Why China is winning

Yesterday I was at the Canadian version of Musicians Friend, it's called Long & McQuade. I was getting a mic cable and generally browsing when I saw an Epiphone acoustic guitar that had a vintage style brass headstock badge that was perfect for my '59 Epiphone Coronet. I had tried to get one on eBay, and they're so rare that if they ever show up they costs hundreds of dollars.
 
The acoustic guitar had what I wanted so I bought it just to get the plate off of the headstock. You may be saying "ya so?" at this point. The things is, this guitar cost $149. When I saw the price I assumed that it was just garbage. After I got it home I tuned it up and gave it a strum. I was amazed at how good this guitar sounds. It's really quite playable and has good tone.
 
So I'm thinking about it and realize that I couldn't even ship this thing to China for $149, yet a store in Canada was selling it for that price and supposedly making a profit. How can anyone compete with that? There must be some sort scam at work for China to build this thing and ship half way round the world to sell at $149. It can't be done, yet it is done. I know they play dirty on steel but I never thought they would do the same for musical instruments.

Maybe the real problem is that there are people with enough disposable income to consider $149 for a badge to be worth it ? Not a dig at you, just an observation of "worth" in a target marketplace.
 
In that kind of environment, things are never going to be cheap. Why would they need to be ? Perhaps the chinese price is the "real" price ?
 
That and that the fact that it was probably made by someone who got paid $1 a week.

It is not just that Chinese labor is cheap. 
 
There is really no hope for America when we are competing with workers who have the uncanny skill to fold a fitted sheet into a perfectly rectangular package.

I have a friend who lived in China. They build manufacturing cities where there is no city. They build factories and high rise apartments for the workers. At one she told me about the government had to install nets all around apartment buildings because so many people were jumping to their death rather than work as slaves.
It is still hard to not take advantage of the deals, even knowing that we are living a higher standard of living off the backs of oppressed people. I've done it and will likely do it again. It is all so sanitized. Out of sight, out of mind... it's a good deal.
My knowledge is second hand, it could be that it isn't that bad or it could be that it is worse. If it is that bad you can count on the bill coming due one day. Buy now pay later, right?
Don't get me wrong, I am not saying you did anything wrong. I am not accusing you of anything... it is just the way things are in this world.
On the other hand, they likely get free food and housing and without that dollar a week, they would probably have nothing and the Chinese government just might decide that they serve no purpose, contribute nothing, and they might just disappear. Things are always more complex than they seem when you look at one side or the other. There are always two sides to everything and always the "law of unintended consequenses" when we try to make things better. Sometimes I am glad I live in the west, like a king compared to the third world. On the other hand, sometimes I wonder if life wouldn't be better with no electricity in an agrarian or hunter/gatherer tribal society.
FWIW, I'm glad you got the guitar and with all things considered your purchase probably helped some Chinese worker, though they might not see it that way. I wouldn't hesitate t buy Chinese products (except for batteries). I bought a big pack of Utilitech AA and a big pack of Utilitech 9v batteries. Some of them were leaking in the package within a year and a good half of the terminals on the 9vs broke off when I went to change them... their guitars have gotten MUCH better over the past decade.
 
J
 

Eventually, the 200 million 8 year-old girls who make these things are going to revolt.

A few years back I bought a Silver Creek acoustic off Musician's Friend for about the same price.
 
They are made in China. They were touted then to be as good as a Martin.
 
I had a friend over who has a decent 20 year old Martin. He played mine and said "It's as good as my Martin".
 
Sorry I can't tell you his model as I don't recall right now but he's not a cheapskate so I'm sure it's not a bottom feeder Martin.

I have to admit when I first read the title I thought China was whining.

craigb

 
I tried to buy a back issue of that publication when I was on Hong Kong once. They didn't have any at all. Turned out that I was in the .......
 

China, the USA, Korea and Japan are all going to be losing with all the extra military and nuclear supercarriers America is puting in Japan.

Kalle Rantaaho
A paradox. Our only hope is that the standard of living in China, Indonesia, Vietnam etc. rises quickly enough to make it again competitive to manufacture things in the west

 
Nah, sorry. It's got a long way to go before that happens, even if it happens quickly. 

Hi,
 
This is scary for me in many ways.
 
In Brazil we lived in a shack, just about, in the city of Assis in the state of Sao Paulo. The worker level in those places, would be equivalent of one nickel to a dollar here, at the very least.
 
And then we discuss, in politics, this thing called "global economy" and then we sit back and do not realize what that means ... different workers, different wage scales, and what not.
 
And then we complaint about the product.
 
My comment is a suggestion that the "industrial world" or "commercial world" has priced itself out of competition.
 
Now, there is such a thing as ... if you pay good for something, you will respect it better and actually think it is a better product. I have seen pick'rs in Barcelona that can make Eric Clapton and John McLaughlin crazy, trying to figure out what is being played, and these pickers are all using nickel and dime guitars, because they are broke, and live in the hills under newspaper and other pleasant luxuries of the place. And we complaint about the quality of the instrument ... compared to an over priced one?
 
I, have, NEVER, EVER, found a player that was not "better" than his instrument ... that's just the biggest crock of ad nauseum soup! I can not understand why a consumerist society has to think that the appliance is more important than what you have inside ... go read Robert Wyatt's book ... he made a kid's little play organ an instrument in a couple of his records!

My MIC Tele is a sweet guitar.... that's all I have to say.

Well, not actually, but for now...... yep.

jbow

57Gregy
Eventually, the 200 million 8 year-old girls who make these things are going to revolt.

Actually since they abort or kill most girls there will soon be a hoard of Chinese men who are going to invade some place in order to get wives.
 
"As a result, approximately 30 million more men than women will reach adulthood and enter China's mating market by 2020."
http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/14/opinion/china-challenges-one-child-brooks/
 
That is a scary statistic, it sound's like a time bomb to me.

There is a documentary discussing how that problem has already lead to a lot of girl kidnapping in the rural areas of China. The privileged are already looking outside of China for brides and this will only increase as the single, financially secure male population increases.

This thread has gone from being about a $149 Chinese guitar to the international slave trade in 26 posts. Surely there must be some award?