15 Mar
2023
15 Mar
'23
6:54 a.m.
On Tue, Mar 14, 2023 at 09:16:02PM +0000, Jonathan Chapman via cctalk wrote:
[...]
It's nice to support the designers in some
capacity, but buying knockoffs
fuels the ecosystem that creates knockoffs. With our stuff, it's never
been that a single knockoff operation eats our lunch, it's that there's a
zillion of them that run maybe 100 boards and disappear. Death by a
thousand cuts. They charge $1-5 less while running the cheapest possible
boards, stuffing with salvaged chips, etc. Meanwhile, we're having to pay
for runs of boards with hard gold plating and buy genuine parts from
Mouser.
I'm not currently in the market for an XT-IDE--probably just as well as they
seem to be out of stock---but this sort of product appeals to me and I'd buy
one if I had an 8-bit ISA machine. $60 for the real deal is impulse-buy
territory, and risking a knock-off to save $1-5 isn't worth it. However, I'd
still much rather buy through AliExpress than the likes of Tindie, and it's
only partly about the sticker price:
AliExpress quotes an all-in price in euros including VAT and shipping, and
give a delivery deadline, typically 14-30 days away, although I can choose
to pay for a faster service. They take payment via iDeal and never see my
card number. I pay the quoted amount and no more. The package typically
arrives in the Netherlands within a fortnight, gets rubber-stamped through
customs because AliExpress have prepaid the VAT on my behalf, and lands on
my doorstep the following day. I know how long customs checks take because
the package has tracking and I get frequent status updates.
So: pay money and stuff turns up on time. This brings joy.
Tindie quote a VAT-exclusive price (since it does not handle VAT at all) and
shipping information is buried in their awful interface. AFAICT, it's $25
for the XT-IDE, or possibly that's just for a bare XT-IDE PCB, sent via an
USPS's cheapest untracked service which takes about a month to get to the
Netherlands. When it arrives, I'll be shaken down for some random amount of
VAT and handling fees before the package is released from customs, and this
adds a further week's delay even if I pay promptly.
So: pay a lot more money, then wait indefinitely before paying even more
money, then wait some more for stuff to turn up. The lack of tracking or
deadline causes worry that it will never turn up. This does not bring joy.
The greatest enemy of US small businesses is US business practices,
particularly when it comes to shipping. If you impose unnecessary extra
unpredictable expense and inconvenience which tells the rest of the world
you don't really want to do business with them, don't act surprised when the
rest of the world takes their custom elsewhere.