Hey Rick, you've been nice to share your experience. As someone in China, some free advice -- I'd be aware when paying upfront, that it's almost certainly a wh

Hey Rick, you've been nice to share your experience. As someone in China, some free advice -- I'd be aware when paying upfront, that it's almost certainly a when not an if that a shipment won't go through and your broker will disappear. Standard operating procedure here is to always screw with the money in the last batch before closing out of work... it's not always even the provider's fault, it can happen anywhere in the supply chain that you don't know about, but you'll feel it. So just budget in cash/inventory, and probably mentally/emotionally too, for your contact to disappear with your cash someday and you getting no product. If it doesn't happen, so much the better. But it could ruin your day if you're not prepared for it. (I love China anyways... it's just the standards/controls aren't there yet. Ten to twenty years from now it'll be a non-issue. But take a couple minutes to protect yourself in the now.)