#11
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Buying and Selling
On Friday, September 22, 2017 at 10:20:11 AM UTC-4, jbeattie wrote:
On Wednesday, September 20, 2017 at 9:34:01 PM UTC-7, Ralph Barone wrote: jbeattie wrote: Also, I'm not following. Is Trek good or bad? You do know that they are now operating company stores, directly employing (and paying benefits, including 401ks) to many home-grown Americans? They also employ plenty of workers at company headquarters and elsewhere and make domestic profits. You buy Colnagos, a company with no US headquarters or manufacturing -- and in fact, its high end product is made in Italy -- a socialist country that was aligned with the Nazis at the outbreak of WWII. Do you hate America? Are you a Nazi sympathizer? Do you prefer bicycles made in a socialist country? Why don't you own American bikes? I do -- plus a Canadian one, which is like America with a health plan. -- Jay Beattie. Wow Jay! You've got a CCM? Or was it a SuperCycle? Norco -- a Canadian company. The frame is made in Taiwan by honorary Canadians. They even have a hockey team. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C7nepg5W0AAZNEu.jpg Eh? I actually laughed out loud at that. -- Andrew Chaplin SIT MIHI GLADIUS SICUT SANCTO MARTINO |
Ads |
#12
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Buying and Selling
Buy n sell in Feb/March
Or buy August to ? During an economic 'downturn' |
#13
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Buying and Selling
On 9/22/2017 12:36 PM, Joerg wrote:
On 2017-09-19 19:44, sms wrote: On 9/19/2017 6:52 PM, somebody wrote: On 2017-09-19 07:06, wrote: snip Or the brake pads from China, $2/pair and free ship. As I have always said the postage fees are grossly lopsided between Asia and the US and that is one of the core reasosn for our trade deficit. Except that most politicians (except manybe one ...) do not understand that. It's an international reciprocal postal treaty that no one worried about when it was mainly U.S. residents of Chinese descent sending packages to relatives in China. More than a decade ago tyat has changed, big time. How long does it take for politicians to turn on their brains? Or for some of them, do they even have one? A long time when it's a treaty with hundreds of countries that's been in effect since 1874. The Universal Postal Union established that each country should retain all money it has collected for international postage. In 1874, or even 1974, you did not have Chinese companies mailing low-value consumer goods to other countries. Of course other countries could reciprocally abuse it, but there aren't many companies manufacturing low-value consumer goods and shipping them to Chinese consumers. |
#14
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Buying and Selling
On 2017-09-22 14:24, sms wrote:
On 9/22/2017 12:36 PM, Joerg wrote: On 2017-09-19 19:44, sms wrote: On 9/19/2017 6:52 PM, somebody wrote: On 2017-09-19 07:06, wrote: snip Or the brake pads from China, $2/pair and free ship. As I have always said the postage fees are grossly lopsided between Asia and the US and that is one of the core reasosn for our trade deficit. Except that most politicians (except manybe one ...) do not understand that. It's an international reciprocal postal treaty that no one worried about when it was mainly U.S. residents of Chinese descent sending packages to relatives in China. More than a decade ago tyat has changed, big time. How long does it take for politicians to turn on their brains? Or for some of them, do they even have one? A long time when it's a treaty with hundreds of countries that's been in effect since 1874. Our elected leaders need to investigate deeper than that. For example, when a country massively subsidizes its postal system to undercut sales channels of another country that is in effect the same as dumping and there are international laws against that. The Universal Postal Union established that each country should retain all money it has collected for international postage. In 1874, or even 1974, you did not have Chinese companies mailing low-value consumer goods to other countries. Now we do and if anti-dumping laws aren't effective against abuse we need to modify those treaties. Just as is being done with NAFTA right now, and for good reasons. Of course other countries could reciprocally abuse it, but there aren't many companies manufacturing low-value consumer goods and shipping them to Chinese consumers. It is not all about low value merchandise. To give you just one example: A guy like me wants to build some electronics for his bicycles and then find out "Oh