are what they are, and when shipping is free it’s hard not to simply buy things and hope they’re okay.

The downside is you become an environmental vandal, buying cheap plastic Chinese rubbish in big volumes and stuffing it in a cupboard if it is bad. This is capitalist consumerism at its very worst and it weighs on my mind. It really does. But what else weighs on my mind is the chance of getting a really good deal. Like most humans, I’m very hypocritical.

A recent report from China found 40 per cent of items sold online were counterfeit or of bad quality.

The head of AliExpress, Jack Ma, claims counterfeits are bad for his own company. “I don’t believe success can built on dishonesty,” he told Chinese media.

So, does the word “counterfeit” include this LV branded, Chinese-made dinnerware? Because I’m not sure Louis Vuitton actually produce teacups.

(Jack Ma is the second richest person in China now, thanks to the success of his websites.)

Trust builds slowly with these sites. I dipped my toe in the water buying things for under a dollar and have recently gone so far as to try to buy something for $15 — some boardshorts that look like they’d cost $40 in a shop.

The sellers have customer feedback ratings displayed prominently, and offer full refunds, not that I’ve ever been upset enough to send anything back.

Still, I’m a long way off using AliExpress to buy anything really substantial. But whether we buy from AliExpress or not, we already trust the Chinese to make our things.

In September 2015 Aussies hit a new record on importing from China — $5.8 billion worth of stuff in just one month. That’s $250 worth of Chinese stuff per person. The new record is not headline news because imports are growing so fast we hit a new record almost every month.

The reality of AliExpress is the stuff you buy at the shops often comes from the same manufacturers. It might have gone through AliBaba in a bulk deal, then sat in a warehouse and maybe got a logo put on it so it seems like a real brand.

It’s hard to escape buying from China, so cutting out the middleman seems sensible. The downside is by cutting them out, we risk putting a lot of Aussie retailers out of business.

But is there an upside? Couldn’t saving on Chinese goods give me more chance to spend in Aussie cafes and bars this summer? When I get my dodgy Chinese wallet out in a local business, there’s a bit more money in it than if I’d bought a real leather wallet in a local shop. At least until it breaks and I have to buy a new one.

Jason Murphy is an economist. He publishes the blog Thomas The Think Engine. Follow him on Twitter @jasemurphy.