chinese have taken over some of my sales

Thread Starter

takao21203

Joined Apr 28, 2012
3,702
i havent made any profit in two years beside running costs and stockpile.

Sales have dropped to 2000 a month

Ive found chinese started to copy some of my items and put at lower price
 

Alec_t

Joined Sep 17, 2013
14,280
That's tough, but I'd guess quite a common experience in commercial ventures these days. If you have a worthwhile product you will have competitors.
 

Thread Starter

takao21203

Joined Apr 28, 2012
3,702
That's how capitalism and free market work: you thrive only if you can compete.
How does selling items for 0.99 work with free shipping?

Do they pay tax on this, pay hourly wage, insurance, holidays?

Its clear the chinese dump items below own costs, then later, if theres no more competition, prices will rise.
 

Papabravo

Joined Feb 24, 2006
21,159
How does selling items for 0.99 work with free shipping?

Do they pay tax on this, pay hourly wage, insurance, holidays?

Its clear the chinese dump items below own costs, then later, if theres no more competition, prices will rise.
And this is a surprise to you -- Why?
 

dannyf

Joined Sep 13, 2015
2,197
How does selling items for 0.99 work with free shipping?
It is for you to figure out that. Your problem isn't that they are better. Your problem is that you aren't as good.


Do they pay tax on this, pay hourly wage, insurance, holidays?
Your governments put you in that position; and voters, including you, put your governments in charge there.

Its clear the chinese dump items below own costs, then later, if theres no more competition, prices will rise.
That's the same thing the people (whose products and services you displaced) said about you.

You have a choice of blaming others for your inability to compete; or looking inside of you and see how you can be a stronger competitor.

The former does nothing for you over the long term. the latter makes a winner out of you.
 

Thread Starter

takao21203

Joined Apr 28, 2012
3,702
It is for you to figure out that. Your problem isn't that they are better. Your problem is that you aren't as good.




Your governments put you in that position; and voters, including you, put your governments in charge there.



That's the same thing the people (whose products and services you displaced) said about you.

You have a choice of blaming others for your inability to compete; or looking inside of you and see how you can be a stronger competitor.

The former does nothing for you over the long term. the latter makes a winner out of you.
And from this philosophy excerpt I could hire someone + pay.

Aternatively, look into large rubbish bins for food at certain times. Yesterday Ive found chicken carcasses, still hot.

This is reality.
 

Robin Mitchell

Joined Oct 25, 2009
819
Also you can never win a race to the bottom.

Here is a funny story (a tale, not real):

There once was a small shop which sold milk for $1. A new shop down the road opened and sold milk for $0.80. To try and compete the first shop sold their milk for $0.70. The second shop reflected on this drop in cost and brought their milk down to $0.50. This continued until the first shop finally decided to sell their milk for $0.01 and eventually became bankrupt.

Turned out the second shop was just buying the first shops own items and reselling. The first shop closed and only the second shop remained.

You can never compete with china or anyone whos business model involves making their item the cheapest. You can only compete with differentiation and a good name for quality.
 

Papabravo

Joined Feb 24, 2006
21,159
@takao21203 has learned what many patent holders learn when they go to defend their patents. You can't win against somebody with deep pockets who intends to put you out of business. Your best course is to move on to your next idea, secure in the knowledge that they can never out-innovate you.
 

GopherT

Joined Nov 23, 2012
8,009
How does selling items for 0.99 work with free shipping?

Do they pay tax on this, pay hourly wage, insurance, holidays?

Its clear the chinese dump items below own costs, then later, if theres no more competition, prices will rise.
In China, billions of parts are bought and used. That means 10s of millions of parts are left over (or somebody's brother-in-law ordered too many). Anyhow, collecting and selling all of the leftover parts is a pain and not worth the effort for the manufacturers so the sell them for pennies on the dollar. Anyone with a hungry stomach and a few pennies and access to the Internet at the library buys these parts and resells them. Willing to work all day to package and label hundreds of parts per day. Some even contain a handwritten note to thank the buyer.

