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We cannot make it any more...
Well, I don't know how to contact anyone in charge so I am going to post here in hopes someone will show it to someone in senior management at eBay.
We can't make it any more.
By allowing all these Chinese vendors to sell products that are most likely made by slave labor you have made it impossible for the small seller to compete. By allowing these Chinese companies to use re-shipping services that make it appear they are from the US, you make it impossible for buyers to only buy from American sources to compete.
I realize eBay makes the most money from these Chinese vendors and not so much from small American sellers. The US is whom supported eBay when your sole data canter was in the East Bay and as you grew you turned your back on the small vendor.
I have hundreds of products I cannot list because if you add up the "free shipping" and the cost of the product that I purchased (at wholesale prices) I STILL CANNOT COMPETE WITH SOME CHINESE VENDOR WHOSE COSTS ARE MUCH LESS.
I know the current management (3-4 generations late) are not the founders and whose only motivation is profit. You only care about money and you force small vendors out of business by allowing these Chinese vendors to crush small American sellers.
We should NOT be forced to compete with slave labor and you are totally wrong to do this to us.
Your fees and commissions are way out of line too.
I am not being xenophobic or racist. We cannot compete with the Chinese vendors and you are ANTI-AMERICAN to continue forcing American vendors to compete against Chinese companies who can charge magnitudes less that we can.
In my opinion you are the same sort who outsourced all our industry and manufacturing to China so that we are a hollowed-out shell of what used to be the greatest manufacturing powerhouse in the world. All in the name of profit.
I have tried all the eBay competitors and they are all a joke.
I know this is a microcosm of what our country faces today as we have become totally reliant on Chinese slave labor. eBay is no different. These Chinese vendors earn eBay a lot of money and I know you won't choose a small American vendor because THERE IS LESS PROFIT.
By allowing these Chinese vendors to leverage their slave labor force you are hurting the US but I bet you don't give a hoot about that.
God Bless America.
kh-andreww
·3 months agoHi everyone,
We appreciate your participation in this discussion. However, the conversation has gone off-topic and has become a bit too heated. To help keep the community welcoming and constructive for all members, we're locking this thread from further replies.
Please remember to keep future discussions respectful and on-topic per our Community Guidelines.
Thank you for your understanding and for helping us keep the forums friendly and productive.
— eBay Community Team
reallynicestamps
·4 months agoI thought this was a zombie post from 2010 or even earlier.
China is the manufacturing centre of the world.
While labour is very cheap there, Chinese manufacturers are moving factory jobs to cheaper locations like VietNam, Honduras, and Kenya.
https://www.ceicdata.com/en/indicator/china/monthly-earnings
onefootflipper
·4 months agoI am actually surprised that the huge gender skew in China hasn't spiraled into a situation of most women marrying much older men which is the usual result when there is a shortage of women in a culture.
Seems like today Chinese women are either working in the factories creating the widgets that the original poster sells until they are 28 years old, or they are shipping those widgets out to compete with him.
chapeau-noir
·4 months agoWomen are indeed marrying later, but there's a sizable chunk who prefer not to marry at all - they have other objectives.
kh-tuna
·4 months agoHi everyone,
This discussion has gotten a bit off topic. Please bring the discussion back to the subject established in the original post.
Thank you.
soh.maryl
·4 months agoGuess I don't have to tell you that you aren't addressing eBay when you post here. Or maybe I should.
Also, have you written a similar message to Wal Mart? Their stock includes a whole lot of goods made in China. Or Target. Or whatever big box store you shop at.
bandrarmoire
·4 months agoI don't sell things I need to compete with sites like Amazon or Temu. Its a tough sell.
I had to change everything I sell to make things work because of an injury, cost of my supplies tripling since Covid and burn out.
Ive sold 1000's of items on Etsy and basically had to start over so here I am on Ebay. I revived this old account. LOL
I adapted and made the changes needed to keep making money.
stainlessenginecovers
·4 months agoOther countries have been making EVERYTHING under the sun for decades.
Walmart, Home Depot, Nike, etc etc. are ALL full of items NOT made in the USA.
