Should You Avoid All Made In China Products?
When I was a kid, the watchword for junk was “Made in Japan” – nowadays it’s “Made in China” like you see on so many products for sale on Facebook or online.
Yet do those 3 little words (sorry gals) really mean a problem?
The Chinese really do have the ability to make a quality product, and just because something is “Made in the USA” doesn’t necessarily mean it was designed well, manufactured properly or even made with pride. Sad, yet true. (We can’t even get fast food employees to make a sandwich properly 1/2 the time!)
Case By Case Basis
Analyzing products has to be on a case by case basis; some will be great, some will be just OK and some will be substandard. I recommend avoiding the last.
I believe in putting hands on and testing an item before I determine if it is a value that I should offer to other consumers, a belief that is in short supply when it comes to selling in America!
As a result, a lot of products I evaluate for selling in the PistolSnipe Store never make it there. A customer is too hard to come by to treat that person so casually as to sell them an inferior product that will certainly be the last item they buy from you but also perhaps be a service nightmare as you try to replace a sketchy product once or twice only to finally refund the purchase.
Does Price Matter?
There are some times when you can offer a product for sale in good conscience simply by qualifying the item with the proper PRICE and DESCRIPTION.
For instance, we recently added a Red/Green Dot Sight to our store which we feel is an exceptional value for the entry level market at the low price it sells for (under $50). How does it compare to a $450 AimPoint?
Are you kidding me? If it compares at all to a product 9 TIMES more expensive then one or the other is seriously mispriced! Though if you compare it to a Bushnell TRS-25 at about 50% higher price (a product also made in China) it is viewed quite favorably.
In fact, when sending the unit out to reviewers I specifically instructed them to compare it to other ENTRY LEVEL optics in its class. And as such, the reviews came in very favorably – and you can find that product in our store here.
Laser/Light Combo That Did NOT Make The Cut
Another product I had high hopes for I had to pull the plug on.
Pictured above and featured in the video below, the Laser/Light Combo was assembled poorly, something I noticed right out of the box.
Having always been a tinkerer, I couldn’t resist taking it apart and trying to ‘fix’ it 🙂
You can see the results of my attempt in the video below, though suffice it to say that what I discovered was that even if ‘fixed’, the unit was not of an acceptable design quality to entice me to put it up for sale in our store as it was just not a product I felt I could (or wanted to) stand behind.
WARNING!
I’m not going to take this opportunity to call out competitors who I know sell substandard goods at inflated prices on Facebook or other online venues; competitors who never lay a hand on the products they sell.
What I will do is offer you, dear reader, a friendly warning to check out the companies you do business with online – it *shouldn’t* be that hard to get some basic information about them. If it is, you might want to shop elsewhere.
Even Amazon.com is starting to see an increasing problem with counterfeit goods masquerading as the real McCoy. I’ve mentioned this before and since then the problem has gotten WORSE, not better… despite Amazon’s efforts.
How the heck do you know?
Sadly, you won’t – always. What you can know, though, is the reputation of who you choose to do business with and whether they will stand behind what they sell.
VIDEO – A Product That Did NOT Make The Cut
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