Their costs for random parts is low, the price of a cup of cooked rice (lunch and dinner) is low and their prices for international mail are low if they bring the package to certain post offices in China - since the Chinese post office has agreements with other countries (common among post offices) that the origin office gets paid and the destination office delivers for free (assuming an equal number of packages go in each direction).

Simply said, a business that results in more work and less profit than working a minimum wage job is not a good business unless you see growth potential.
 

tcmtech

Joined Nov 4, 2013
2,867
How does selling items for 0.99 work with free shipping?

Do they pay tax on this, pay hourly wage, insurance, holidays?

Its clear the chinese dump items below own costs, then later, if theres no more competition, prices will rise.
Well they obviously have it figured out so now you need to as well. :rolleyes:

And what are you selling anyway?
 

tcmtech

Joined Nov 4, 2013
2,867
In China, billions of parts are bought and used. That means 10s of millions of parts are left over (or somebody's brother-in-law ordered too many). Anyhow, collecting and selling all of the leftover parts is a pain and not worth the effort for the manufacturers so the sell them for pennies on the dollar. Anyone with a hungry stomach and a few pennies and access to the Internet at the library buys these parts and resells them. Willing to work all day to package and label hundreds of parts per day. Some even contain a handwritten note to thank the buyer.

Their costs for random parts is low, the price of a cup of cooked rice (lunch and dinner) is low and their prices for international mail are low if they bring the package to certain post offices in China - since the Chinese post office has agreements with other countries (common among post offices) that the origin office gets paid and the destination office delivers for free (assuming an equal number of packages go in each direction).

Simply said, a business that results in more work and less profit than working a minimum wage job is not a good business unless you see growth potential.
It's not just in China a guy can do that. If you know where to look its a very viable self employment method here as well. I have done it countless times over the years picking up bulk lots of surplus items from whereever I can and reselling them one or a few at a time with substantial markup on my cost while still being way under the typical market value. ;)

The problem is so few Americans have any clue how to look for this sort of stuff let have alone the minimal ambition to want do this sort of thing for income. The fear of 'what if' and the thought of neeidng to put forth actual effort on their own is enough to keep them from ever pursuing it. :(
 

tcmtech

Joined Nov 4, 2013
2,867
Also you can never win a race to the bottom.

Here is a funny story (a tale, not real):

There once was a small shop which sold milk for $1. A new shop down the road opened and sold milk for $0.80. To try and compete the first shop sold their milk for $0.70. The second shop reflected on this drop in cost and brought their milk down to $0.50. This continued until the first shop finally decided to sell their milk for $0.01 and eventually became bankrupt.

Turned out the second shop was just buying the first shops own items and reselling. The first shop closed and only the second shop remained.

You can never compete with china or anyone whos business model involves making their item the cheapest. You can only compete with differentiation and a good name for quality.
Actually that's more reality than many would think.

A number of the worlds greatest business men came to be from doing just that. :D

Figure out what your soon to be competitor has for profit and related operating cost then copy their product and sell it at or just under your own break even level until they go under.

The process works rather well being most any business that has been around for any time is almost always going to be top heavy on operational costs (management and office people Vs actual workers producing the sellable goods) and you can then use their own fat butts they have at the top as your leverage to tip them over. ;)

Initially you won't be making money but then they are loosing it faster than you so just wait them out then bump your prices up to the level that keeps you comfortably afloat yet highly competitive against anyone doing the same to you later.
 

Robin Mitchell

Joined Oct 25, 2009
819
NOOO I got the story wrong :O

Once there was a shop on a road who sold milk for the local town. A competitive shop opened nearby and sold milk at the same price. To try and compete the first shop decided to sell their milk at a cheaper price (a few cents). Less than a few days had passed and the new store matched this price. Again the first shop, trying to stay competitive, lowered the price of milk. No matter how much this shop tried the other shop would always match their price. Eventually, it got to the point where the milk was not making any profit. At this point the shopkeeper stormed to the other shopkeeper (in the second shop) and said "HOW ARE YOU ABLE TO DO THIS!". The second shopkeeper, with a grin, said "I have just been buying your milk :)"
 
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