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Unless one of the cases is manufactured under considerably different environmental standards and locally that isn’t the case. The higher price on Amazon is due

Unless one of the cases is manufactured under considerably different environmental standards and locally that isn’t the case. The higher price on Amazon is due to two factors - local reseller markup and expedited shipping. Heck many AlizonExpress sellers will have multiple listings for the same product at different prices based on how fast they’ll ship. So we can safely assume that both items ship from China. So we can more or less safely assume that both are shipped from China. Now when you wait 4-6 weeks for a delivery from China you are essentially waiting for them to fill a container, when you pay more for a shipping you pay for the extra shipping space wasted by expediting your shipping. This is because of how international shipping economics work, international shipping is economical when it’s full to the brim since shipping companies have a flat tonnage tax. This means that shipping companies are taxed based on the total tonnage capacity of their vessels not the actual amount or value of the goods they transfer. Unless you source something locally in a manner that it’s actually environmentally more sounds that statement is false. And don’t forget that even buying locally doesn’t guarantee any better environmental outcome, for example buying a 3D printed case form someone on Etsy is likely just if not more polluting than buying an injection molded case from China since the filament, resin and heck even the 3D printer itself came form China.

baybal2 6y ago
I used to run a small business when I was in college in Canada 2010-2012, selling sunglasses on Ebay, and later Amazon. It was super low effort. Buy wholesale on Alibaba, tell the seller to send goods to packing, and silkscreen shop, and send by regular post to my apartment. Very often, fancy packaging was costing more than sunglasses themselves. Even when I was buying crate loads of goods, I only got a customs bill only like 2 times out of 10 in 3 years. Customs bill was pretty much nothing, and they never contested the valuation, but the extra paperwork was very unpleasant at the time when I had to study. Then you sell $1-$2-$3 sunglasses at $100+ prices. Just make decent websites for all made up brands you have, have good marketing fluff, and make sure to call them with some Italian/French sounding name. You make at around 10-15 sells per month, but what else you want with that level of effort? Second to that, I was very unsure of my tax/legal status at large if that business were to become too big. Being kicked out of the country, with all my money in that degree wouldn't be fun.
- flattone 6y ago
  This kind of con artist / slimy 'business' practice is, i suspect, connected to the macro observations of capitalism where so many people in the US want to 'burn everything down'. Not to say that matters. If i can make money and be a jerk id probably do it too, just too lazy + not sufficiently into making money just to have made it off any weird process. It isnt so much to criticize your creative sunglass idea but to say i hope (really) this kind of glorification of making some bucks doesnt become its undoing.
  - Fjolsvith 6y ago
    My perspective is that this business practice fills a niche of demand and is absolutely ethical. Your suspicion that this capitalism is what is causing people to want to burn everything down needs some proof to be anything more than a political statement. Calling someone a jerk for being smarter and less lazier than you doesn't do anything for your argument, either. I'm sure that everyone who bought a pair of those flashy cool looking sunglasses were very happy with them and enjoyed telling their friends that they were an expensive Italian/French designer pair. And as to your final attempt to soften your attack, I got one thing to say: There's always someone happy to spend their money.
    - kthxbye123 6y ago
      Nah, it sounds like OP was basically a ripoff artist- not smarter or more industrious, just more amoral. Pretty scummy way to make a living, hopefully it’s not viable from now on.
      - oarsinsync 6y ago
        I'm not sure if I agree or disagree that there's something bad going on here. It sounds like: 1. Supplier purchases whitelabel goods from China. 2. Supplier produces fancy branding and marketing. 3. Supplier sells product for a markup. As long as they're not claiming the goods were made somewhere they're not, or that they do something that they don't, what's the difference between "Sunglasses by baybal2 (Made in China)" and "Some other product with a luxury brand name (Made in China)"? Or to put another example, is Superdry.com scummy because their marketing implies that they're Japanese when they're actually British? EDIT: from a consumer perspective, there being tonnes of whitelabel brand names that are meaningless is definitely a pain, but how do you resolve that? Heavy regulation forming a higher barrier to entry? Worse than lots of meaningless brand names is when a reputable brand gets acquired, and then the quality of the goods massively reduced in pursuit of maximising profits.
deleted 6y ago
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baybal2 6y ago

I used to run a small business when I was in college in Canada 2010-2012, selling sunglasses on Ebay, and later Amazon. It was super low effort. Buy wholesale on Alibaba, tell the seller to send goods to packing, and silkscreen shop, and send by regular post to my apartment. Very often, fancy packaging was costing more than sunglasses themselves. Even when I was buying crate loads of goods, I only got a customs bill only like 2 times out of 10 in 3 years. Customs bill was pretty much nothing, and they never contested the valuation, but the extra paperwork was very unpleasant at the time when I had to study. Then you sell $1-$2-$3 sunglasses at $100+ prices. Just make decent websites for all made up brands you have, have good marketing fluff, and make sure to call them with some Italian/French sounding name. You make at around 10-15 sells per month, but what else you want with that level of effort? Second to that, I was very unsure of my tax/legal status at large if that business were to become too big. Being kicked out of the country, with all my money in that degree wouldn't be fun.

flattone 6y ago
This kind of con artist / slimy 'business' practice is, i suspect, connected to the macro observations of capitalism where so many people in the US want to 'burn everything down'. Not to say that matters. If i can make money and be a jerk id probably do it too, just too lazy + not sufficiently into making money just to have made it off any weird process. It isnt so much to criticize your creative sunglass idea but to say i hope (really) this kind of glorification of making some bucks doesnt become its undoing.
- Fjolsvith 6y ago
  My perspective is that this business practice fills a niche of demand and is absolutely ethical. Your suspicion that this capitalism is what is causing people to want to burn everything down needs some proof to be anything more than a political statement. Calling someone a jerk for being smarter and less lazier than you doesn't do anything for your argument, either. I'm sure that everyone who bought a pair of those flashy cool looking sunglasses were very happy with them and enjoyed telling their friends that they were an expensive Italian/French designer pair. And as to your final attempt to soften your attack, I got one thing to say: There's always someone happy to spend their money.
  - kthxbye123 6y ago
    Nah, it sounds like OP was basically a ripoff artist- not smarter or more industrious, just more amoral. Pretty scummy way to make a living, hopefully it’s not viable from now on.
    - oarsinsync 6y ago
      I'm not sure if I agree or disagree that there's something bad going on here. It sounds like: 1. Supplier purchases whitelabel goods from China. 2. Supplier produces fancy branding and marketing. 3. Supplier sells product for a markup. As long as they're not claiming the goods were made somewhere they're not, or that they do something that they don't, what's the difference between "Sunglasses by baybal2 (Made in China)" and "Some other product with a luxury brand name (Made in China)"? Or to put another example, is Superdry.com scummy because their marketing implies that they're Japanese when they're actually British? EDIT: from a consumer perspective, there being tonnes of whitelabel brand names that are meaningless is definitely a pain, but how do you resolve that? Heavy regulation forming a higher barrier to entry? Worse than lots of meaningless brand names is when a reputable brand gets acquired, and then the quality of the goods massively reduced in pursuit of maximising profits.

deleted 6y ago

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