rats, I am out of those buck switcher ICs". The guy is not in a hurry because it's just hobby stuff. He looks at a domestic source and finds out that the $0.50 parts are available but there will be hefty shipping fees. Then he fires up EBay, Alibaba or whatever and .. voila ... the same regulator ICs for roughly the same $0.50 but .. free shipping. Then he needs a new light. $20. Plus another $12.95 shipping. WHAT?! Goes on EBay or Amazon - finds Chinese vendor - $20 and free shipping - ka-ching. A few days ago while painting I realized that I need brushes that I can cut and add an angle bracket to but where the tip is short. Not available locally, web dealers wanted too much in shipping. Found them in Hong Kong for less than $1.50 a pop and free shipping. So I ordered - ka-ching. This is not good for domestic painting suppliers. Multiply this by a gazillion cases and we have a problem. -- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/ |
#15
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Buying and Selling
On Fri, 22 Sep 2017 12:36:31 -0700, Joerg
wrote: On 2017-09-19 19:44, sms wrote: On 9/19/2017 6:52 PM, somebody wrote: On 2017-09-19 07:06, wrote: snip Or the brake pads from China, $2/pair and free ship. As I have always said the postage fees are grossly lopsided between Asia and the US and that is one of the core reasosn for our trade deficit. Except that most politicians (except manybe one ...) do not understand that. It's an international reciprocal postal treaty that no one worried about when it was mainly U.S. residents of Chinese descent sending packages to relatives in China. More than a decade ago tyat has changed, big time. How long does it take for politicians to turn on their brains? Or for some of them, do they even have one? ... The origin country gets all the postage and the destination country gets nothing with the assumption that the volume will be roughly equal. The small volume of direct-to-consumer low-value items from China is not a core reason for the trade deficit. It is rising, big time. I know people who buy just about anything other than groceries on EBay. When they say "Oh, it always gets here in three to five weeks" you know what's going on. Heck, I even had stuff I bought on Amazon come via "China Post". ... These items would still come into the U.S. through other channels, at higher prices, were it not so cheap to do international shipping from China, you'd just have a middleman. Same reason. The stuff then comes in bulk but the shipping charges are grossly lower than if a US vendor sent the same items to Asia. It isn't just China. For example, when we needed name tags for our therapy dogs' vests (for nursing home visits) we ordered them via Amazon. A small package arrived from Manila, Philippines. I couldn't believe it considering that we had paid just a few Dollars. Looked at the postage, calculated - $0.60. Airmail! It came from a seamstress who appears to specialize in cloth name tags. The shipping cost discrepancy alone puts similar seamstresses in the US out of business. Given that the cost of living, and salaries, are as much as five times cheaper in China than in the U.S. how is changing the mailing costs going to effect sales? My wife's older sister and her son, his wife, and the grand kids visited Thailand about six months ago. The grandson, probably 19 years old, told me that he worked part time at "the dollar store" unloading trucks for $10 an hour. The current minimum salary in Thailand is 300 baht, about $9 a day. At today's exchange rate the U.S. salary, for coolie labour, is ~9 times the Thai salary. -- Cheers, John B. |
#16
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Buying and Selling
On Fri, 22 Sep 2017 16:20:17 -0700, Joerg
wrote: On 2017-09-22 14:24, sms wrote: On 9/22/2017 12:36 PM, Joerg wrote: On 2017-09-19 19:44, sms wrote: On 9/19/2017 6:52 PM, somebody wrote: On 2017-09-19 07:06, wrote: snip Or the brake pads from China, $2/pair and free ship. As I have always said the postage fees are grossly lopsided between Asia and the US and that is one of the core reasosn for our trade deficit. Except that most politicians (except manybe one ...) do not understand that. It's an international reciprocal postal treaty that no one worried about when it was mainly U.S. residents of Chinese descent sending packages to relatives in China. More than a decade ago tyat has changed, big time. How long does it take for politicians to turn on their brains? Or for some of them, do they even have one? A long time when it's a treaty with hundreds of countries that's been in effect since 1874. Our elected leaders need to