If you can't make it, do as my relative did when making over $1,000,000 year profit from 1980 to 2000 making/selling 'in the box furniture' but closed doors when 'those countries' took over making things for 10c on the dollar.
Don't complain.
Find something else or fold.
There is NOTHING Ebay, Amazon, Walmart, Craiglist, FBMP or ANY website will EVER do for you to help you compete.
nh_sales_lv
·4 months agoThe Cultural Differences between China & America are too far apart. I've heard many bad stories from Americans who visited China. I remember one young Super Model Gal she went there for Business and she told me 3 Chinese Families will fight over 1 Chicken and who gets to keep the Pot. They're still backwards no matter how much America has Helped them Ungrateful Buzzards.
nh_sales_lv
·4 months agoChinese goods are a Crap Shoot. They don't last long 50% are good 50% are bad but I often find that a minor adjustment or installation error can fix 25% of their problems. A lot of time people don't have the technical ability to assemble something properly so they learn by using cheap Chinese goods.
There's a place for some of their goods as I sell both American & Chinese and I don't have a problem with Either one. My problem is their Attitude in Business, Arrogance, Communism, and they are CROOKS !
nh_sales_lv
·4 months agoI've been here since 73 I was born in the Mid-West. My parents who are Immigrants from UK & Slovenia have the Democrat mindset & when I get mad at the TV at a Reporter for being stupid they say Hush Now You weren't Born here. I get red 😡 and want to strangle their dolls. In the Back of my Mind I know **bleep** well that Reporter was born in 1999 and doesn't know Jack 💩 about being an American. Even though I'm younger I have a little more insight into the ordeal as I knew many people that grew up in America in the 1930's
grand-and-glorious-purpose
·4 months agoWhy were you competing with someone you were never going to beat?
That makes no sense.
dhbookds
·4 months agoI've always wondered why we blame China for what they produce......if we didn't buy it, they wouldn't produce it......
tarotfindsandmore
·4 months ago100%. It's a bit like blaming everyone south of the border for the drug problem(s).
Unfortunately, it's next to impossible to avoid China-made goods anymore as we stopped making so many of the things we used to. There's also the problem of frankenstein products where part of the thing is made in China (say a particular component in a computer), another part is made in another region, and then the whole monster is assembled here. In that case, you don't even know you have something that is made in China and, to be fair, if the quality is good...who cares.
Personally, I would like to see reshoring efforts continue, but it's going to continue to be a battle as we stopped teaching people the skills needed to design and create the things innovators want to bring to market. People are no longer interested in learning mold-making, machining, or even quality control on an assembly line. Robots are great for precise repetitive work, but the gap between an idea and the initial physical embodiment of that idea is still too large for most robots/AI.
nh_sales_lv
·4 months agoWhat's the End Game ? Global Domination. America has 200 Million Citizens. China has 1.5 Billion. As every year passes more & more Chinese will be Peddling on Ebay. YOU WILL BE ELIMINATED & CALLED A RACIST.
IT'S A NUMBERS GAME.
powell-collectibles
·4 months agoNah, I think china is more like 1.2B, US is over $300M. And the population in china is decreasing.
nh_sales_lv
·4 months ago200 Million Americans & 100 Million Posers. Fixed it for you 😂
tarotfindsandmore
·4 months agoNah...they used to say the USSR was gonna win the Cold War, now Putin can't even get on top of one little part of the former Soviet Union.
Even wannabe communism fails because, at a fundamental level, it violates everything we know to be true of mammalian biology. You simply cannot force the field to be leveled, no matter how appealing it may be in theory.
grann-4629
·4 months ago... Putin can't even get on top of one little part of the former Soviet Union.
