Be cautious when straying off the tourist track over there. The Silk Market in Beijing for example. Showing interest in knock-off Rolex's in one stall got us an invite to see night vision goggles in another, and the "watchers" are everywhere.
Steve On Feb 21, 2012, at 1:44 PM, Chris Albertson <[email protected]> wrote: > On Tue, Feb 21, 2012 at 10:50 AM, Attila Kinali <[email protected]> wrote: >> On Tue, 21 Feb 2012 10:37:00 -0800 >> Chris Albertson <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> This may be true of the re-worked FE5680s too. A reworked unit might >>> have been tested for 30 minutes or so while the others only got >>> powered up briefly. >> >> This requires in depth understanding of the device and how it works. >> I doubt that many people have this knowledge. Much less some ebay seller. >> (i wouldn't sell electronics on ebay if i had that kind of knowledge, >> i'd sell my knowledge to some big company and make much more money) > > It is different in China. These sellers might have formal technical > training or more likely access to people who do. How else are they > able to re-work the failed units? In a country where the average pay > is close to $2,400 per year a person with trade school level education > will work hard fix a $40 unit so it can be sold. > > You can guess that a person in China who can read and write poor > English has better education than most. > > In China there are still un-educated farmers who maybe did not > complete elementary school and there are some with graduate degrees > from US universities. They have the whole range. I'd bet these > electronics sellers on ebay are in the mid ground, with maybe some > tech-school type training and day job and do the eBay work from home. > They are in the new, up and coming middle class. It's clear to me > that every one of them is a one-man shop but also there is a network > of suppliers in China who sell locally to the guys who then turn this > over on eBay. > > Some day It will be fun to go and see first hand how this works and > buy some stuff in person. My wife speaks "passable" Chinese as her > second language so we can stray off the tourist track over there. > > > Chris Albertson > Redondo Beach, California > > _______________________________________________ > time-nuts mailing list -- [email protected] > To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts > and follow the instructions there. _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- [email protected] To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
