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[–] 6 points 4 weeks ago (5 children)

As long as it helps stopping people from buying this Chinese stuff, I’m fine with it! Buy local, buy ecological, buy less but valuable and durable products.

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  • [–] 17 points 4 weeks ago (3 children)

    Maybe it's different in Europe, but in the US, my options are generally buy a Chinese-made product close to directly from the manufacturer via AliExpress or what have you or buy (often the same exact) a Chinese-made product through an American named big box store for 10x or even 25x the price.

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  • [–] 1 point 4 weeks ago

    For online stores that’s true, but the retailer is responsible for anything they sell in the US. There will still be some of that same junk, but a lot of those electronics are filtered out from retail because they aren’t certified.

    Take a look at what kind of power strips are available online vs in a hardware store.

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  • Half the shit on ebay gets dropshipped from amazon. Literally just shows up in amazon packages, from amazon trucks. Occasional a doordasher brings something from walmart. No disclosure on the ebay stores whatsoever that that's what they're doing.

    And half the shit on amazon is probably dropshipped from AliExpress. And half the shit on AliExpress is probably dropshipped from some more obscure Chinese ecommerce site.

    I'm beginning to think it's just dropshipping all the way down...

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  • [–] -2 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

    Since Trump is in power, I do not particularly care about consumers suffering in the USA.

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  • [–] 12 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

    Buy local, buy ecological

    Awesome, show me a local manufacturer who deals with speciality electronics and sensors and does them €3-4 apiece.

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  • [–] 6 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (2 children)

    Did you ever wonder why these Chinese products are so cheap, and why they are not produced in Europe anymore? I think you should read up on this! First, the Chinese keep to Yuan artificially at a very low level. This is already unfair, and continues to boost their economy. Second, they subsidize most companies that export into other countries, to aggressively gain market share. Their workers work under poor conditions, and for that reason are cheap Labor (as you probably know, some are even slaves;-). So while you are happy to save a couple of bucks, people in the EU are loosing jobs and factories are closing down. I saw this happening with Japanese cars and electronics in the 70s and 80s. Whole industries disappeared.

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  • [–] 1 point 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

    The Japanese cars, motorcycles and electronics were also miles better than what we produced here in the seventies. If anything it is an example that nothing is unbeatable forever. The Japanese didn't kill the automotive industry in Europe. European cars and motorcycles instead got better and more desirable from the 80s on. And the Japanese electronics didn't take over. Instead, European companies first upped their game as well, and later outsourced production to Eastern countries like China. Now that outsourcing is backfiring and European companies are once again challenged.

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  • [–] 1 point 4 weeks ago (1 child)

    Not sure about manufacturers but DigiKey, Mouser, Jameco, MicroCenter, and McMaster-Carr are all decent options.

    Most will tell you where something is manufactured. Some stuff is from China but they also have stuff from Taiwan, generally better quality in my experience. Some things you can find manufactured in EU or other western countries, but fabs don't exist everywhere for everything.

    But at the very least these places are importing items in large quantities so it's still more eco-friendly than having individual nickle-dime stuff flown over entire oceans and continents.

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  • [–] 2 points 4 weeks ago (1 child)

    Those are stores. Who also order the components from China, then add surcharges for having them locally available.

    Most components on all listed sites will also be 2-3x more expensive than if ordered from manufacturer directly (unless mfg lists them on the site), at which point "buy European" simply becomes "pay 2-3x to a European company for doing what you could be doing on your own".

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  • [–] 1 point 4 weeks ago (1 child)

    I mean most passive components will still run you about ten cents per. It's not like that's exorbitant. If you need to order a thousand of them you'll get a bulk discount.

    My point was on the environmental aspect. These stores can import them in larger quantities, so it's less fuel consumption in transport than ordering smaller quantities that ship direct from China

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  • [–] 1 point 4 weeks ago (1 child)

    Sure, for small components it's logical to go to them - or even to local electronics repair shops as they'll most likely have those parts.

    But even Mouser, etc. rarely have the boards I need. For example right now I have a bit of development to do on e-ink integrated platforms. I have two product options: the Lilygo T5S3 Pro, or the M5Stack PaperS3. Mouser etc. will have these on backorder, 2-3 week lead time, and 50-70% more expensive than ordering from the mfg. Meanwhile I can deal with the mfg. and shipping with a much shorter lead time (often as little as 5 days!).

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  • I mean if you can backtrace the specific product you need to the manufacturer and order directly from them, sure that makes sense. At least if you find the product on Mouser, you can be assured of its quality/safety (unless the manufacturer saves its duds for small orders)

    What isn't wise would be browsing the Chinese e-commerce sites for the thing you need and then buying the cheapest one. It's kind of a gamble whether it works at all, or whether it burns your house down.

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  • [–] 11 points 4 weeks ago (1 child)

    Why?

    For example, i can order 25 $ Handguards for my bike, that are 100% identical to the original part, which costs 120 €

    I'm with you on certain things, but some companies just make a lot of money with overprizing

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  • [–] 7 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

    Am I missing something? The original costs 125 (why do you mention $, in the EU we pay in €??). Now you buy them for 25+3+6, so you still make a profit of 91? This new tax is not to prohibit you from buying Chinese. It’s intended to stop the flow of cheap products coming in, which is eroding European industry at a rapid pace. The choice is yours, do you want to protect our EU industry, or do you want to surrender all jobs China?

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  • [–] 3 points 4 weeks ago (1 child)

    provided it's something you can even buy here.

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  • [–] 5 points 4 weeks ago (1 child)

    You are right, it is extremely hard nowadays to buy anything that has not been produced in China, or that does not contain at least one component from China. This should worry all of us, since it means that all production has moved to China, and factories in European Union are being closed down, and people lose their jobs because of this. This fee can only be the first step to rescue European production.

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  • [–] 1 point 4 weeks ago

    It will do absolutely nothing to stop people from buying Chinese stuff, it's just a stupid cash grab. The only ones benefiting are whoever collects the fee and companies importing Chinese goods on a large scale, as they can still offer them for basically the same price as before while individual imports get more expensive.

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