investigate deeper than that. For example, when a country massively subsidizes its postal system to undercut sales channels of another country that is in effect the same as dumping and there are international laws against that. But does China subsidize the mailing costs there? As an example. Mailing a letter in Thailand is 2 baht, about US$0.06, I read that the same item in the U.S. costs more then eight times more expensive. "Dumping", by the way is selling a product for less then the cost of the item The Universal Postal Union established that each country should retain all money it has collected for international postage. In 1874, or even 1974, you did not have Chinese companies mailing low-value consumer goods to other countries. Now we do and if anti-dumping laws aren't effective against abuse we need to modify those treaties. Just as is being done with NAFTA right now, and for good reasons. Of course other countries could reciprocally abuse it, but there aren't many companies manufacturing low-value consumer goods and shipping them to Chinese consumers. It is not all about low value merchandise. To give you just one example: A guy like me wants to build some electronics for his bicycles and then find out "Oh rats, I am out of those buck switcher ICs". The guy is not in a hurry because it's just hobby stuff. He looks at a domestic source and finds out that the $0.50 parts are available but there will be hefty shipping fees. Then he fires up EBay, Alibaba or whatever and .. voila .. the same regulator ICs for roughly the same $0.50 but .. free shipping. Then he needs a new light. $20. Plus another $12.95 shipping. WHAT?! Goes on EBay or Amazon - finds Chinese vendor - $20 and free shipping - ka-ching. A few days ago while painting I realized that I need brushes that I can cut and add an angle bracket to but where the tip is short. Not available locally, web dealers wanted too much in shipping. Found them in Hong Kong for less than $1.50 a pop and free shipping. So I ordered - ka-ching. This is not good for domestic painting suppliers. Multiply this by a gazillion cases and we have a problem. Some time ago I did look into shipping from China, the port of Shanghai to San Diego, and shipping for small volume goods is extremely cheap as there are literally thousands of shipping agents who specialize in "packing containers" which reduces the shipping costs by a substantial amount. When I checked it was as low as $3/cu. mtr. How many paint brushes, or whatevers, can you squeeze into 1 cubic metre? As for paint brushes at $1.50 a pop, I can buy smallish paint, 1-1/2" - 2" brushes here in a retail shop for less then US$1.50 so my guess is that wholesale the cost is less than a dollar and shipping cost to the U.S. is pennies. -- Cheers, John B. |
#17
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Buying and Selling
On Friday, September 22, 2017 at 4:20:09 PM UTC-7, Joerg wrote:
On 2017-09-22 14:24, sms wrote: On 9/22/2017 12:36 PM, Joerg wrote: On 2017-09-19 19:44, sms wrote: On 9/19/2017 6:52 PM, somebody wrote: On 2017-09-19 07:06, wrote: snip Or the brake pads from China, $2/pair and free ship. As I have always said the postage fees are grossly lopsided between Asia and the US and that is one of the core reasosn for our trade deficit. Except that most politicians (except manybe one ...) do not understand that. It's an international reciprocal postal treaty that no one worried about when it was mainly U.S. residents of Chinese descent sending packages to relatives in China. More than a decade ago tyat has changed, big time. How long does it take for politicians to turn on their brains? Or for some of them, do they even have one? A long time when it's a treaty with hundreds of countries that's been in effect since 1874. Our elected leaders need to investigate deeper than that. For example, when a country massively subsidizes its postal system to undercut sales channels of another country that is in effect the same as dumping and there are international laws against that. The Universal Postal Union established that each country should retain all money it has collected for international postage. In 1874, or even 1974, you did not have Chinese companies mailing low-value consumer goods to other countries. Now we do and if anti-dumping laws aren't effective against abuse we need to modify those treaties. Just as is being done with NAFTA right now, and for good reasons. Of course other countries could reciprocally abuse it, but there aren't many companies manufacturing low-value consumer goods and shipping them to Chinese consumers. It is not all about low value merchandise. To