At least according to the propaganda that we see and hear on this side of the world. We don't know what's really going on over there.
tarotfindsandmore
·4 months agoThis latest kerfuffle started in February of 2022. That's over four years ago. I think it's pretty safe to say that the mere fact that they're still fighting is indicative of a failure on Putin's part.
nh_sales_lv
·4 months agoI get a Mod Ban and flagged for Racism/Hate Speech whenever I just speak of people who aren't the color of plain copy paper.
tarotfindsandmore
·4 months agoIn fairness, you tend to talk about people, whereas this exchange has primarily been about products. It has nothing do with the people. It's about economic/social structures and cultural differences that lead to wide variance in the quality of goods produced by different nations (again, NOT the humans that live there).
nh_sales_lv
·4 months agoWho wouldn't be mad at them. I made a Post about 1 China Seller who Duplicates his same Counterfeit listing 70 times for the same product. He has 10 Items for sale but 700 Listings. EBAY KNOWS OF HIS BEHAVIOR AND DOES NOTHING !!!
and there's more........ I always shop with my Location nearest to me but i find 90% of the sellers near me aren't near me........I go to their shop and look at About Us........ About us says Location: CHINA.......... Which means 1 of 2 things, they are dropshipping Amazon or using the Hebron/Ontario/NewJersey FBA warehouses Amazon Again.
IS THIS EBAY OR IS THIS AMAZON ? WHY IS JEFF BEZOS STEALING MY 15% AND THEN TAX TIME ROLLS AROUND IN 1 DAY AND JEFF BEZOS WANTS ANOTHER 15% ?
tarotfindsandmore
·4 months agoIt's hate speech because you are associating the bad behavior of a single seller with his race. He's a bad seller because he's a shifty human being, not because of his race. His ethnicity-genetic makeup is irrelevant.
The discussion here is about mass-produced, subpar items flooding the US market from a nation that has a markedly different economic structure with markedly different goals for itself as a nation. The human beings that live under that economic structure would probably very much like it if that structure was different. There are many great artists in China who have been imprisoned for saying as much.
I had the pleasure of seeing the work of one of them while living in the UK...
https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/unilever-series/unilever-series-ai-weiwei-sunflower-seeds
shire123
·4 months ago@nh_sales_lv
I get what you are saying. It might be nice for ebay to police the site a bit more, but then wouldn't that open ebay up to accusations of controlling what and who lists on the site?
Buyers really need to take responsibility and investigate sellers they buy from. Personal responsibility is still required.
nh_sales_lv
·4 months agoThe BBE policy has taken out many sellers from around the world who are scamming but Ebay won't use the BBE on ******* Beijing 😂
ivanavin
·4 months agoThey already do that in one way, or another.
Don't pay your fees and see if you can list.
grann-4629
·4 months agobut then wouldn't that open ebay up to accusations of controlling what and who lists on the site?
eBay already controls what and who lists on their venue, and the accusations keep piling up.
grann-4629
·4 months agowide variance in the quality of goods produced by different nations (again, NOT the humans that live there).
Good point just before that, but you have to explain this one. Who is making the items in those nations if it's not humans?
* Is it robots, ultimately designed, made and maintained by humans?
* Is it aliens, and you know something that we don't?
What should we call those places where humans live?
tarotfindsandmore
·4 months agoThe governments of these nations dictate who will make what, and what the quality of those goods will/won't be. In a communist regime, the government decides for you when you are a very young person what path your life will follow. If your natural talents lie in the arts, too bad! Your government will put you to work in a factory to produce widgets for the fat*sses on the other side of the world who don't even know why they're buying those widgets, but just can't pass up a good deal.
Human agency, at the individual level, simply doesn't exist. If you follow that link to the Sunflower Seeds exhibit by Ai Weiwei that I posted earlier in this thread you'll see how the people who live under this type of government are seen and how artists and other "dissenters" are treated under a communist regime.
tools*
·4 months agoI looked at your listings and everything you sell is made in China.
dhbookds
·4 months ago@tarotfindsandmore
Having lived in the 50's 60's and selling the Japanese imports of those times, I think you are vastly over rating them when you say "the most highly sought after pottery in the world"..... They produced glitchy, New age (Mid century Modern) ceramics, mainly designed by US designers who, with the after math of the War designed colorful, with "new" shapes and elements. For example Salt and pepper shakers became figural rather than strictly utilitarian, etc. , using cheap labor because they were rebuilding an economy that was destroyed by the war......In the US, we were switching from wartime production, but had a big buildup of consumer demand for consumer products that had been stifled by the lack of production during the war. Many classified the stuff as cheap junk at the time and the original quality was poor, but became better as time went on......but the main necessity in Japan was getting people employed and money changing hands. As that happened, they moved into producing good quality cars/electronics, etc in the 70's/80's/90's.
