About some increasingly popular clone brands...

Sorry to start with a disclaimer but a lot of people on this sub are very quick to jump on the keyboard. I am a retailer (and you probably can’t tell I’m a retailer by my Pm’s history from here) and I’m just trying to share my experience, so no need to throw any hate my way.<br><br>I thought some of you may find it interesting to hear a retailer’s thoughts on some of the popular chinese brands.<br><br>I have never been a big fan of chinese brands and I’ve seen a lot of people ask about them. I never wanted to bad mouth these brands here for usually I’ve had lower quality and more problematic parts from those. I just didn’t want to sell anything I wasn’t going to stand behind. But I could see writing off the chinese brands potentially cost me customers. <br><br>So at the begining of the year, I ordered 1 of everything CGS, DSG, and DSX produced to better understand their quality. This was a pretty significant order so I was feeling hopeful that they could stand next to the american brands I mainly sell from. I was pretty excited to allocate some of the american brands order space to chinese, and therefor have better pricing for you guys.<br><br>Here’s my thoughts on each company, based on my order from 2 months ago. <br>-DSG: I should start with that I personally know the owner and he’s a great guy, so I hope he can fix these problems. I can’t say how many times I personally had to inspect every item I wanted to order from him because I was worried about fit. I was impressed with the quality of most items and he did have some phenomenal products (that I think he no longer sells). That being said, I had several orders with small imperfections and things that were just off from my american vendors. Some of the parts were undersized and required extra work to get them to fit properly. I’ve also had a few of his clone items wear improperly. Today, I would give DSG a 7/10 quality. I’m expecting him to improve as time goes on and would have no problem recommending anything he makes. For now though, I think it’s best to use DSG to fill orders that are backordered by the original companies as it’s faster and cheaper. It’s a great way to get an item quickly if you need it now, but not a good way to save money if you can wait. That being said, I think DSG has an wonderful selection of products and his prices are great for what you get. I’d recommend supporting him over CGS or DSX everyday of the week.<br><br>-CGS: I will never sell CGS items, I think they are trash. CGS is a company that simply buys the entire rights to an item from a chinese company and then resells it. He doesn’t physically make any of his items (unlike DSG and DSX) and is a lot like a chinese distributor. I was so disappointed with my CGS order. The quality was no where near the american brands and I had a lot of issues with the parts I received. Some big issues I had were with the coating coming off of parts. I ordered a few sets of items from CGS and DSG to compare. For example I ordered the DSG and CGS clone front sight post and gas blocks. They were both gone after a few hundred rounds. I saw similar problems with nearly every item I ordered that had a nitride coating. I’m not saying their items are unusable, I just don’t think they’re worth it. You’re paying a lot less but getting a lot less. <br><br>-DSX: I don’t have first hand experience with DSX products, but I have second hand. In the past, I have sold a few DSX items to customers. I always reach out to customers after a sale to make sure everything is good to go and see what their thoughts are. I’ve had multiple people that had issues with their DSX orders. I’ve had two people contact me about broken gas blocks that were only a few hundred rounds old. This is not unheard of to break a gas block but when you hear it from multiple people, it seems like a problem. I’ve also heard that DSX has a lot of issues with delayed shipping. That being said, I’ve also heard some great things about DSX’s quality in terms of fit and feel. I’ve also heard they have a great selection. This is one of those brands I’m not sure about and I’d use with caution. <br><br>Overall… I don’t want to say I’m 100% right. I do want to say that from my personal experience, I think chinese brands have a long way to go to stand next to the quality of the american brands. Maybe it’s a bad order from each of them, but I’m not sure. I think DSG is the best of the three by a long shot and if I were to guess, he’s at least a generation ahead of them in terms of quality. I personally would not risk buying chinese over american for now.