Chinese "Junk"

[DamianM]

^^ do you use the sprinklers to scare those cats?.... that would be amusing

 

[Atticus Finch]

Perhaps there are a few bright spots. There’s never been a better time to buy an acoustic guitar than now. Several excellent Chinese produced guitar brands have hit the American market during the last several decades and they have given consumers a reasonable alternative to Gibson, Martin and Taylor. Brands like Recording King and Blueridge make instruments that are easily comparable to at least the mid-priced models of premium American guitars…but they are sold for half the bucks. Evidently, modern computer-aided production methods yield themselves well to making acoustic guitars, and the Chinese are heavily invested in these methods.

AF

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

^^ do you use the sprinklers to scare those cats?.... that would be amusing

Ah, but the black one is our very own Louie, the official feline of Maison Brunswick.

 

[John in Covina]

There are several things going on right now in China.
First there are poor designs being made.
Second there is shoddy manufacturing where the machines and tools are not being maintained.
Third there is substitution of poorer and poorer raw materials. This is shown best in making brake discs and drums.

Fourth is an idea by many Chinese merchants that they don't care if you ever order again. If you as a business have them make something, they may send great samples but the quality of the shipments fails, you can't send it back and you can't sue them over contractural obligations. If you do the company changes it's name and Uncle Wong is running it instead of Wing Tip Shu.

If the product is yours you have to copyright / patent it and your brand names in China becaues they will run the factory 24 hours a day and sell the over runs to anybody using your design and trade marks, you get the blame for the crappy goods and don't make a dime...

The only Chinese goods that can be good takes a consciensiousness that few in Chine have, or as we might say scruples.

There are some in China that have them and continue to get a bad rap because of the others.

Big companies have a crew of people in China at the factories watching them like a hawk to see that they maintain the materials are right and the quality control is real. Those companies have the normal truly industrialized nation type of defect rates.

So from China comes a lot of well made good design stuff that you can rely on to be OK, but for many left to their own devices find their business pratices have been honed with with the idea that SHODDY is the way to go. Price is the only deciding factor and you'll make the deal for a while. They see you as just another fish in the ocean.

 

[Edward]

And another thing...it grinds my gears that I can buy all manner of junk, from toasters to dog food, made in China, but I can't buy a quality cigar made in Cuba.

But the Cubans are.... communists! Oh..... wait.... lol

Marketing: convincing you to buy a product to satisfy a need that you didn't even have until you saw the product. Steve Jobs, for example, was a master of this.

Jobs was such a master of marketing that he even convinced half the world, it seems, that he invented a lot of those products....

They're still building down to a price, it just results in a greater profit margin for the re-seller.

Exactly

"Designer Goods" are the biggest racket there is. The high price is due to the licensing fee for the designer's name and logo, not any actual improvement in the quality of the goods. And not a nickel more money goes to the workers, either. They get the same sweatshop wage whether it's the econo-chain's label or Yves-St. Blow's.

Bee Aye Enn Gee Oh....

When they were made in the USA, or UK for that matter, they were very, VERY heavily subsidised in the form of import tariffs (to name but one political model for keeping jobs in country, and getting re-elected - the principle function for a poilitician) and therefore cheap. With increased demand for the US/UK product the price remained [artificially] low.

Exactly. IT'll never hasppen again - too many influential people (donors) with whose interests economic protectionism would clash. Mass-manufacturing in the West is dead. Niche products will be the way forward.

Note the sprinkler in the background. I had gotten two of them at Lowe's. The first one lasted less than two weeks so I stupidly went and got another. The replacement had the very SAME defect and also lasted less than two weeks!

Good for breaking up catfights, eh? They look just like my girls (save one is black and long haired).

Perhaps there are a few bright spots. There’s never been a better time to buy an acoustic guitar than now. Several excellent Chinese produced guitar brands have hit the American market during the last several decades and they have given consumers a reasonable alternative to Gibson, Martin and Taylor. Brands like Recording King and Blueridge make instruments that are easily comparable to at least the mid-priced models of premium American guitars…but they are sold for half the bucks. Evidently, modern computer-aided production methods yield themselves well to making acoustic guitars, and the Chinese are heavily invested in these methods.

