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Planet Money on NPR did an interesting piece on Monoprice last November. How stuff gets cheaper: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2014/11/28/366793693/episode-58

Planet Money on NPR did an interesting piece on Monoprice last November. How stuff gets cheaper: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2014/11/28/366793693/episode-586-how-stuff-gets-cheaper http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2014/11/28/366793693/episode-...

Gifford 12y ago
I though monoprice just sells out - of - tolerance factory seconds, and covers the high failure rate which a free-replacement. The MicroUSB cables I got from them were junk.
- baldfat 12y ago
  No they actual manufacturer a lot of what they sell. You should listen to the NPR Planet Money episode it was really enlightening. I starting buying from them after I heard it. I also just thought they bought and sold sub par parts.
- wpietri 12y ago
  I've been buying their stuff for years and am very happy with it. The only time I had an issue with something they were happy to exchange it.
- driverdan 12y ago
  I've never had a bad product from Monoprice, including the USB cables I've bought.
- sp332 12y ago
  The MicroUSB cables I get from them are fine, they just stop working after about a year. I stock up occasionally because I can buy a ton of them for cheap. But a friend of mine showed me these http://smile.amazon.com/Salsar-Colorful-Braided-Charger-Samsung/dp/B00HMJWGW2/ http://smile.amazon.com/Salsar-Colorful-Braided-Charger-Sams... and she says they haven't given her any trouble.
- kw71 12y ago
  While I'm leery of buying anything that requires a lot of "engineering" or "design" from them, I've been quite happy with the cables and simple accessories like memory card readers I've gotten from them. I've been studying cables and connectors for a long time, and have had loads of my own custom cables and connectors manufactured in China. While I haven't done an analysis on the connectors they use, I recognize that their cables are made from high quality cable stock - usually from Copartner, which I regard very highly and believe to be the top shelf of the cable stock that you can get from China. Their mains power cables are very nice too, and they stock enough variants that my spec is usually met from their stock (for instance, 14 or 16AWG, right angles, 10 feet) without having to special order. I even have Monoprice supply some of the commodity accessory cables that I include in various bits of kit that I sell, such as plain serial cables. I thought it would reflect badly on me when they started molding their name into the cable ends, but so far it seems that nobody's been unhappy.
- midnitewarrior 12y ago
  They could lose their HDMI and USB licenses if they did.
rkuykendall-com 12y ago
What an embarrassingly inaccurate opening. They imply that because the host paid $45 for an HDMI cable at BestBuy, and that now MonoPrice sells them for $3, that prices have gone down. That's not about prices going down, that's about not buying from BestBuy, which still sells HDMI cables for $45 and more: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/rocketfish-12-in-wall-hdmi-cable/2634942.p?id=1218343211993&skuId=2634942 http://www.bestbuy.com/site/rocketfish-12-in-wall-hdmi-cable...
- swimfar 12y ago
  Yeah, HDMI cables are a really bad example. Even with the monitor example it sounds like a lot of the price difference had to do with reducing the markup. I always assumed that this was monoprice's strategy, find items being sold with huge markups (e.g. HDMI and audio cables), and reduce the markup. I would be interested in hearing/reading more about the other ways they reduce costs which they talked about briefly (re-engineering to reduce production costs).
  - jdboyd 12y ago
    They also sometimes reduce features. For instance, I use one of their 30" monitors, and while I think it is a good deal and it looks good, it has an inferior stand, only a Dvi input (no displayport or HDMI) and it doesn't support lower resolution inputs like the Dell and HP versions do.

Gifford 12y ago

I though monoprice just sells out - of - tolerance factory seconds, and covers the high failure rate which a free-replacement. The MicroUSB cables I got from them were junk.

baldfat 12y ago
No they actual manufacturer a lot of what they sell. You should listen to the NPR Planet Money episode it was really enlightening. I starting buying from them after I heard it. I also just thought they bought and sold sub par parts.
wpietri 12y ago
I've been buying their stuff for years and am very happy with it. The only time I had an issue with something they were happy to exchange it.
driverdan 12y ago
I've never had a bad product from Monoprice, including the USB cables I've bought.
sp332 12y ago
The MicroUSB cables I get from them are fine, they just stop working after about a year. I stock up occasionally because I can buy a ton of them for cheap. But a friend of mine showed me these http://smile.amazon.com/Salsar-Colorful-Braided-Charger-Samsung/dp/B00HMJWGW2/ http://smile.amazon.com/Salsar-Colorful-Braided-Charger-Sams... and she says they haven't given her any trouble.
kw71 12y ago
While I'm leery of buying anything that requires a lot of "engineering" or "design" from them, I've been quite happy with the cables and simple accessories like memory card readers I've gotten from them. I've been studying cables and connectors for a long time, and have had loads of my own custom cables and connectors manufactured in China. While I haven't done an analysis on the connectors they use, I recognize that their cables are made from high quality cable stock - usually from Copartner, which I regard very highly and believe to be the top shelf of the cable stock that you can get from China. Their mains power cables are very nice too, and they stock enough variants that my spec is usually met from their stock (for instance, 14 or 16AWG, right angles, 10 feet) without having to special order. I even have Monoprice supply some of the commodity accessory cables that I include in various bits of kit that I sell, such as plain serial cables. I thought it would reflect badly on me when they started molding their name into the cable ends, but so far it seems that nobody's been unhappy.
midnitewarrior 12y ago
They could lose their HDMI and USB licenses if they did.

rkuykendall-com 12y ago

What an embarrassingly inaccurate opening. They imply that because the host paid $45 for an HDMI cable at BestBuy, and that now MonoPrice sells them for $3, that prices have gone down. That's not about prices going down, that's about not buying from BestBuy, which still sells HDMI cables for $45 and more: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/rocketfish-12-in-wall-hdmi-cable/2634942.p?id=1218343211993&skuId=2634942 http://www.bestbuy.com/site/rocketfish-12-in-wall-hdmi-cable...

swimfar 12y ago
Yeah, HDMI cables are a really bad example. Even with the monitor example it sounds like a lot of the price difference had to do with reducing the markup. I always assumed that this was monoprice's strategy, find items being sold with huge markups (e.g. HDMI and audio cables), and reduce the markup. I would be interested in hearing/reading more about the other ways they reduce costs which they talked about briefly (re-engineering to reduce production costs).
- jdboyd 12y ago
  They also sometimes reduce features. For instance, I use one of their 30" monitors, and while I think it is a good deal and it looks good, it has an inferior stand, only a Dvi input (no displayport or HDMI) and it doesn't support lower resolution inputs like the Dell and HP versions do.