China was in a similar boat in the 70's....although because of political, rather than war time problems. Once Mao died, someone there determined to join the world as far as the economy was concerned and they actually decided to industrialize. What's happened in 50 yrs is amazing to me.... from a totally closed/agrarian society, they have really progressed, just as the Japanese did....... because both produced what consumers WANTED to buy.....at prices they could afford. I presume China will increase the quality of their items as they progress.....I'm perfectly happy with the small appliances produced in China so it seems those are on track.
Racism, yes, yesterday, today and tomorrow.....for anyone who is perceived as "different". But I don't think that has much to do with what most people buy......if they want something badly enough.
tarotfindsandmore
·4 months agoThe numbers are there for anyone who wishes to review them. 🙂
https://www.ebay.com/itm/177977775697
dhbookds
·4 months agoThat's not because of the quality..........but the age/scarcity.....
Some of the Temu products could well end up with prices like that in 70 yrs.....
tarotfindsandmore
·4 months agoIt's scarce because they weren't exporting much in the way of manufactured goods to us, like I've been saying for the past three pages. And, yes, it is quality, contrary to what you may think. The fact that it's still here, intact, is one indicator of quality far superior to the Made in China junk we get that doesn't last five minutes, let alone three-quarters of a century. None of this Temu shlock will be here in 80 years for us to even argue about.
powell-collectibles
·4 months agoI don’t disagree that there is a lot of junk coming out of China. But, I think they just produce to what the market demands. People want cheap stuff, they will make it. Plenty of good stuff comes out of China – there are high-end brands that use China for production and export to the US, Europe. Even my real job company has a site in China – same quality of ingredients, same processing equipment, same quality, standards, same finished good testing, etc. Absolutely, there is a bad reputation for quality in China – it is earned. When we do produce in China, we have to discount the product. Just because people don’t want stuff made in China. And the main market for that product is China – they don’t want their own stuff in some sectors.
tarotfindsandmore
·4 months agoExactly. They've made the world their trash can. They don't even want the junk they send us. I have no doubt that quality products are there to be had in China, but that's not the bulk of what they're producing for export. The disdain they have for the U.S. is manifest in what they sell us.
We've allowed ourselves to become a nation of indiscriminate gluttons who just want more, more, more for cheap, cheap, cheap even when it means we're destroying ourselves and our planet. We pat ourselves on the back thinking we're getting great deals, and then get indignant when the "great deals" fall apart after one use.
lb23cavaliersmvp
·4 months agoA quick look at your listings suggests that your mean selling price is ~ $5-6. Ignoring the fact that flipping anything for that price nets the seller a few dollars, why is it dishonest for anyone to offer a better deal? The only ways to make a profit in a global market is to offer items that are unique and/or finding items at a fraction of the going rate.
tarotfindsandmore
·4 months agoI don't remember when "Made in Japan" meant inferior, but I do remember when "Made in Japan" became the gold standard (around 1975-1980) for virtually everything that was manufactured...Honda, Toyota, Sony, Samsung. All of these brands are still considered reliable, well-made, good quality.
I don't remember any point in history when "Made in China" had the same reputation. If you sell lower quality, mass-produced, patent violating knockoffs, you should expect to be pushed out of the market by the people manufacturing them. Why would anyone spend more money on a throw away item that can be had for less by purchasing the item directly from the people making the item?
China-made junk hasn't always had the presence it currently has on this site. This was a gift from the good folks in the White House in 2015 who brought us the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015, who lowered the de minimis to 800 dollars which, in turn, allowed in the flood of trash we see on the site today.
grann-4629
·4 months agoI don't remember any point in history when "Made in China" had the same reputation
If you mean the good reputation Japan had in the late 70's, just wait ... it's coming.
