eBay sellers cheaper than country of origin of product

How is it possible for Chinese sellers to undercut products that are made in Japan, Germany and Korea etc?

I can see b&w filters that are made in Germany much cheaper than German, UK and American sellers.

Similarly, I can see Japanese lens filters much cheaper than Japanese sellers.

Another example would be Japanese cameras from big bang reputable Chinese sellers

I think I need to emphasise the last point. I am referring to reputable hong kong and Chinese eBay sellers that everyone talks very frequently about on dp forums.

Price gouging what else...

alitech said:

How is it possible for Chinese sellers to undercut products that are made in Japan, Germany and Korea etc?

I can see b&w filters that are made in Germany much cheaper than German, UK and American sellers.

Similarly, I can see Japanese lens filters much cheaper than Japanese sellers.

Another example would be Japanese cameras from big bang reputable Chinese sellers

I think I need to emphasise the last point. I am referring to reputable hong kong and Chinese eBay sellers that everyone talks very frequently about on dp forums.

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They are not as cheap as they once were, I never used them but I thought about it, I do know people in the UK who imported from them and who saved large sums of cash but they were taking a risk as customs could have intercepted the package and charged import duties.

The savings were largely in the customs duties and the fact that Hong Kong dealers were not charging sales tax (VAT). The goods are generally and mostly authentic but there is always the chance on some smaller items like filters that you are getting clones and not the original manufacturers product.

Odds are that they have virtually no overhead and pay their staff pennies to work there. But remember that if you have any problem with their products, you have to send them back to China or Hong Kong or where ever. I'll gladly pay a few bucks more to keep and create jobs in the US. After all if someone around here wasn't paying your and my salary we would not be able to afford all this stuff.

They are cheaper because of a few things, but mostly because you do not pay any tax whatsoever. No import tax (often between 5 and 40%) and not state tax or GST (Goods and services tax aka VAT) (often 10-20%).

And if the cost price increases by 10-50%, the profit margin must also increase so that, as a percentage, it is still worthwhile selling the item.

Also, as a LOT of people have stopped supporting local stores and started buying from oversees locations such as hong kong, toes hong kong businesses can then grow a lot more than would be supported by a solely local market and therefor purely on and economies of scale basis, they can bring down the cost price and run on lower margins because the volume they sell is many dozens or hundreds of times greater than local stores.

In turn this decrease in local sales then often drives UP the local price of these goods, making it a vicious cycle.

alitech said:

How is it possible for Chinese sellers to undercut products that are made in Japan, Germany and Korea etc?

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It's called "counterfeiting"... the products only look like similar items that are manufactured in other countries.

I don't trust most of those Chinese Ebay sellers, could be fake/counterfeit or refrub being passed off as brand new, who knows what the warranty is like too even if the product is legit.

Follow the old saying, "if it sounds to go to be true it is." I purchased some Marumi filters from one of the big dealers on Ebay and when I got them, they looked great. I later read that there are a lot of fake filters being sold, so I checked them out and sure enough they are fake. I contacted the seller and Ebay and was asked if there was a problem with their performance. I replied that I don't have an original to compare it with, so I don't know if they perform as good as the originals. They stuck to their gun about the filter being a quality filter and if it wasn't broken then I have nothing to complain about. I followed up with Ebay and was told that they are a power seller and I was out of luck.

So, if you don't know the difference, you will most likely be happy with the purchase. If I didn't do some reseach and confront the seller, I would have never know. The packaging and filter looked like one would expect accept the case had a "Made in China" symbol on it and a funky "Made in Japan" sticker stuck to the font of the box. If you want what you think you are paying for, then be carefull.

Actually not totally true; L-lens have an international warranty and so do not have to be sent back.

Kind regards
Stephen

CameraCarl said:

Odds are that they have virtually no overhead and pay their staff pennies to work there. But remember that if you have any problem with their products, you have to send them back to China or Hong Kong or where ever. I'll gladly pay a few bucks more to keep and create jobs in the US. After all if someone around here wasn't paying your and my salary we would not be able to afford all this stuff.

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I know with Memory cards especially there is tons and tons of fake ones out there, I just wouldn't trust what I am getting from these sellers.