I have ordered lots of stuff from there and it has all turned up approximately in my mailbox 3 to 6 weeks later. I have generally ordered items which are less than the ~£15 customs threshold. More expensive items might be liable to VAT or other duties: https://www.gov.uk/goods-sent-from-abroad/overview
Other sites have begun started to ship from warehouses inside the EU to avoid customs issues, e.g. http://eud.dx.com/
If you have never seen these sites before then you should be warned that they even simple searches will return hundreds or thousands of results. You might spend a long time searching though the results for even something mundane like LED bike lights:
Aliexpress: https://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?catId=0&initiative_id=S...
- Results have several suppliers offering 100 pieces at <£1 including delivery! I have ordered capacitors and resistors similar to these and they all turned up in the post several weeks later, just as I expected.
In my experience, most stuff over the £15 threshold slips through the net without being taxed. Chinese sellers seem to have a knack for it. Paying VAT seems to be the exception rather than the rule.
If you're getting started in electronics, I'd suggest buying mixed value kits of common passive components. They're really cheap and very handy to have around. If you work with SMD components, these sample books are a huge timesaver:
Aoyue and Yihua make very cheap and surprisingly usable soldering tools. You can get a perfectly acceptable temperature-controlled soldering iron or hot air gun for about £25. You might as well stock up on solder, flux and wick too.
Taobao is a bit of a crapshoot if you can't read Chinese, but it's where you'll find the really insane bargains and the sexy new chips. There are a variety of English-speaking agents who can buy stuff for you for a reasonable fee. Dangerous Prototypes have a useful forwarding service - have stuff delivered to their office and they'll send it on to you for $3 per parcel plus the cost of shipping.
