ORIGINAL: larrysogla
DrMotor,
On occasion I also am intrigued as to which factory supplies the product offered by the retailer.................in a way it is useful because as you pointed out the Hacker 70A ESC is over 100 bucks($109.99) and the Turnigy 70A ESC is $28.73...............and the question is..................(HOLD ON TO YOUR HAT FOLKS)....................ARE WE REALLY GETTING ALMOST 4 TIMES THE VALUE when we pay $109.99 instead of $28.73.................I work in the car rental industry and our rental vehicle prices fluctuate depending upon market demand..............sometimes the difference between a high demand season compared to a slow season for the same car make and model is over a hundred dollars a day. The car rental industry, the airlines, car dealer, RC Hobby retailer all will try to charge as high as the market can bear............this includes re-branding the same item to raise the perception of higher value when deep under the skin it is all the same product but the business owner is able to charge higher because of PERCEPTION OF VALUE...nothing more(same product, same model, same function). Now in the case of Apple Inc. they have a very high standard of quality and are very demanding from the supplier to maintain that high level of quality and therefore Apple is able to command premium prices. In my personal opinion although Apple has a very high quality level IT IS STILL OVERPRICED. Perception of value allows Apple to price it's products very high. It is probably not too far away in quality as the next competitive computer company but the perception is that Apple has a higher quality therefore they will charge more. 'Nuff said.
The value in the apple products is not in the hardware, thought there is a certain amount of enhanced value there, it is in the software and, to a large extent that is what you are paying for.
It is pretty easy to let others do the R&D, then steal or reverse engineer their work to make a cheaper product. And that will happen in the market and consumers will vote with their dollars as to whether they want that leading edge stuff, the similars or the clones.
There are also things that are put into products that are not related to where they are made. Quality testing after manufacture, support structures, customer service. These all cost and those costs are layered on top of the cost of mfg.
Hey, I like to buy stuff as cheaply as I can but Ioften do not buy the lowest cost product out there because I want that customer service and Iwant to support that innovation that brings me newer and better products.
All technology eventually falls to the commodity level as volumes rise and features become standardized. Competition drives down the price.
I have purchased from HobbyKing and from Tower. Tower gives me GREATservice and the stuff I buy works. And if it doesn't they replace it so fast it makes your head spin.
HobbyKing's service has been aweful. But for some items I buy from them. In some cases I buy two since the cost of warranty service is so high it is cheaper to buy two and throw one away if it doesn't work.
So, knowing where things are made is useful information, but it is not the whole story of the value received.