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China's Underground Wholesale Markets

youngmoneychina.com

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Re: China's Underground Wholesale Markets

#21

Post by nathannecro »

Unfortunately, the author seems to be doing a bit of hocus-pocus hand-waving to make these "underground" malls seem like some mystical place. If it's too inconvenient for any of you to make it into China, you can always stop by Hong Kong.

In the district of Wan Chai (a fairly touristy area of Hong Kong), there's a fairly well known place known simply as the "Computer Centre". In it, you'll find two floors of a giant warehouse packed floor to ceiling with shops selling everything from a refurbished matte black MacBook from 2006 to an "iPhone 7". I do have to say that the vast majority of the products are legitimate, but there are booths which cater to the less-discerning customers. The great benefit of buying in Hong Kong is that you'll often find products from the mainland side and from the factories in Taiwan.

Re: China's Underground Wholesale Markets

#22

Post by ww520 »

pmorici wrote: post #12

"Like this guy below who has travelled here to buy two hundred 32” lcd tv’s his boss needs for the hotel bed rooms in his latest development because there is no place where they come from to buy such things. Many times I have shown them the price in the UK on my ipad and they have been close to jumping on a plane to make a call into an Argos store." This seems like a problem that will be solved by Bitcoin. The reason…

Why won't direct wire transfer solve the payment problem? With a sizable order of 200 TV, the cost of wire transfer is miniscule. Unless you don't want the order to be traceable.

Re: China's Underground Wholesale Markets

#23

Post by imjustsaying »

newaccountfool wrote: post #7

Funny that, just purchased one of those fake iPhones. Looks and feels the same, runs an android OS that replicates iOS perfectly. Pretty good fake if you ask me. The lower price genuine android phones will dominate the lower priced foreign markets in my opinion.

Do a netstat on the open connections on your highly esteemed hardware and be amazed at the backdoors tunneling straight to china.

Re: China's Underground Wholesale Markets

#24

Post by youngmoneychina »

Thanks for the comments.

Yes there are some of these places that are not "underground" but obviously there are the suppliers and areas that are less known and more used by traders like me as opposed to the more touristy types.

Regarding bitcoin, yes it does away with the payment issues but thats not the only problem with ordering from china i guess, things like ensuring the product is the correct quality, arranging freight on large consignment orders and needing to buy from multiple suppliers are why a lot of buyers like this guy buying the tv's come to china in person.

Thanks again.

Daniel

Re: China's Underground Wholesale Markets

#26

Post by contingencies »

This is mislabeled. It's about Guangdong (likely mostly Guangzhou and Shenzhen specifically), not about China in general.

Chinese markets in general are about the domestic market, with very few exceptions in some border regions (a few regularly sell to Russia and Mongolia in the northeast, Southeast Asia in the southwest, and Central Asia in the far west).

Guangdong by contrast cut its teeth on export during the glory days of the Shenzhen special economic zone which began in 1980.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_reform_in_the_People%2...

Re: China's Underground Wholesale Markets

#27

Post by Renaud »

nathannecro wrote: post #21

Unfortunately, the author seems to be doing a bit of hocus-pocus hand-waving to make these "underground" malls seem like some mystical place. If it's too inconvenient for any of you to make it into China, you can always stop by Hong Kong. In the district of Wan Chai (a fairly touristy area of Hong Kong), there's a fairly well known place known simply as the "Computer Centre". In it, you'll find two floors of a giant…

For computer parts, Wanchai computer center is ok, but not the most interesting. I'd give that label to the Golden Computer Center in Sham Shui Po (exit D3 of the MTRC of the same name).

The one in Mong Kok has gone down lately, less shops, more high-end stuff, but there are still some good PC component shops. Also in HK, you can return something within 7 days if it doesn't work. Beyond that you need to contact the distributor.

These buildings don't have everything though. I'd say that China and Thailand have a lot more to offer in terms of variety.

In Bangkok, the Chinatown area is really interesting. You can buy almost everything if you can find the street or building where a particular item is sold. Last time I was there I stumbled upon a watch market; you could buy them wholesale, by weight (not really, but it almost seemed like it).

Re: China's Underground Wholesale Markets

#28

Post by Renaud »

ww520 wrote: post #22
pmorici wrote: post #12

"Like this guy below who has travelled here to buy two hundred 32” lcd tv’s his boss needs for the hotel bed rooms in his latest development because there is no place where they come from to buy such things. Many times I have shown them the price in the UK on my ipad and they have been close to jumping on a plane to make a call into an Argos store." This seems like a problem that will be solved by Bitcoin. The reason…

Why won't direct wire transfer solve the payment problem? With a sizable order of 200 TV, the cost of wire transfer is miniscule. Unless you don't want the order to be traceable.

After doing some electronic goods trading with China, I can say that the main issue is to make sure that what you receive is what you paid for.

Specs have a way of changing without you being informed. Consistency of quality is pretty random as well.

So you have to make sure you inspect the goods before you take them. Also, almost all manufacturers and distributors will make you pay before at the latest at the time the goods are departing. No 60 day or 120 days credit here.

You get the cash, you get the goods, most of the time.

If you're a larger trading company, you can have the support needed to inspect and ensure that the goods are up-to-spec.

Then there is Alibaba. Small quantities for direct sellers are usually OK (although quality varies greatly). At least you have buyer protection and the sellers are very careful about maintaining their reputation so they are usually prompt and efficient.

Finding a factory for something you want to manufacture (or for large orders) can be fraught with issues, the first of which is that I'm yet to find a factory that can honestly tell me they can't do something; whatever you ask, you'll get a "yes". If you have no production experience, you're in for a ride.

Re: China's Underground Wholesale Markets

#29

Post by youngmoneychina »

joezydeco wrote: post #25
ISL wrote: post #2

The AHAMAY outboard motor is worth the scroll.

I have to wonder if it says "YAMAHA" on the other side, as if someone was handed a photograph of a Yamaha motor and they just flipped the artwork for the other side, not realizing it was text.

The police here ride AMAHAY bikes,

Im serious.

Its even written in the same font.

Re: China's Underground Wholesale Markets

#30

Post by youngmoneychina »

nathannecro wrote: post #21

Unfortunately, the author seems to be doing a bit of hocus-pocus hand-waving to make these "underground" malls seem like some mystical place. If it's too inconvenient for any of you to make it into China, you can always stop by Hong Kong. In the district of Wan Chai (a fairly touristy area of Hong Kong), there's a fairly well known place known simply as the "Computer Centre". In it, you'll find two floors of a giant…

Hi,

Sorry if you feel like that, i thought it was pretty straight forward no bullshit article.

You can't really compare these underground markets (That are actually markets, physically under the ground, many of them illegal and only for wholesale buyers) I'm talking about to the shopping malls in Hong Kong which are just flashy shopping malls that anyone can walk in to.

But sure yeah, you can buy things from Hong Kong, its safer, you likely won't get ripped off but at the same time your not going to get rich doing it.

Thanks for the feedback though.

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