If you don't remember the term "Made in China" having a bad reputation, you need to go back to the top of this thread and start reading ... it's happening right now 😎
I never get an answer, but I will ask again: "What % of the stuff in your home and play was made in China?"
tarotfindsandmore
·4 months agoI don't remember when Made in China had a good reputation. Made in Japan, like Made in Germany, has always been an indicator of quality, precision, manufacturing. No communist country produces quality goods, as there is zero incentive for them to do so... that's why the GDR made pure trash while the DDR makes lovely, well-made products, though there is no racial difference that existed from one side of the border to the other.
Japan hasn't had a reputation for producing trash during my lifetime, and I don't recall that ever being the case historically. There are cultural (NOT racial) differences that incentivize Japanese manufacturers to produce quality items, while the same cannot be said of the modern day CCP. Perhaps in time, when the government of the last 100 years or so finally collapses, we will see a world in which Made in China means something good.
onefootflipper
·4 months agoI agree there are huge cultural differences between China and Japan which lead to a vastly different manufacturing environment.
Japanese culture values honesty, integrity and honor at a level that puts most other cultures to shame. Japanese manufacturers care about their reputations.
China is a completely different environment where the cultural memories of people starving to death are still quite close at hand. Chinese manufacturers often only care if the product appears to work. They don't care about copyright, trademark or international law and will make fake copies of anything, sometimes on the same assembly line as the real thing. They don't care about their company's overseas reputation as they can just change the company name and continue as if nothing ever happened.
grann-4629
·4 months agoDo you ever wonder how the Chinese people can reproduce anything, including packaging and fake logos, ship it across the ocean, sell it to wholesalers who mark it up 50% who then sell it to you at 30% off the price of the same item made in North America?
Do you ever wonder how those folks who sell Chinese made cell phone cases in mall kiosks can make any money when their rental fees to the mall owner are $1500/month just for the little space they occupy?
There has to be some level of skill there ...
grann-4629
·4 months agoMade in Japan, like Made in Germany, has always been an indicator of quality, precision, manufacturing.
NO 😎
You may be too young to remember when "Made in Japan" was the phrase commonly used to describe junk ... stuff like toys painted with lead-based paints, metal stuff with sharp edges etc. - like the stuff sold today in dollar stores that comes from China. It wasn't until companies like Datsun started bringing in their cars that we began to notice how good they were. The Datsun 510 was an awesome vehicle back in the 60's and still is today if you're lucky enough to find one.
The new line-up of Chinese electric vehicles coming to Canada this year looks pretty cool. Time will tell, as it will with all electric vehicles in a northern climate.
I agree on the German made stuff - so well engineered that it was/is complicated and expensive to fix. That's what killed things like the Tiger tank. It too, tho, is falling. Look at what BMW has done with their new cars.
tarotfindsandmore
·4 months agoSure sounds/smells like racism to me. You're conceding that the Datsun from the 1960s (which I do remember from my early childhood) was an "awesome" car...so when exactly was this period of dreck production?
We all used lead paint, it wasn't even banned for residential use until the late 1970s. We all had sharp edges. Both my sister and I have the scars on our foreheads from the coffee tables we all ran around. All of these supposed bits of evidence are, again, nothing but evidence of racism insofar as the "guidelines" that were used all over the world are suddenly proof that one race of people that a particular generation was raised hating was producing junk. It just isn't true.
And again, all you need to do is look at a vase marked "Japan" from the 1950s and compare it to its modern-day Temu counterpart.
onefootflipper
·4 months agoThe quality of early Japanese import cars was entirely overblown. They largely seld to a demographic who could previously only afford well-used cars. So of course it was amazing to have a car go 3 or 4 years without breaking down.
My family and friends have all these stories about their various imports that "lasted forever" and "would not die" but when I dug deeper I found a few things in common, every one of those cars was purchased brand new and no one ever seemed to own that "lasts forever" car for more than 7 years, they either fell apart from rust or they bought a brand new one. My stepfather had a 1984 Mazda Glc that racked up a very impressive 300,000 miles before the engine blew. However it also did that in 6 years and had quite a bit of rust on it by then. My father in law had something similar he said "would not die" turns out he traded it in when it was 6 years old.
