Have been reading in some of the flashlight threads that @@@ Company is loosing money on the production of @@@ flashlight and they are going to have to raise prices. Some are you are believing them and backing them up when someone questions the prices. Not me, I have friends from China and some of the costs they tell are really had to believe but true.
Tennis shoes comparable to Nike, $3.
Fender Stratocaster copy, sure the quality is not quite the same but very good, $30.
A few links showing prices on some other items.
Personally bought this generator from local Northern Tool store for $89.
Friend bought this chainsaw on Amazon for $119 shipped. Here is a video review.
Think we will maybe never know how cheap it is to produce things there.
Just browse AliExpress and it is mind boggling how they can do it, only conclusion is that it is dirt cheap to make things.
Take the Q8, when we did napkin calculations we were debating if we should not raise the price for even getting things from China, the parts alone were more.
Yet they have kept the coupons working much longer, we got money and so the conclusion must be that there was already profit in the groupbuy price which is baffling, 4 good binned LEDs ~8 + large copper DTP board ~8 + driver ~10 leaves $14 for host and shipping.
BTW got one of those chainsaws too, I needed a new chain and bar for my good husqvarna. Would cost me €70 but a chainsaw from Amazon with compatible bar and 3 chains cost €100
It is pretty decent and works, in the end it is about having good sharp teeth and good technique.
Neighbor has one too, but after a month not using it while leaving gas it would not start and needed Cleaning, I normally empty the tanks but with two saws when he was having problems my husqvarna had gas in the tank for much longer, three pulls and it ran and neighbor could do the job he wanted so there is a difference
Just rebuild a Stihl MS390 myself that had a locked up piston, think my family member put gas in it with no oil but he won’t admit to doing that. The saw new is close to $600 and dealers around here wanted $300 just for the cylinder and piston, piston only was $120. Found a dealer that would sell an OEM piston for $45 so did that and honed the cylinder. Works great now, like new. Chinese kits with the cylinder, piston, bearings, and seals start at less than $20 and go up. Lots of people use them with no problem(investigated on arboristsite.com). Had to tear the saw completely down to get to the piston and I promise you there are way more machined and cast parts in that saw than any flashlight made.
I think you shouldnt mess didferent target prices.
One is: what price should be to start production and make project real (as market manager).
Another one: you are factory owner, you have big fixed costs, while amount of goods that can be sold (worldwide) is much less than production abilities (worldwide). And you have other target price (to save your job you have to take orders that are under first target, but can help you to pay for everymonth bills).
China have great oppurtunities in electronics stocks, transport system, shipping abilities and etc.
At the same time, there is no reasons to say that production in China can be times cheaper than in other country with open market economics (US). Machines, tools and materials costs difference can be just 10-20%, energy resources cost even same, biggest influence is salary (lets say $5/hour in China).
This is named overproduction crisis. And if blfers help chinese companies with ideas and group buys, this is always good news both for factories and stores (just imagine how many products should realise china vendors to reach q8 GB quantity).
Cnc operator, CAD designer and electronic engineer are not low-skilled employers.
$2/hour or less is regular salary in agriculture, not in machinary-equipped manufacure.
Stihl 038 Magnum. Same thing + destroyed crank bearings so I assumed that crank could get some beatings… I decided to put everything new inside it.
So I got cylinder and crankshaft (probably china one but from reputable seller) and dremmel cleaned the openings of cylinder, meteor piston + caber rings(Italy), original parts were set of gaskets and bearings. For now it is working and I don’t notice any performance difference…
But have to say that original Mahle Cylinder and crankshaft are better build feels heavier in a hand and cylinder is smoothed out of factory. But as you said original set of parts is way over 400$ for this chainsaw, all mentioned I paid around 170$
Edit: about meteor piston + caber rings they seem even better than original stuff so no problem if you ever get them. Cost around 25$
Cool that you also rebuild a chainsaw. That was my first one but I couldn’t see throwing away a very nice low hour saw nor could I see paying almost the price of a new one to have the dealer rebuild it. Arboristsite.com has a lot of good people who can talk you through a rebuild if you run into a problem and there was also a good video on youtube rebuilding the same saw. Watch video 10 minutes, go work on saw for 30 and again and again.
It’s always baffled me that I can order small things from Allie for $1 or less that would cost me at least $5 here. With no shipping fee. I buy tons of things from China just because I can’t beat the prices. Any time I go on Amaz0n I laugh heavily when the shipping cost itself is more than what I could the product itself for on Allie.
In high school my friends and I did a good bit of machine work for a battle bots club. A few things were beyond our scope so when we paid for machine work to be done it would be a fortune. I know it’s a large production process and numbers decrease the prices, but just getting the body of a Q8 machined in the US would be a great deal more costly than the entire light itself. I think the value in the Emisar D4 is incredible at $40, but the Q8 is significantly more material and machining yet I still got it for $40.
It depends on what goods do you want.
Try to find hand tools (wrenches, pliers etc.) that you prefer to buy from ali.
Lots of you (blfers from the US) have US-made drill press. Try to find smth similar (weight, material, quality) on ali.
Try to find chinese-made truck that is better and cheaper than F150.
Etc. etc. etc.
