International Postage Delays.
We get a lot of complaints on this forum regarding the time it takes to get parcels from HongKong and China to USA.
It is getting to the stage when USA has to realise that sooner, and not later, these Asian countries will become dominate not only in modelling items but lots -lots more, and US will have to join the rest of the World. A little frightening but a fact.
Modellers outside of the US have been putting up with excessive postage cost and long waiting time for many years on items purchased in the US and now with China, HongKong and Taiwan maufacturing and selling direct to all, the market has changed. Again as weoften hear, it is normally not worth returning faulty items because of postage costs. How many times do we hear of that re China? Are US items better than Chinese? Are there any US items made these days? How can China sell US made items less than US stores charge ?
A couple of examples- I recently purchased a 50cc.size ARF from China. 3 days delivery to door, quality outstanding (same as item sold in US for twice the price) postage A$80.00. box as big as a coffin...... a tx.and rx unit from US.small box (manufactured in Taiwan) cost less in US than China (because of store discounts) postage US$50.00. from 20 January, arrived today.18 days.
Another example is the packing, US normally use 2nd hand materials, China all new material,specially made boxes, plastic air bags etc.
Please no cries about the LHS, I've paid my dues many times over.