Boxes are overpriced

Ha!

Just for fun did you ringup Hammond and ask if they could cut the price and make the product custom?

I had Hammond price out melamine, but the price was 40x higher than just buying chinese milk products.

yes, ordering a length of extrusion cut up in the lengths needed, should be a lot cheaper that nicely package kits with plastic endcaps that isn't needed and little individual bags of screw

-Lasse

I'll wager I have seen 1000x as many as you have in the flesh, old bean. Including factory tours. And Aliexpress is a crap shoot compared to going there.

Someone on the ground. Magic formula.

Sure, the price means they can and will sell it to anyone, which you probably don't care about, but some folks do.

Yeah, a few billets is around the minimum order.

You'll probably learn about 'quality fade' some day too.

--
Best regards,  
Spehro Pefhany 
Amazon link for AoE 3rd Edition:            http://tinyurl.com/ntrpwu8

I suggest graphic overlays with images of Dymo tape annotaions to appeal to the hipster crowd.

--sp

--
Best regards,  
Spehro Pefhany 
Amazon link for AoE 3rd Edition:            http://tinyurl.com/ntrpwu8

Seeed Studio (IIRC) was advertising something like that (in the small print of "what we do")

Den fredag den 13. maj 2016 kl. 01.27.50 UTC+2 skrev David Eather:

yeh, I believe seedstudio/dangerousprototypes have a sourcing service, i.e tell us what you need at how it much it can cost and we'll see if we can find it

-Lasse

Is 'quality fade' where black anodization turn brown with time?

George H.

I think he means that the Chinese will start shipping crappier and crappier product, as time goes on. I've seen it.

krw is exactly right. The samples are golden, the first shipment or two are fine, then little things start to show up - substituting inferior materials or processes, using their not-top folks to do your job, more small defects etc. When they start that crap it has to be nipped in the bud, and you have to be prepared to change suppliers if necessary.

--sp

--
Best regards,  
Spehro Pefhany 
Amazon link for AoE 3rd Edition:            http://tinyurl.com/ntrpwu8

On Fri, 13 May 2016 08:00:08 -0400, Spehro Pefhany Gave us:

More like clearing shelves of sub-par product runs, testing the customer to see if they notice.

Had disappointing results when I tried them on one thing where I knew (for years) a good source and the *real* price. They then seemed to lose interest after I contested what I was told and e-mailed a scan of an actual invoice (fapiao) from a known source and address (I handed the redbacks over myself, in cash).

Maybe someone else here has had better results? It could just have been a bad day for them. Their PCBs are usable for the price, if pretty far from the best I've seen (silk screen in particular is not good).

It would be nice to have some way of dealing with piddly quantities. Just arranging a (actually quite low-cost) 3rd party inspection of a small sea shipment can cost more than Phil could probably save on $600 landed cost worth of product. Other than setting up a buying office, which is a PITA. Aliexpress is a crapshoot with tons of thieves and counterfeits and their buyer protection is less than optimal.

If you're making stuff the quantity or value of any given component tends to be relatively low- for a finished product $5K or $10K is nothing. At this point, I would suggest Phil use this information for

**forward-pricing** products that have potential. If there is a potential of selling a couple thousand a year, price it lower on the expectation there are cost savings that can be wrung out in the future, and eat the per unit hit as a cost of breaking in. No sense pricing yourself out of the market.

--sp

--
Best regards,  
Spehro Pefhany 
Amazon link for AoE 3rd Edition:            http://tinyurl.com/ntrpwu8

A good read (maybe it was you who recommended it): "Poorly made in China" by Paul Midler.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs 
Principal Consultant 
ElectroOptical Innovations LLC 
Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics 

160 North State Road #203 
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510 

hobbs at electrooptical dot net 
http://electrooptical.net

Shipping beer without a container is problematic!

On Fri, 13 May 2016 17:42:27 -0700, Bill Martin Gave us:

Billy Carter did just fine in his coffin with peanut shells for bedding.