Buying Chinese Goods on eBay!!

[Cosmic Gift]

I have avoided E-Bay for the same reason......BUT ..consider this.
In Australia many many stores are saying they can't get stock , Hardware, bicycle parts, Clothing etc. due to lack of supply.
Soooo if there's "no Covid in China" why has the supply chain broken down at their end.
In Australia we've had 29K cases all up and 900 deaths . We're doing OK ....I wonder where the real delays are?
Just a thought

[Iains boatyard]

Cosmic gift
Apparently the Chinese Government is suggesting to the import export dealers to make it hard on Australia BUT! Not as “official” Government policy so that way they can publicly deny it is their doing and call it lack of appetite from Chinese consumers
Interesting times
Way off topic 🤭

[coopec43]

Originally Posted by Cosmic Gift

I have avoided E-Bay for the same reason......BUT ..consider this.
In Australia many many stores are saying they can't get stock , Hardware, bicycle parts, Clothing etc. due to lack of supply.
Soooo if there's "no Covid in China" why has the supply chain broken down at their end.
In Australia we've had 29K cases all up and 900 deaths . We're doing OK ....I wonder where the real delays are?
Just a thought

I've had no trouble buying bicycle parts recently but I have bought from local suppliers.

BUT I have bought several el-cheapo items (that's all I buy from China these days) and one month after buying the items according to China Tracking they haven't left China yet.
I've had a Chinese seller quizzing me if I had received the lens cover (costing $2) I ordered 6 weeks ago. He was pleading with me not to give him bad feedback but at the time I had a gut feeling he was doing his own investigation into delays of China Post. What is going on?

[coopec43]

Interesting! I just did an eBay search on "Action camera" (You know, the Chinese copy of the GoPro camera) and there was not one Chinese seller listed. I just wondered if it was anything to do with Chinese sellers evading VAT and Australia's GST (Goods and Services Tax)

eBay Targets International Sellers Trying to Dodge New GST ...
https://powerretail.com.au › news › ebay-targets-sellers-...

10 July 2018 — eBay is cracking down on international sellers misrepresnting item locations to ... when they're actually being dispatched from China or Hong Kong. ... concerns about rogue sellers evading tax, as eBay doesn't collect tax on ..
How Amazon and eBay became a tax haven for Chinese sellers
https://www.theverge.com › amazon-ebay-chinese-selle...

4 Sept 2018 — According to Steier, there are over 10,000 more VAT-avoiding Chinese traders on eBay. Germany's Ministry of Finance has suggested that the ...Missing: GST ‎| Must include: GST

[Iains boatyard]

Above all else the Chinese are very good at “sleigh of hand “ computers make that easy, not hard to write a program that mimics the real thing then in come suckers
I know from experience but I was lucky enough to be put in touch with an Australian export agent with a Chinese wife and they hunted down the seller to retrieve my Lithium battery’s then got him black listed by Winston Lithium Battery company.
I do not use eBay but do they not insure you for no delivery etc.

[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by coopec43

Interesting! I just did an eBay search on "Action camera" (You know, the Chinese copy of the GoPro camera) and there was not one Chinese seller listed. I just wondered if it was anything to do with Chinese sellers evading VAT and Australia's GST (Goods and Services Tax)
........
10 July 2018 — eBay is cracking down on international sellers misrepresenting item locations to ... when they're actually being dispatched from China or Hong Kong. ... concerns about rogue sellers evading tax, as eBay doesn't collect tax on ..

I avoid buying small bits and bobs out of China on Ebay and try and find resellers with actual Australian stock. I still get caught once in a while.

Bigger stuff I go direct to the source and have bought an SJCam direct from the company in China. Good people to deal with. Ditto Tecsun radios from re-seller Anon-co in Hong Kong.

Speaking of action camera 'knock offs' most of them are knock offs of early SJCams and should be avoided like the plague . There are sites out there telling you how to avoid the fakes.
Genuine SJCams are good kit. https://sjcam.com/products/cameras/

[JAFO]

Originally Posted by Joh.Ghurt

Having had to deal with a lot of Chinese vendors and spent some time in Soutest Asia, I can assure you, the perception that most stuff made in China is junk is a lot more true than false. There are a few very good reasons for it.

