The China end of the transaction could be a guy in his bedroom to a large company we just do not know.
There are work arounds for this, if you are willing to put in the work.
First look for larger volumes of sales (you will only see your market on ebay).
They using translate.google.com work from English to Chinese and back. You may need to be creative, as some things get lost in translation. For example a router tool, translates as moulding tool, and clamps translate as cramps.
Then search for your item on Taobao.com. If your seller only sells a few of the item in China, they are some guy in his bedroom, often buying from a bigger supplier but taking a punt and will buy to order to sell on, one reason for long delays.
Or, search for the item, look for large sales volumes, try to find the flagship store and see if they ship to UK, they often do and international postage here is cheap.
Alternative, there is also cheap stuff on Amazon US, and they also ship internationally.
Just some hints and tricks that I have used.