I still remember the first time I ordered something from China. It was 2018, and I was on a mission to find a vintage-style leather backpack that wouldn’t drain my bank account. I’d been scrolling through local stores and secondhand shops in Brooklyn, but everything I liked was hovering around the $300 mark. Then a friend mentioned she got a similar bag from an online marketplace based in Shenzhen. I was skeptical. But the price? $42. That kind of difference changes the game. A few years and dozens of orders later, I’ve become something like an unofficial expert on buying from China. Not because I set out to be one,…