(24 January 2012, 09:25)uks Wrote: Is there a connection between price and quaility?.
I will give you an example of something i found out.
I was looking at buying a large salt fly reel the ownly place to get it was the US. In the end i narrowed it down to 2 one was priced at $299 and the other priced at $699. Both had the features i was looking for. It seemed did i want to pay $699 for a well known brand with a repution or $299 for a reel from what was to me an unknown "manufacture".
So i did a little digging around i found a "Chinese" Manufacture making these reels. I e-mailed them about the reels and was told i could buy 50 reels for $50 each and i could have them laser etched for an extra $5 each. Now this is the thing that shocked me both of the reels i was thinking about buying were both supplied by this Chinese company and were in fact the same reel.
I feel that this is the same with most things we are buying. I got 2 summer tesco own brand sleeping bags 18 months i think i payed £17 ea for them. Ive had no problem and im thinking of buy 2 winter bags that can go down to -18 for £26 each.
I will let you draw your own conclusions from this.
Totally agree. I have cut out buying Chinese crap allround and try to get my friends to do the same. I am not supporting the Chinese economic warfare against the West or the greedy western companies that profiteer it on. most of it is junk anyway and won't last. there is some good stuff coming out of China, but you can never be sure which bit of kit is and which isn't and anyway the quality varies over time, usually degrading. I have researched pricing quite a bit and have found very roughly these price bands for new retail stuff.
1) Cheap chinese crap
2) not quite as cheap chinese crap
3) Made in HongKong (cough cough China, ahem cough cough) slightly less cheap again (oh yes - crap)
4)Dearer chinese stuff passed off in clever advertising as western or packaged in Western factories(v.common) - mediocre to crap..
5) mid priced western branded goods that are also of middling quality (usually full of chinese components)
6)mid priced little known small scale branded by manufacturer western goods of quality
7)Expensive pay through the nose branded Western goods of quality
I do my research and try to aim for level 6. That way I am not wasting my money and the kit will perform as intended without the fashion branding hefty price tag. I learnt that Chinese crap is just that and dosn't last a fig..