Would you pay extra for Made in USA?

I am working on a product that everyone in the desert uses now. It is available for about $7-$10 from Taiwan or China in plastic. I am thinking it would be awesome in Billet aluminum. If we produce this part we will start producing in USA and could sell it for about $50-$70 with a trick look that everyone will want. If this item becomes big and we are producing 1,500+ units at a time we could send it overseas then sell it for $30-$50.

I would rather put people to work in the USA and keep all the money in this country. It seems everyone wants to save money so back to the question how much is “Made in the USA” worth?

Would you spend an extra $20 to have it made in the USA.

OK, I'll edit my post to say:

NO.

Sorry.... but Nope!

Really depends on what it is.

Does "Made in the USA" bring with it quality, durability, longevity?

Does this product break? Need periodic replacement? Fadish? Will one purchase be my last purchase?



What about the comment...

This implies that you will outsource the product and then why would I pay you $30-50 for something you already stated I could buy now for $7-10? It's the same thing.

He said the one being made in China is plastic and the one he wants to create is billet. I guarantee you as soon as you make it and it is successful, somebody will copy it in China and sell it for much less. Made in the USA means nothing anymore IMO.

Read the bold part. This is a 2-step plan.

Personally, quality is quality. You can get crap or quality from the US or China. If I had to quantify how much that "Made in USA" stamp is worth, maybe 5% of the price if I ever noticed it.

Right now it is only in plastic and you will replace it. Billet will never need to be replaced!! If we decide to make this it will be from the USA!! If another company comes in and makes them overseas they could sell for less. The quality would be about the same.

I'm not sure the difference in a $7/10 part versus $50/70 is $20.00 but if its quality you are selling and I had a need or want for it I would spend the extra cash. I deliver import stuff every day. As demonstrated in the other thread, there is a lot of confusion as to what actually made in USA. So for the most part quality trumps made in USA to me.

So what ya thinking bout making?

If they can make it in plastic and it works, I'm not going to spend 10x more for billet.

As for made in USA, it hasn't meant quality since about 1970.

Think Pinto, Vega, Pacer, Gremlin, Mustang II, Taurus...

that's what comes to mind.

Isn't that an Oxymoron?

You could say that, but it's really "the American way." That's why we import so much, everyone is outsourcing it from China. Only the "Made in USA" label is really made in the USA.

I think what he means is you can buy the plastic version now for 7 bucks, if he made a billet version in the US it would be 50-60, if he outsourced the billet to china he could maybe bring the price down to 30-40.

Yes, but then would he still claim it's Made in USA?

There sems to be an inherint flaw in your logic that implies nothing made outside of the USA is quality? Or that somehow stuff made in the USA is top notch?

Hmm, Japanese kick ass in cars, Koreans too. Lots of stuff they do better. China? Most folks don't know or don't care if it is Taiwan or Mainland.

For most consumers the balance has always been cost vs quality, it is just played out on a larger scale now. Unless you are at a Harley rally, drinking Bud (Doh! Belgian.....) .... errrr Coors (Doh! Canadian....) errr. Miller (Doh! South African.....) Well, OK, NOT drinking a beer.... eating apple pie and selling the flag, I doubt you would get a premium for "made in the U.S.A."

Having said that there are many US Companies / Products that can compete on the world market.

Why can't your product do the same thing and still be made in the USA? Seems to me that is a better question to ask yourself than can I draw a premium by wrapping myself in the flag?

I think he is saying he wants to EXPORT the product. Once they produce enough to get manf costs down to a sensible level.

I will gladly pay up to twice more for made in the USA. I will pay 3-4 times more for a metal vs plastic. I will pay more for billet vs cast, and for shiny vs dull.

I will pay the absolute most for an item that will compensate for a small winky...

Name the product tho. Whatifs are worthless otherwise.

John

were all going about this the wrong way!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LETS GUESS WHAT IT IS! LOL
my guess is a plastic toilet paper holder vs a billit one!

It's the "IT"!!!

Here's a picture of Osoto enjoying his...

Click to view attachment

I'd say, make it stand out from a cheap China one. Hard to do with a chunk of aluminum.
Maybe include some cool stickers in the package, neat emblem machined into it, something that makes it original or associates itsef with something people want.

Hell, people spend over $100 for sunglasses because they say "Oakley" on em. Things cost $1.50 to make. (likely in China)

apples and oranges...if youre marking your product up 500% and it sells, most likely it will be due to the quality and being billet vs. plastic and not the made in USA sticker.

now a product that is 100% the same with exception of where its made..I would prefer the US product to the tune of 15-20% higher if I felt like it was a strong company that would back its product

This is like a Slappy riddle.

I like stuff made in america but not at double the price of a foreign made equivalent. I think market research would clearly show that people want products cheap a ton more than they want them American made.

I'm sure market research will also suggest that consumers read "made in the USA" as "this product is expensive when considering the price vs. the value it brings the purchaser".

I know there are market segments that the American products are chosen over foreign, but those aren't what you're selling.

All that matters is the quality of the product. I spend more if it's worth it, not who made it.

Your so gun ho about being made in the USA, but answer me this. If China was making this part in billet for $7-to $10 dollars, and someone else in the USA was making the same part out of plastic for $30-$50 and you really really needed it, would you still care about putting people to work in the USA and keep all the money in this country?

Your statement implies country of origin is more important than the product....

In your scenario, I would stick with the Chinese part. I am not in a position to buy a billet item for the flash (Plus the need for polishing) when I could buy a plastic imported item for 5 times less that does the same job. It would help if I knew what were making.

C'mon, that's not an Osotocycle, that's a Macmobile...explains that serious hate thingy.

depends on the part, had a mini spool in my Toyota made in china, it did not make it around the block. My car is pretty hefty on the torque dont think I would ever run a china CV unless I needed to get back to camp,

SAD SAD SAD but the truth is nobody cares anymore about made in USA. I don't mind parts that are made elsewhere but Sh*t like you find at Harbor freight pisses me off. And EVERYTHING they sell is SH*T

Not everything. I bought a 1300 pound electric hoist about 4 years ago there for $69. Use it multiple times a day almost daily and never had a problem. Also bought a $19 set of electric sheet metal shears that also gets used almost daily for body panes and it has never had a problem in over 4 years use either. There are actually quite a few things i've bought there that work great, but that's because I stayed away from things that were obviously frail looking in the first place.

Iin general I prefer to buy things that are made here simply because it means (hopefully) that the money stays here. Although I realize that's not always the case entirely.

A machined part can be made exactly the same, on the same machine even, in China or elsewhere. So from that standpoint, "Made in the U.S.A." doesn't carry much weight.

But if it's a handmade item, a musical instrument or a piece of art, that cannot be reproduced by cheap, unskilled laborers, then it's definately worth it to buy the real McCoy - made here, in the United States.

I produce handmade items here in Los Angeles and I also have a factory in China. There is a difference between the products. Both in cost and quality. But for some of my customers cost outweighs quality. Especially when you need to buy 20,000 of them!

already made

My "Earthquake" impact wrench has been used for 7 years now, and has been oiled maybe once. Still going strong. I don't use it every day, but I've definitely (ab)used it. My buddy bought an impact wrench from the Snap-On guy that looks eerily similar.

They sell welding wire (Hobart brand, IIRC) that is considerably cheaper than elsewhere, and seems to weld just fine. Actually, almost all of their consumables are no worse than you'd find elsewhere.

But yeah, there are many tools they have that work just fine, just pay attention when you buy it. I'll never buy an electronic power tool (drill, saw, etc) from them.