The first reason is that China has one of the most ruthlessly capitalist mindset I ever encountered. I general, it's ok to cheat and lie to make profit. If you get ripped off because a vendor doesn't keep his side of a bargain, you're just a sucker and a loser not deserving any better. That makes it for consumers difficult to get an honest deal if you don't know any better. I've seen too many replacement laptop batteries where more than half of the cells were missing and replaced by metal dummies to make up of the weight.

The second consequence of this is that there's very little respect for quality and a job done properly. All that matters is to do just enough to get paid. If you're a major buyer with enough leverage, you certainly can produce quality products in China, but it takes a lot of knowhow, stamina and setbacks until your Chinese manufacturers realise it's more expensive for them to produce junk instead of doing the job right. If you don't have that clout, back to above.

In this mindset, anyway to achieve the goal is fine. If bribing and cheaating works to get the money so be it. This is why it's no problem to get AA-sized batteries stamped with any CE and other certificate on the world and promised to deliver 5000 kWh or super-secure FFP-3 masks made out of tissue-paper. Who cares what we print on those. This leads in regular intervals to tragic scandals of Chinese babies dying after being vaccinated with fake or toxic vaccines.

The constant strive to harmony and not to speak badly of authorities also leads to an inexistent feedback culture and pointing out problems. This insures that whatever issues are in a system won't be improved without very strong pressure from outside.

All in all, as long as China can't compete on a level playing field without resorting to corruption and bribery (eg getting Chinese cars certified in Europe or California) because the quality isn't there, the assumption most Chinese products are junk is deserved.

Back to the topic of the forum: Stay away from cheap Chinese bilge-pumps. You'd be surprised how little a motor can be put into the regular-sized housing and you don't want to figure that out when the floorboards are swimming around in the salon.

Not disagreeing with you, but there's another side to this story that you haven't covered.

Basically, the greed of many Western importers, and their refusal to pay a little more for quality. (Sometimes understandable.. quality items don't break as often, hence less repeat business. But still.)

I've a friend with a Chinese wife, who (until Covid at least) makes regular business trips to China. Here's a roughly paraphrased version of part of a conversation he had with the owner of a manufacturing company there.

Factory owner: "Here, John.. here's an example of what I'm talking about..

This pen on my desk. We make 'em. It's a pretty decent pen. Costs us around $0.80 to make. We sell a lot of them to Europe, where they retail for 2-3 dollars. But I can't find anyone in the US who's willing to buy them.

The companies in the US refuse to pay more than $0.20 per pen. Heck.. my factory is literally incapable of producing something crappy enough for me to make money on a deal like that.

But I know other companies here in China who can easily make stuff shitty enough to turn a profit on such a low price. So here's what I do. I'll happily take your lousy 20c per pen contract. And I'll farm that job out to a crappy back-alley outfit who can make money even at the 10c per pen that I'll offer them. And I'll happily ship 'em all over to that tight-arsed importer in the US, who will go on to sell them at outrageous markups to retailers. Who will sell them at even more outrageous markups to the public.

The retailer makes money. The importer makes money. I make money. The back-alley manufacturer makes money. Win/win/win/win. Everyone's happy. Except the customers.. who end up cursing cheap Chinese crud that doesn't meet minimal expectations. But since that's practically all they can get, or at least, all they're willing to pay for these days, they put up with it and buy more of the same.

We can make perfectly good, quality stuff quite well. And we do, for our own domestic market, and for those who are willing to pay for it. But if you're only willing to pay for crud, we're quite happy to sell you crud."

So, perhaps the West ought to keep in mind the old saying.. "Whenever you point the finger at someone, there are three more fingers pointing right back at you."

[Uncle Bob]

Originally Posted by JAFO

Not disagreeing with you, but there's another side to this story that you haven't covered.

Basically, the greed of many Western importers, and their refusal to pay a little more for quality. (Sometimes understandable.. quality items don't break as often, hence less repeat business. But still.)

I've a friend with a Chinese wife, who (until Covid at least) makes regular business trips to China. Here's a roughly paraphrased version of part of a conversation he had with the owner of a manufacturing company there.



So, perhaps the West ought to keep in mind the old saying.. "Whenever you point the finger at someone, there are three more fingers pointing right back at you."

I have it heard said that western greed built china as it is today.

[JAFO]

Originally Posted by Uncle Bob

I have it heard said that western greed built china as it is today.