I started driving in 1993 and Japanese cars more than 10 years old were extremely rare already. There only seemed to be one 1970s Celica around, it looked great but had no floors in it. I had a friend with Toyota Corona wagon that was so rusty that none of the doors would open and eventually it just sort of cracked in half on a speed bump.
I bought a 1983 Ford Courier (rebadge of the second generation of Mazda truck), in 1994, and the model already seemed to be extinct on the road by then. It did last me 6 months on 3 repairs before the rusted frame started bending and bound the doors from opening (body was rust free though).
I am very partial to the 79-86 Mitsubishi built trucks. I have owned 3 of them. My current one was purchased with 99K on it from Alabama where there is no road salt, and it must have been garaged because not even the frame or suspension were rusty. However it came with an incredibly thick stack of repair receipts from the first owner, having racked up well over the original MSRP in repairs during the period the owned it (which went up to 92K), and it had a bunch of stuff wrong with it when I got it and it still isn't right yet 3 years later.
I strangely enough had great luck with a 1984 Mercedes 380SL with the mechanical fuel injection. Instead of worrying about every single thing on it I just decided from the beginning that I wasn't going to try to keep it perfect, and I got 12 years of daily driving out of it on one brake job, a few exhaust repairs and replacing some leaky gasket in the fuel system (which I did myself because the local shop refused to touch the thing). The only thing that sidelined it was a rubber brake component that needed replacement that failed a few weeks before I ended up getting a leg amputation and it has basically just been rotting in my driveway under a cover for the past 5 and a half years.
However to contrast, our modern Toyotas have been incredible. My wife's 2005 Matrix has no rust, not even underneath and it got to nearly 300,000 miles before it broke down for the first time. We had a Yaris owned from new to 160K and it never once broke down. Even my 2500 dollar beater Sienna only got retired because someone wrecked their scrap metal trailer into it and did enough suspension damage that it wasn't worth repairing.
nh_sales_lv
·4 months agoToyotas are good but I had to learn the hard way. After dumping 75k into Repairing my International Harvester F350 and Rustangs I finally Tapped Out 😂😭 and said No More I can't endure this Pain.
When I have 1 Million in the bank I will buy more International Harvester F350's and Rustangs
onefootflipper
·4 months agoI actually just want to get a squarebody Chevy Suburban. I don't care if it is an early one with a carb or a later one with fuel injection. I am pushing 50 and don't drive much and I know that because of the general truck and rod community that every single part for those things will be available for the rest of my life and will likely be the cheapest part on the shelf too.
If you want to keep something more modern alive for a really long time then you would have to start acquiring and hoarding all the vehicle specific electronics modules and screens right now. As sometimes that stuff becomes unavailable as soon as the last one off the line goes out of warranty.
fullers_uk
·4 months agoUntil the pandemic I was an official retailer for a german company which has over 125 years of history, during the 20 years I worked with them the quality dropped and in the end most of there products were made in china, I was getting so many problems and returns I quit, germany has been trading on past laurels for decades.
shire123
·4 months ago@tarotfindsandmore
Back in the 50's. Made in Japan was synonymous with junk. I was there
grann-4629
·4 months agoThey had a town renamed 'USA' just so they could stamp 'Made in USA' on their stuff 🥸
chapeau-noir
·4 months agoYes - from the late 40s into ?? 1960s?? "Made in Japan" was definitely considered cheap and low quality. Japanese manufacturers rushed cheap, quickly made commodities into markets to try to build back their economy which had been devastated by WW II. Likely, as well, their heavily damaged infrastructure needed rapid rebuilding. Assembly line manufacture had to keep churning no matter what.
New techniques in the 70s began to turn that around, with focus on quality not quantity, with investment in employee training, constant improvement and R&D, and since then they've been producing high quality, not necessarily cheap, goods.
The dubious title of 'cheap' went to Taiwan and now China, though even China has been outsourcing to Vietnam, etc., as their own population grows in wealth and sophistication.
tarotfindsandmore
·4 months agoAgain, based on nothing. Japan most assuredly was not making cars, TVs, or phones for us while we were dropping bombs on them. It's sad to see, but the folks who we see hooting and hollering the loudest about racism are completely unaware of how horribly they were duped on that very basis.