AF

The Chinese are making astounding guitars these days. (Of course, they've been making stringed instruments in China for thousands of years.) THe Blueridge are great. Eastman also, for jazz archtops. Great electrics too... the Squier Classic Series models are untouchable in their price bracket.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Perhaps there are a few bright spots. There’s never been a better time to buy an acoustic guitar than now. Several excellent Chinese produced guitar brands have hit the American market during the last several decades and they have given consumers a reasonable alternative to Gibson, Martin and Taylor. Brands like Recording King and Blueridge make instruments that are easily comparable to at least the mid-priced models of premium American guitars…but they are sold for half the bucks. Evidently, modern computer-aided production methods yield themselves well to making acoustic guitars, and the Chinese are heavily invested in these methods.

AF

Since you brought it up, THE best value in acoustic guitars comes from Canada, in the form of Seagull from Godin. They are simply outstanding in sound and quality, up their with the high end stuff, but at a price point comparable to the Asian imports.

And to Frank's original question, I can't think of anything off the top of my head that fits his description. I will say that I'm keen on several custom American-made products, from my cowboy boots to my catcher's mitt.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

There are several things going on right now in China.
First there are poor designs being made.
Second there is shoddy manufacturing where the machines and tools are not being maintained.
Third there is substitution of poorer and poorer raw materials. This is shown best in making brake discs and drums.

Fourth is an idea by many Chinese merchants that they don't care if you ever order again. If you as a business have them make something, they may send great samples but the quality of the shipments fails, you can't send it back and you can't sue them over contractural obligations. If you do the company changes it's name and Uncle Wong is running it instead of Wing Tip Shu.

If the product is yours you have to copyright / patent it and your brand names in China becaues they will run the factory 24 hours a day and sell the over runs to anybody using your design and trade marks, you get the blame for the crappy goods and don't make a dime...

The only Chinese goods that can be good takes a consciensiousness that few in Chine have, or as we might say scruples.

There are some in China that have them and continue to get a bad rap because of the others.

Big companies have a crew of people in China at the factories watching them like a hawk to see that they maintain the materials are right and the quality control is real. Those companies have the normal truly industrialized nation type of defect rates.

So from China comes a lot of well made good design stuff that you can rely on to be OK, but for many left to their own devices find their business pratices have been honed with with the idea that SHODDY is the way to go. Price is the only deciding factor and you'll make the deal for a while. They see you as just another fish in the ocean.

Also many of the factories are directly owned either wholly or partially by the Chinese military, and we're not just talking about Norinco, their arms manufacturer. It's one of the few armed forces in the world that's practically self-funded.

 

[Atticus Finch]

Since you brought it up, THE best value in acoustic guitars comes from Canada, in the form of Seagull from Godin. They are simply outstanding in sound and quality, up their with the high end stuff, but at a price point comparable to the Asian imports.

They are a good value, indeed. If I had room for another guitar in my house, I would purchase one of Seagull's little OO sized folk models.

AF

 

[Story]

Well..cheap labor for sure.
HD

Look around at your rust belts and brown fields, America. We used to make stuff, but you traded it for walls of worthless crap in Costco.

Meanwhile, slavery.

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/santas-workshop/

http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/03/world/asia/china-labor-camps

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/12/w...-chinas-forced-labor.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

 

[HudsonHawk]

They are a good value, indeed. If I had room for another guitar in my house, I would purchase one of Seagull's little OO sized folk models.

AF

There's always room for another guitar, though you may have to remove something else. Or someone else.

 

[CharleneC]

If you want to buy a cheap toaster of course it will break down quickly. If you don't take the time to source out a quality American toaster, who's fault is that? Certainly not the fault of the Chinese manufacturers who are only filling orders at the required price point for Walmart. And if Walmart needs low prices to make it's sales, who's fault is that? If the market would be willing to pay more, Walmart would charge more and you'd get a better toaster.The consumer expects to have a toaster for $10. But if you think about it, a $10 toaster is no bargain. It is really a fire hazard.

