I was looking for a jeweler’s loupe with a higher magnification than that of my current loupe (20x, which is a bit too low to properly judge an edge).
By accident (well, Google) I came across a Chinese site called Lightinthebox. They sold a 60x loupe. It was dirt cheap: around EUR 6 ($8 ). I had never ordered from a Chinese site, but for this price I decided to take the risk.
I ordered last Monday night. This morning the package arrived! :woohoo: The package went from Beijing to my home in The Netherlands in three days! It was also packaged very well in multiple layers of cardbox and plastic. And with a description no customs employee could worry about.
And the loupe works fantastic! In case you are interested: link. They call it a microscope, but it works more like a loupe.
Lightinthebox is one of these extremely large Chinese consumer good warehouses that sell nearly everything, from computers to wigs. (Top search: wedding dress :D.) They sell the mobile phone I use for one third of what it costs in the shop here…
In my experiment (n=1) it was a very reliable shop. I guess I’ll visit them more often.
Oh, and they sell lots of USB microscopes, some of them even cheaper than the 400x Veho I use. And some seem to have very sturdy bases :).
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