ETA: Further proof of just how wholly racist this was is evident in the current market for mid-century Japanese pottery. It is some of the most highly sought after pottery in the world, commanding the highest prices. Do you think we'll be seeing the Temu rubbish command like prices in 50-70 years?
chapeau-noir
·4 months agoUm...no, they were manufacturing easily and quickly made commodities for export during this period of time (along with exporting silk and cotton) out of simple economic necessity (and use of an almost destroyed infrastructure). This began to change as they were able to rebuild their manufacturing and enlarge exports - increased focus on durable goods, then heavy manufacture, with emphasis on quality. Trying to brand simple necessity (and one step in the evolution of a manufacturing giant) as 'racism' is to ignore the realities of a tumultuous time in manufacturing and continuing improvement. Read W. Edwards Demming, etc.
tarotfindsandmore
·4 months agoNo, that was genuine racism. Post WW2 racism based on nothing. The bulk of our imports from Japan during the 1950s, in the years after we basically leveled the country, were raw materials. Very little of the imports during that period were manufactured goods. It was nothing more than propaganda that, sadly, Boomers and the Silent Generation fell for, hook, line, and sinker.
Our opinions of "Made in China" goods come directly from our experience with them.
grann-4629
·4 months agoOur opinions of "Made in China" goods come directly from our experience with them.
And 80 years from now, that phrase will mean the same as "Made in Japan" means now. Our grandkids will be saying things made on Mars are generally crap and the phrase "Made in Gale" will mean bad things for eCanals 😎
tarotfindsandmore
·4 months agoWrong. "Made in Japan" being indicative of poor quality was clearly a slur, as we have a great deal of empirical evidence demonstrating that that was not the case. Cookie jars, vases, platters, textiles, that came out of Japan during that period are still with us today and we can objectively compare those items to the real dreck marked "Made in China". 80 years from now we won't be able to compare these items because the latter pile of junk will be buried in landfills and floating around in the middle of the ocean just like it ends up doing today.
christworks
·4 months ago@len4jdk Sell something else. And what is it with all this "free shipping" talk? Shipping isn't free. You should be charging your buyers for it. That's on you.
As far as the rest of it, I think the others have addressed things well. What I will say is do not blame China. They would not make "cheap" stuff if there wasn't a market for it. The fact is years ago Americans demanded less expensive goods and they were willing to sacrafice quality in exchange for paying half the price. Quality has improved on many things over time, and the price has largely stayed the same. Also over time, Americans have embraced our disposable economy because when something breaks, it’s usually cheaper to replace it than fix it. That's possible becuase of that cheap (or even slave) labor from overseas. As others pointed out, your stuff is made in China. How do you know yours things aren't made by child laborors? Newsflash: They probably are. That's not stopping you from wanting to make a buck.
China is not your only problem. Your titles are terrible. You do not accept returns. Maybe you'd get more business if you would agree to take returns. Give American buyers a reason to want to shop from you. Some would be willing to pay a higher price.
grann-4629
·4 months agoDoes anyone remember the phrase we used to describe poor quality stuff: Made in Japan'?
We don't say that anymore - the country name has changed to China. Be careful what you say as soon we will all be driving cars made in China that make ours look they came out of the Flintstone age 🤨
bashort
·4 months agoI do remember when Japanese made items were considered very inferior. Then that completely changed.
fullers_uk
·4 months agoThey said on the news here in the UK, if you want to buy a car with most of its parts made in the US buy a Toyota.
chapeau-noir
·4 months agoSeller complains that the Chinese stuff they're selling is being undercut by the Chinese and thus is 'unamerican'. Four shots of espresso this morning still has not cleared this up for me.
onefootflipper
·4 months agoAlmost everything you sell looks like it was probably made in China. You are literally using the same stock photos that the Chinese sellers use for their items which are made in China.
