Yes, I would never send money to anyone without a buyer protection. I was planing to use PayPal or Escrow. (more likely PayPal, because I trust it more) I actually watched some youtube videos on how to avoid scams on Alibaba. They actually advised to choose a supplier with gold status etc., as I mentioned in my first post. Wouldn't you buy it from carefuly chosen supplier even with the PayPal's buyer protection? I might get S9 from Alibaba, but what about warranty? Thats whole another story....
Warranty would be covered by the company that you are buying from. It's probably a good idea to research them thoroughly. I guess you have some protection with Paypal and can file a dispute if the product isn't up to the description.
Yeah this is common for any prorduct we are buying from the real store or online e-commerce site. They will be give product and service warranty for the certain year.
If you want to buy the mining hardware or graphic cards. They mostly gives the 5 years warranty for that.
Check that whether they will send you including the shipping fee and customs. Mostly they asks you pay the high charge for custom clearance only.