I'd say there's more than a little truth to it. Just look at the way western manufacturing was so eager to relocate to countries where wages were rock-bottom. Or how retailers like Walmart bully suppliers into such low prices that the suppliers have no choice but to reduce the quality of their goods, and/or abuse their own employees, just to stay in business.

[Lake-Effect]

Originally Posted by coopec43

10 July 2018 — eBay is cracking down on international sellers misrepresnting item locations to ... when they're actually being dispatched from China or Hong Kong. ... concerns about rogue sellers evading tax, as eBay doesn't collect tax on ..
How Amazon and eBay became a tax haven for Chinese sellers
https://www.theverge.com › amazon-ebay-chinese-selle...

I noticed this exact same thing a little over a month ago. After a lot of research and reading reviews, I bought, on sale, a CDN$320 item made by a good Chinese brand, from Amazon.ca. I assumed I was buying from an authorized Canadian reseller, for the warranty, and it would be taxed. When I got invoiced, there was no Canadian tax added. It was probably a drop-ship from China, but it did come Amazon-fast (like 5 days)

(and the item has lived up to expectations so far. Works great )

This isn't the sellers, this is Amazon ripping off the countries they do business in (and undercutting local vendors), and I have no problem with local governments clamping down on that.

Originally Posted by Uncle Bob

I have it heard said that western greed built china as it is today.

Well, totally. They buy our raw materials and other output, and provide us with insanely cheap manufacturing. If your western company makes and sells goods, what's not to like? (sucks for those who used to have good factory jobs, but they're not on CF...)

But, all things considered, it's actually a good thing overall to be trading with China:

• when your country has deep trade relations with another, you depend on each other. That country can no longer be treated like an implacable evil foe (eg like the west with the USSR, during the Cold War), but more like a disagreeable neighbour. We all have too much to lose if actual hostilities were to break out.
• the Chinese people are joining our "club". For better or worse, they are developing the same middle-class tastes, attitudes and aspirations that we have. This will give them power, they will push for more rights, and the Chinese government will have to bend eventually to maintain their grip.

[Joh.Ghurt]

Originally Posted by JAFO

So, perhaps the West ought to keep in mind the old saying.. "Whenever you point the finger at someone, there are three more fingers pointing right back at you."

This is why we should strive to buy quality. By the way, I'm very happy with my TS-100 soldering iron made in china and I think also developed there. They produce also good stuff, it's sometimes only hard to find.


As to all of those being scammed on Ebay: I never had problems on AliExpress and I actively avoid drop-shippers on Ebay. Many shops are also on AliExpress.

At the beginning of Corona, a few packages (including a digitizer board for around 70€) got delayed beyond the guaranteed delivery date. Claimed them and got for all of the stuff the money back. Most of the arrived a few weeks later anyway.
One seller sent me the wrong type of crimp-cable shoes (I needed the wide yellow ones, they sent me the regular ones), money came back reliably.
The only problem was a stated before, when you get what you order but it's junk like the wonderful bilge-pump with the small toy-motor inside or the chisels made out of so crappy metal (wasn't steel) that you could bend them into pretzels.

[Iains boatyard]

Lake-Effect
Nice sentiment but if you understand what China is doing to Australia trade relations you may change your sentiments.
They are trying to using trade to force us to bend to their will break trade agreements etc. They are manipulating the world stage.
It is not all so cozy!

[chrisr]

one of the things i like about CF is that it's a cruising forum - not a political rant forum

however i will add fuel to this particular fire by commenting that no-one complained when usofa for years did exactly what china is doing

before usofa it was the british empire, and before them the spanish, etc etc

methinks the only grounds for complaint a lot of folk have is that they are now on the losing side. well suck it up and htfu 'cause believe me prc does not care what we say here and it's not going to change an iota of what's going to happen over the next 20 years

the only important issue is a peaceful transition - or don't any of you have grandchildren ?

cheers,

[Simi 60]

Originally Posted by Iains boatyard

Lake-Effect
Nice sentiment but if you understand what China is doing to Australia trade relations you may change your sentiments.

Yeah, it's all one-sided and always China's fault.
Straya and Murica can do no wrong

[Simi 60]

Originally Posted by chrisr

one of the things i like about CF is that it's a cruising forum - not a political rant forum

however i will add fuel to this particular fire by commenting that no-one complained when usofa for years did exactly what china is doing

before usofa it was the british empire, and before them the spanish, etc etc
,

Thank you, my thoughts exactly
The west are a bunch of hypocritical crybabies