Has anybody purchased from China using Alibaba

Since making an inquiry, I have gotten all kinds of junk mail.

I am finding out that shipping from china to Mobile is expensive. I am looking to buy the 20 foot shipping container, and fill it with steel frames for shipping containers. The charge for the shipping container and shipping it to mobile is $5,000.00. I only wanted four $1,500 steel frames which will allow me to make steel shipping containers which are stackable and I can finish with eight foot treated fence pickets. I can use this for boat houses on the project I am working on. They come with a finished floor and a finished ceiling which is waterproof. They are just a little shorter than a standard 20 foot shipping container and are 19 foot 9 inches which allows the shipping container to be filled up to ten units per shipping container, or $500 per unit, or with four $1,250 per unit. I can get used 20 foot containers from mobile delivered to Pensacola for about $2,000 a unit, but to hire welders to cut and fabricate what I want to do will be over $3,000 and will not have the new floors and ceilings which look great on the containers which you bolt together with two people assembling two a day. So I will have to wait or talk to some friends about putting $20,000 in a shipping container being delivered to Mobile......or I can just give up on the concept.........I will make the decision in May, but I am very nervous dealing with folks who do not speak very good english, and I know nothing about.

Sometimes you make my head spin.

Mrs. Seaoat agrees completely and is not onboard with purchasing a container full of steel from the chinese, but I have been unable to find a similar American product, so I will have to do some explaining before we go forward with this. I had hoped in May to make the order and get delivery this summer, but I think we will have to order in September, but I am concerned about my strength levels. We just loaded the floats on the trailer, and we are exhausted. I have to do the lifting before surgery in the morning because with the plug I am suppose to take it easy for about a week.......kinda hard for me living on borrowed time to sit idle.

I just want the waterproof ceiling and wood framed interior, the floor, and the steel framework which I can frame myself. For double the price they will ship windows, door, and side panels, but I do not want that and can build a stronger longer lasting unit than using their cheap side panels. The floor, ceiling, and steel framework allow you to stack the units and can still use the frame to attach traditional lumber and frame out the units into many type of structures.

Container housing units?

Container housing units?


I will use them on the islands where I would elevate the frame so the floods would not harm them. I will have mostly glass on one side and I am using steel tubes bought in America which will extend out eight feet to form screened porches which I built in my Park model. They will serve as a get away, and I will place them on the water with two stacked to avoid any storm surges. Simple small structures where people can get away and enjoy nature. I will probably cover them will the old billboard vinyl I get from EBay which is incredible strength and can last for about five to seven years wrapping a structure. The Chinese have these funky plastic panels and funky wiring and plumbing they put in the container homes.......I just want the frames and can get steel, windows, sliding glass doors and mosquito screening for the porches. I would like to just put one together as I did the porch on the park model RV using the steel tube extension off the base, and I am looking for American steel suppliers, I can also build them on the floats you see on the trailer and put them in my canal, or ponds. I have to be careful in the ponds sinking dock posts which would allow the structures to move up and down with changing water levels because I think the ponds are lined and to puncture the lining could lower the water levels. I wake up in six hours for surgery in Chicago, and it is my dreams and concepts which keep me excited and happy to wake up each morning celebrating life.

Thinking positive thoughts for you.

Let us know how the surgery goes; sending good vibes and wishing for an even better than expected outcome. Am sometimes baffled by your projects but I don't need to understand; certainly if they keep you going I'm all for them!!

Surgery at 7 am, and I am now home. It went pretty good. The surgeon got the large growing tumor in the middle of my liver and was able to insert the mini beads and radiation. He feels confident that will improve the symptoms, but not change the mortality much. The second large tumor which they could not radiate because my liver has reached its limit, will be reviewed for chemo embolization which is effective the first or second time, but does not last as long as the radiation. I will be down for about three days, and I got lectured about my activities after the last surgery, and I will not lift anything for three days. We will travel back to Pensacola on Wed. and my wife will have to do most of the driving. The next couple days will be uncomfortable because the radiation usually spills beyond the tumor and the first time I had pain in my stomach and lungs. These folks are rated number 1 in the world on radio embolization and this was my fifth surgery in five years, and my cousin's husband who died of the same endocrine cancer was only able to get two surgeries at Moffitt in Tampa which is a leading hospital in endocrine cancer, but not as advanced as Northwestern in radio embolization. My cousin has been sad telling me what is coming, and her husband just became exhausted after the surgery I had today, and after his first one he seriously told his wife he was done because of the bad reaction he had. The folks at Northwestern just are light years ahead of others in their training and techniques and although I will be tired for two weeks, that does not stop me with my projects......I will be chainsawing on Friday, and when I tire, I simply sit down in a plastic chair......wait and get back on the horse. I have finally ran out of rope.......no more radiation on the liver.....oh well......I got five more years of life which ten years ago was not possible. I am a lucky man, and I have found this cancer has been a blessing in my life. It has been slow, and it has instilled wisdom........yea, tonight will not be fun, but heck....I will be chainsawing by the weekend.

I'm glad you're pleased with the results. I think it'd be smart to start pointing at what you want some kid to cut. But "smart" isn't apparently in your vocabulary... ya crazy old coot. Anyway... enjoy FL. I've had to cancel my trip in 3 weeks.

Glad it went well. Telling you  to take it easy falls on deaf ears....dId your doctor ok exhausting activities on Friday....after a long drive to Florida? Of course not!