It has nothing to do with planned obsolescence, inability to manufacture a quality product, or country of origin. If crappy $10 toasters could be made in the USA for $10, they would be made and sold in the USA to Americans. Because Americans won't pay more.

 

[vitanola]

Hammer...meet nail. People don't want quality, they want cheap. They're getting what they ask for.

And on a side note, that made-in-Japan "junk" 30 years ago was generally far superior to the same item "Made in the USA".

You're too young.

Yes, thirty years ago Japanese goods were generally of superior quality, but fifty, seventy or eighty years ago, in the so-called "Golden Era" this was generally not the case, with a few notable exceptions, such as the porcelain imported by the Morimura family under their "Noritake" trade-mark. Otherwise, japanese stuff was generally the province of the dime-store and the back pages of mail-order catalogs.

 

[David Conwill]

Young Doc: No wonder this circuit failed. It says "Made in Japan".
Marty McFly: What do you mean, Doc? All the best stuff is made in Japan.
Young Doc: Unbelievable.

 

[HudsonHawk]

You're too young.

Yes, thirty years ago Japanese goods were generally of superior quality, but fifty, seventy or eighty years ago, in the so-called "Golden Era" this was generally not the case, with a few notable exceptions, such as the porcelain imported by the Morimura family under their "Noritake" trade-mark. Otherwise, japanese stuff was generally the province of the dime-store and the back pages of mail-order catalogs.

Right, but the "Golden Age" wasn't marked by mass consumerism of cheap Japanese made goods. That didn't come until well after WWII.

 

[vitanola]

The Japs were big suppliers of cheap toilet paper ("Japanese Crepe"), matches, light bulbs, phonograph needles, gift-wares, crockery, woolens, silks, polished cottons, cheap home electric appliances, toys, novelties, kitchen accessories, toys, costume jewelry, insulating papers (for the radio industry), wiring devices, and home decorative accessories. Eighty years on the traces of this immense trade are scarce because the items were either those which were consumed immediately (toilet paper, light bulbs, phonograph needles, matches) were worn out (fabrics and cheap appliances) or were of so little expense and perceived value that they were discarded immediately when they fell out of fashion.

It is difficult today to put together a representative household of the interwar period because of the near impossibility of acquiring representative samples of essentially ephemeral items of this sort. Just now I am having fits trying to find several 1920's vintage patterned woven blankets. These once common items seem to have all been discarded.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Japanese goods also fell very much out of favor after 1937 when news of what the Sons Of Heaven were doing in China became common knowledge. There were organized mass boycotts in the US of Japanese imports, and a lot of that dime-store stuff was tossed out.

 

[bburtner@moran]

Do some of you actually own "all American items "I doubt it!I will bet the thermostat in you home is made in Asia,or some component of you auto!

 

[vitanola]

Do some of you actually own "all American items "I doubt it!I will bet the thermostat in you home is made in Asia,or some component of you auto!

Well the clock thermostat in my Hillsdale house was made by the Minneapolis Heat Regulator Company in around 1920. It has a nice 8-day jeweled clock movement, and is as reliable as all getout. one of our cars, an old Chevrolet Tahoe has Japanese and perhaps Korean components, but no Chinese stuff back in a 1996 GM product. We've put over 410,000 miles on the machine since purchasing it new, and it will soon need to be replaced. Our second car is a Flivver, which I can assure you was made entirely here in the 'states.

 

[HudsonHawk]

My tractor is a John Deere...which was made in Japan. It runs and runs and runs like a champ.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

I wish a western company would make underwear of the quality offered by Lee Kung Man Knitting Factory. At $120 HKD (approx £10) a shirt, it's clear that Chinese made gear is not always cheap crap. They just don't export it. Anyone know of a western company who carries Cicada brand underwear? Thought not.