give you just one example: A guy like me wants to build some electronics for his bicycles and then find out "Oh rats, I am out of those buck switcher ICs". The guy is not in a hurry because it's just hobby stuff. He looks at a domestic source and finds out that the $0.50 parts are available but there will be hefty shipping fees. Then he fires up EBay, Alibaba or whatever and .. voila .. the same regulator ICs for roughly the same $0.50 but .. free shipping. Then he needs a new light. $20. Plus another $12.95 shipping. WHAT?! Goes on EBay or Amazon - finds Chinese vendor - $20 and free shipping - ka-ching. A few days ago while painting I realized that I need brushes that I can cut and add an angle bracket to but where the tip is short. Not available locally, web dealers wanted too much in shipping. Found them in Hong Kong for less than $1.50 a pop and free shipping. So I ordered - ka-ching. This is not good for domestic painting suppliers. Multiply this by a gazillion cases and we have a problem. All you have to do is go through eBay now and you can find the plastic cable ends sold 10 to a pack for $1.50 being sold from China with free shipping. The wrapping on a package cost more than that. I have stopped buying parts from China. |
#18
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Buying and Selling
On Friday, September 22, 2017 at 7:03:35 PM UTC-7, John B. wrote:
On Fri, 22 Sep 2017 12:36:31 -0700, Joerg wrote: On 2017-09-19 19:44, sms wrote: On 9/19/2017 6:52 PM, somebody wrote: On 2017-09-19 07:06, wrote: snip Or the brake pads from China, $2/pair and free ship. As I have always said the postage fees are grossly lopsided between Asia and the US and that is one of the core reasosn for our trade deficit. Except that most politicians (except manybe one ...) do not understand that. It's an international reciprocal postal treaty that no one worried about when it was mainly U.S. residents of Chinese descent sending packages to relatives in China. More than a decade ago tyat has changed, big time. How long does it take for politicians to turn on their brains? Or for some of them, do they even have one? ... The origin country gets all the postage and the destination country gets nothing with the assumption that the volume will be roughly equal. The small volume of direct-to-consumer low-value items from China is not a core reason for the trade deficit. It is rising, big time. I know people who buy just about anything other than groceries on EBay. When they say "Oh, it always gets here in three to five weeks" you know what's going on. Heck, I even had stuff I bought on Amazon come via "China Post". ... These items would still come into the U.S. through other channels, at higher prices, were it not so cheap to do international shipping from China, you'd just have a middleman. Same reason. The stuff then comes in bulk but the shipping charges are grossly lower than if a US vendor sent the same items to Asia. It isn't just China. For example, when we needed name tags for our therapy dogs' vests (for nursing home visits) we ordered them via Amazon. A small package arrived from Manila, Philippines. I couldn't believe it considering that we had paid just a few Dollars. Looked at the postage, calculated - $0.60. Airmail! It came from a seamstress who appears to specialize in cloth name tags. The shipping cost discrepancy alone puts similar seamstresses in the US out of business. Given that the cost of living, and salaries, are as much as five times cheaper in China than in the U.S. how is changing the mailing costs going to effect sales? My wife's older sister and her son, his wife, and the grand kids visited Thailand about six months ago. The grandson, probably 19 years old, told me that he worked part time at "the dollar store" unloading trucks for $10 an hour. The current minimum salary in Thailand is 300 baht, about $9 a day. At today's exchange rate the U.S. salary, for coolie labour, is ~9 times the Thai salary. John, are you telling us that wrapping paper, cardboard boxes, packing plastic bubble wrap and plastic tape are so cheap in Thailand or China that they can wrap and send small parts worth a couple of bucks to the US with free shipping and make a profit? |
#20
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Buying and Selling
On 2017-09-22 19:39, John B. wrote:
On Fri, 22 Sep 2017 16:20:17 -0700, Joerg wrote: On 2017-09-22 14:24, sms wrote: On 9/22/2017 12:36 PM, Joerg wrote: On 2017-09-19 19:44, sms wrote: On 9/19/2017 6:52 PM, somebody wrote: On 2017-09-19 07:06, wrote: snip Or the brake pads from China, $2/pair and free ship. As I have always said the postage fees are grossly lopsided between Asia and the US and that is one of the core reasosn for our trade deficit. Except that most politicians (except manybe one ...) do not understand that. It's an international reciprocal postal treaty that no one worried about when it was mainly U.S. residents of Chinese descent sending packages to relatives in China. More than a decade ago tyat has changed, big time. How long does it take for politicians to turn on their brains? Or for some of them, do they even have one? A long time when it's a treaty with hundreds of countries that's been in effect since 1874. Our elected leaders need to investigate deeper than that. For example, when a country massively subsidizes its postal system to undercut sales channels of another country that is in effect the same as dumping and there are international laws against that. But does China subsidize the mailing costs there? I believe so. The stuff is handed to China Post in a Chinese city and then directly addressed to me, with custosm label and all. Not bundled. Sometimes it even comes airmail and is here in two days. For less than a buck. ... As an example. Mailing a letter in Thailand is 2 baht, about US$0.06, I read that the same item in the U.S. costs more then eight times more expensive. That's what I am saying. Low shipping charges (and I mean international) also go for other Asian countries. I brought the Philippine example. "Dumping", by the way is selling a product for less then the cost of the item That would be the case if the Chinese government subsidizes mailing rates. Then they would provide a service for less that the real cost of the service. Such subsidies can take many forms. One would be to absorb the cost of pensions and other benefits that would normally have to be covered by revenue from the service rendered. The Universal Postal Union established that each country should retain all money it has collected for international postage. In 1874, or even 1974, you did not have Chinese companies mailing low-value consumer goods to other countries. Now we do and if anti-dumping laws aren't effective against abuse we need to modify those treaties. Just as is being done with NAFTA right now, and for good reasons. Of course other countries could reciprocally abuse it, but there aren't many companies manufacturing low-value consumer goods and shipping them to Chinese consumers. It is not all about low value merchandise. To give you just one example: A guy like me wants to build some electronics for his bicycles and then find out "Oh rats, I am out of those buck switcher ICs". The guy is not in a hurry because it's just hobby stuff. He looks at a domestic source and finds out that the $0.50 parts are available but there will be hefty shipping fees. Then he fires up EBay, Alibaba or whatever and .. voila .. the same regulator ICs for roughly the same $0.50 but .. free shipping. Then he needs a new light. $20. Plus another $12.95 shipping. WHAT?! Goes on EBay or Amazon - finds Chinese vendor - $20 and free shipping - ka-ching. A few days ago while painting I realized that I need brushes that I can cut and add an angle bracket to but where the tip is short. Not available locally, web dealers wanted too much in shipping. Found them in Hong Kong for less than $1.50 a pop and free shipping. So I ordered - ka-ching. This is not good for domestic painting suppliers. Multiply this by a gazillion cases and we have a problem. Some time ago I did look into shipping from China, the port of Shanghai to San Diego, and shipping for small volume goods is extremely cheap as there are literally thousands of shipping agents who specialize in "packing containers" which reduces the shipping costs by a substantial amount. When I checked it was as low as $3/cu. mtr. How many paint brushes, or whatevers, can you squeeze into 1 cubic metre? Doesn't work that way. They arrive in the US in individually addressed pouches, with China Post delivery confirmation. As for paint brushes at $1.50 a pop, I can buy smallish paint, 1-1/2" - 2" brushes here in a retail shop for less then US$1.50 so my guess is that wholesale the cost is less than a dollar and shipping cost to the U.S. is pennies. There, but not here. I am about to go buy more paint. I'll take a look at what brushes cost at the Sherwin-Williams store but I am sure it'll be several times higher even though I only go there when the have a 30/40% discount event. Regular price for one (1!) gallon of their top quality exterior paint is around a whopping $75 plus tax. -- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/ |
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