Yea, they do not approve, but it was the docs who were saying 38 months 66 months ago.......I know my body.......I know when to rest......yes, I have always been a crazy old coot, but I am happy as a pig in chit. All I have been thinking about for the last three days is getting 20 cubic yards of red clay and finishing my ramp for loading the bobcat, and opening up the views over looking the beautiful bayou and burning immediately. We soak our scrap wood in diesel and fill all our scrap into five gallon buckets of diesel. We have been letting a brush pile dry out for a month, and I have some oak and pine that I cut last year which is dry and ready to burn. We bet a really hot fire going and then can cut the green shrub trees and they explode and burn with the heat. When we are done we will have clear shoreline, incredible views and little or no mess. On some of the pines I use the bobcat to bring the entire root system out of the ground, and will be adding six inches to a foot to the area over where the trees were and will seed and sod shoreline around the ponds. The grandkids come down at the end of the month and I want to show them our seven foot alligator. We packed a second kayak on the trailer, but I am going to have a very difficult time getting in and out. I told my wife we can launch at the boat launch, and I am fine once I am in a kayak, but getting out I have become too weak so I will simply pull up to the boat launch and tip it over and get wet with her helping me out of the water......simple change of clothes and I will post some incredible bayou photos.....it will have to warm up a bit, but not too much because there is a 10 foot gator in the canal and I do not want to be his lunch.......I probably would cure him from biting humans after he tasted me.

You really do plan everything out. Enjoy but please take it easy.

Seaoat, I hope tonight is not too terribly awful for you to bear.  It's great, tho, that you're setting your sights ahead on something you really love doing.  Hold onto the dream! And even though I agree on the crazy old coot thing, one can hardly argue with success and longer life.  May your formula continue to work!

One word of caution:  please check national weather forecasts before heading out on Wednesday, and make sure your timing/route allows you to dodge the severe weather which is forecast to affect a broad swath of the country.  Worst here is currently predicted for Wednesday evening, though of course that can change.  Just a heads up.

Pkr, sorry you've had to cancel your trip south.  Is it your current health difficulties?  In any event, hope things get better for you in short order!

Yes... I just can't shake this bronchitis... and it's getting worse again (3rd time). Heading to Dr today.

Yes... I just can't shake this bronchitis... and it's getting worse again (3rd time). Heading to Dr today.


I do not want to be Danny Downer, but you need a scan of your lungs. That was the pattern I had for a year before they found my first lung tumor. Also, get to the sunshine. I cannot tell you how wonderful this winter has been sitting in my plastic chair in the sun. Sure they debulked the lung tumors in October, and my breathing is better, but that direct sunshine when it is sixty degrees is simply curative. If you can make it south after you get a clear scan, you will be better.

PkrBum. ...it is time for a pulmonolgist.

PkrBum wrote:Yes... I just can't shake this bronchitis... and it's getting worse again (3rd time). Heading to Dr today.

Let us know how it goes, if you're willing. My doc gave me a mild steroid injection for inflammation (unspecified bronchitis, possible pleurisy) a couple of weeks back when I had the creeping crud cold that's been sweeping this area and the cough hung on and was painful (but not in chest/bronchial area, more like l back/side). Seemed to set me straight other than a slight occasional coughing up of mucus, now subsiding. Steroid idea was new to me but lots of others report the same.
Wonder what your doc will say as to others' suggestions about scans or specialists, if you ask. Good luck!!

Worst here is currently predicted for Wednesday evening, though of course that can change. Just a heads up.

My wife has her breakfast club first thing in the morning Wed., and she should be home around 1pm. The girls can gossip for hours and tell stories about when they were in grade school together, but sadly the topics like the forum topics have been on health issues of her group of friends and their spouses. Hitting the mid sixties does not have a bunch of spring chickens getting together. Sadly, one of the spouses passed recently and the wife has not adjusted well, and has been avoiding the group.

In any regard, we head for Metropolis and expect to arrive around 7 pm and spend the night with a late departure, and should drive all day thursday and arrive in Navarre around 8-9pm depending on the time we leave. We will pull over if it is windy because those big floats will have the trailer swaying all over the place. We are now working on a new business sign which we got a 25 foot HDMI cord from walmart.com and connected it to a computer where I am running a powerpoint presentation where I have put product photos, and business information in the slideshow which can be seen from the road as we have put a 44 inch led tv in a large window in front of the business. It is stunning the clarity from the road, and how inexpensive the new technology is compared to buying a digital outdoor sign. We saved almost 3k dollars going with this simple HDMI computer hook up to a traditional tv and using over the counter software to convey an incredible amount of information about the business. We had got a new sign permit which included a sign in the window, but the costs were prohibitive, but this set up is literally less than $300 about 1/10th the cost of outdoor digital signs and without specialty software. We can upgrade photos and product descriptions and will run the same after the business opens for the year on March 31st. We also spent the day looking at septic tanks, as I am going to have to install one this summer. I was walking rather gingerly, as the groin and entire gut region is a bit painful, but it was good to get up and get about. No lifting.....no hard work today.....see....I can follow rules.

2seaoat wrote:see....I can follow rules.

About damned time.

Presume you'll be watching for any severe weather en route Wednesday. Glad you're not due in here until Thursday, though it will indeed be a bit breezy. Currently predicted north winds will be 15-25 mph during the day, dropping to 10-15 mph Thursday night. Right now we're in mid-70's but by Thursday daytime high for Gulf Breeze = 66; Thursday night = 47 - so a little more seasonable.

Safe travels.

Follow rules for how long?