Why not sell things that are not made in China if you don't want to compete with China?
john_wade
·4 months agoGiving a child or woman a dollar a day and a tiny amount of food to make counterfeit knock offs is NOT slave labor. Slave labor is forced and free. Ask an American billionaire if he can put a quarter in your tin cup and he won't do it! Jesus said "a camel will go through the eye of a needle faster than a rich war profiteer will go to Heaven".
grann-4629
·4 months agoWell said @john_wade - just to add that a dollar a day and a tiny amount of food in a lot of Chinese factories (not all) is the same as a middle class person earning minimum wage in North America. They, like us, are just happy to have a job.
They are not like those who do the phone scams that target us seniors for money.
Like any seller from anywhere, you have to do your own due diligence before hitting the buy button.
ETA: Unless the war profiteer has a faster camel ...🥸
fullers_uk
·4 months agoI have always said, these eco warriors who campaign to stop low wages in countries never have a plan for the people when they stop companies doing it, they were on a dollar a day and could buy food, now there on nil each day and starve, the eco warrior is happy with this.........
kalyoth
·4 months agoSounds like ebay is not for you then. Many people do compete & make it fine. It depends on what you are trying to sell. Perhaps you chose the wrong merchandise?
fullers_uk
·4 months agoSellers in Chin also have other advantages, china post is a member of the international postal union just as USPS is, the postal union is part of the United Nations so considers China as an under developed economy so it sets the interchange rates lower for them, as an example to send a small parcel with final delivery from china to the US would cost $1.75 cents, but to send the same parcel from the US to China would cost $15.00, the other advantage is tariffs dont bother sellers based in China, they have to pay tariffs when they ship, so if they pay $3.00 in tariffs thats no problem because they claim that $3.00 back from the chinese government and the buyer in the US has nothing else to pay.
grann-4629
·4 months agoAlmost makes you want to move to China ... seems like they have their eBay thing working much better than yours 😎
You forgot to mention, that in most cases, that $1.75 will get the item from China to the USA much faster than that $15.00 going the other way!
fullers_uk
·4 months agoYes it feels that way, here in the UK we have 4 airbus A340 freight flights a week from china, each carrying about 80 tons of low value parcels temu aliexpress shein and even hammerzone haul direct from china, they arrive in the UK pre cleared customs with royal mail labels with tracking already attached to them and there just put straight into the royal mail system, theres no way you can compete with it.
peonybabies
·4 months agoI feel that ebay itself is having a rough time with so many competitive online selling sites. There have been massive ebay layoffs and Ebay is blocking their longtime loyal customers and members in order to pursue Ebay Live and new techie ideas. These are stupid moves and Ebay will simply die off in a year or two.
shire123
·4 months ago@peonybabies
The impending death of ebay has been predicted continuously for as long as I have been a member (over 20 years). Yet ebay defies these doomsayers each and every time and continues to grow.
It may die for YOU but for the vast majority of others it continues to be a viable selling venue.
soh.maryl
·4 months ago"eBay is blocking their longtime loyal customers and members . . ."
And you have proof of this?
jdbelt1960
·4 months agoFrom looking at your offerings your problem is not Chinese counterfeits. Very few people build their own devices anymore (See Radio Shack).
chapeau-noir
·4 months agoCreality, which you feature in your listings, is located in Shenzhen and is a Chinese 3D printing company, so I guess I'm not quite getting your argument.
luckythewinner
·4 months agoBy allowing all these Chinese vendors to sell products that are most likely made by slave labor you have made it impossible for the small seller to compete.
eBay is not a good fit for everyone and everything.
inhawaii
·4 months agoNobody is "forcing" you to sell here.
muddylas
·4 months agoThe market is consistently changing. Regardless of whoever or whatever you blame it, you have to roll with the punches and keep the shiny side up (old bike term) if you want to succeed. You might consider rather than selling your low cost items ($2 - $10) one at a time to listing them in small lots. Shipping would probably be about the same or close. When you have lemons, make lemonade.
ten_o_nine
·4 months agoI think the problem stems from an obsolete middleman model failing against direct-to-consumer imports, Chinese factories now list directly on eBay and Amazon, cutting out the middleman. If a seller buys a product for $10 to sell for $20, but the factory sells it for $12 directly, the small seller can never win on price.
My honest advice is to stop "flipping" generic goods and move to areas where expertise matter.