Alibaba and Online Ads

[Steve Demuth]

I'm curious whether anyone other than me has seen a sudden surge in online advertising from Alibaba (which is more or less, a Chinese Amazon, but with a marketplace that is slanted more toward wholesale than Amazon's).

I can't recall ever seeing direct-to-consumer ads from Alibaba until a couple of weeks ago. Now I see them everywhere. And they are curious - clearly based on my prior online product searches, but unlike essentially all American sellers' ads, these are plumbing a long history of my activity. They seem to be cycling through every major product category I've looked at in the last two years. This morning it's photovoltaic systems, but last week it was multi-function woodworking machines.

[Bill Dufour]

I do not understand Alibaba all I see are FOB some factory in a far away country. I have no idea how I would get something shipped and pass through customs. I was looking at 55 gallon drums of concrete additive FOB china.
Ebay is similar prices but almost everyone there will ship. Some are local pickup only and there is no way to filter those out.
Bill D