Imagine you live in Nigeria and happen to be the one actual honest to god legit well to do Nigerian prince. You want to go shopping online for a iPhone with your credit card. Problem is no one in their right mind on planet earth will sell you that iPhone because the chances of a fraudulent transaction originating from Nigeria are close to 100%. With Bitcoin on the other hand when you transfer someone bitcoin that pay…
"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.
Wire transfers are generally very expensive so they are only practical for very large transactions. Sure it might be acceptable if you are buying huge numbers of something but what if you are just a wealthy person that wants one or two of something.
Add to that the potential expense of currency exchange etc.. etc.. It's all hugely expensive
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 th…
Excellent comment Renaud, you know what your talking about.
good article, thanks. What are the prices usually like on these wholesale markets, can you give some examples to get a sense of what the retail margins could be like? Then shipping - containers? Costs? I have a feeling a lot of Chinese ebay retailers (the ones who ship from the UK, probably have a warehouse here) don't pay import duty/taxes - how do they get around it?
30-60% depending on the product. Some stuff carries a much higher margin but requires extremely high volume purchasing and sales like phone cases for example.
Pretty good read. I'd love to go down there and visit some of these shops, just for the hell of it. I buy quite a lot of accessories from AliExpress myself The server seems to be down/extremely slow to load. Try the Google cache version: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:UevJZk_...
AliExpress seems to have many sellers selling fake (copy) products.
How else a Samsung Galaxy S5 would sell for < $200 whereas the market price is between $500 and $600.?
Do you mind if I ask how? I ask as one who is still quite bewildered by the whole Bitcoin thing, but would love to better understand how it works.
Imagine you live in Nigeria and happen to be the one actual honest to god legit well to do Nigerian prince. You want to go shopping online for a iPhone with your credit card. Problem is no one in their right mind on planet earth will sell you that iPhone because the chances of a fraudulent transaction originating from Nigeria are close to 100%. With Bitcoin on the other hand when you transfer someone bitcoin that pay…
Thanks. To me, it seems like bitcoin solves the problem of the buyer being bogus, but doesn't solve the problem of the seller being bogus. For instance the Nigerian prince might order an iPhone with bitcoins, and never see his iPhone.
There's probably no such thing as a risk free commercial transaction. The next best thing is if somebody assumes the risk and charges an amount that covers the risk plus makes it worth their while.
You know, I don't think I'm alone when I say I'd actually get a lot out of a blog post on 'how to open a foam recycling plant in China.'
Indeed, it was a fascinating article. I've read similar things from the guys at Dangerous Prototypes who shipped out there to prototype products; plenty of blog posts where they come back with a suitcase full of tactile switches or find out the best way to print onto heatshrink. Always carry a calculator seemed to be the main takeaway. And then I read the bio and read "I bought a factory" and "For my second factory".…
Straight forward is way way off the track. When doing business in China it's more like hunting in the jungle. There are some people better suited for the jungle than for the well structured city life, though. And because these are only a few, they have a relatively easy life in China. Don't take that as a hint that everybody can go there and buy factories like Pokemon trading cards. Even big, successful companies are constantly failing in China.