Even if someone is an "I buy nothing but American", they must not own a TV, any other electronic devices, and be using a computer at the public library. If not, then they're also buying non-American goods. Hell, try and find a car or truck.. no matter the make, that is anything close to 100% "American". But, people who wish to buy things that are capable of being 100% American made, more power to them. I do love when such people talk about all American, then have a cue with a "Spanish bull" wrap, or something of the sort. I guess buying 100% American is only good when convenient.
Chris
It's cool Chris. What people mostly mean I think is that they prefer to buy American when it's convenient for them. They don't mind selling to the world but they don't want to buy from the world UNLESS of course it's something that they really want or need like an Ipad or a computer, or a nice digital camera to take cue pictures.
I also try to buy local when I can and it's not for any loyalty reason or any kind of charity for local businesses. When I choose to buy local it is for my own convenience. I want to deal with as many people as I can whom I can talk to and get the merchandise pretty much within the hour most of the time. If that's not possible then I cast a wider net. Sometimes the goods from farther away are the same but significantly less money so I go that route. Sometimes the quality of goods elsewhere is much better so I go that route. But as a general rule I try to source what I want locally first.
If the local option provides me with the goods, service and convenience that make sense to me financially then that's the one I choose. Pretty simple way to live and it insures that I am not bound up with emotion or a sketchy sense of economics when making my buying choices.
I have often heard that one should support goods made in their country because it keeps the money here. Then I go to a cue maker's house and he has a giant tv made in Korea among other foreign goods. My point is now and always has been that this sort of thinking is destructive because it's imposisble to follow the money and if you pay more for something JUST BECAUSE of where it was made then you are effectively deciding to give a charitable donation to the maker without any clue as to what is going to be done with that money. Which is fine as long as you are clear that the money could be spent on something that was not made in the USA.
I just focus on making products that are a great value and let the customers compare. When I sell a case for $600 and the next closest case to what I made is $900 then the customer has $300 more in their pocket to do with as they will is how I see it.
To bring this back to cases,
Here is a red gator print GTF case for sale at
www.gtfcases.com for $220. - Made in China
The nearest new equivalent is a brown gator print Thomas found at
www.recollectioncues.com for $375 - Made in the USA
Now, in my opinion and in the opinion of many others, the quality is at least the same between these two cases. I certainly feel that the GTF is better for several reasons but for the purpose of the discussion lets assume that they are equally good.
$375 is approximately 70% more than $220. It's $155 dollars more. For someone like Steve this is nothing, maybe about how I might feel about spending $10 extra dollars on something. But for someone else maybe this is money that could be better spent elsewhere. Maybe it means the cool case for dad AND something cool for mom this Christmas. Or whatever, the what if scenarios can be played out all day but the point is that the consumer gets to decide where to spend that extra money and not the seller.
That's the simple economics of it. I can't really do anything about the emotional side of the issue nor the incorrect economic thinking that clouds the issue other than to simply tell my take on it and let the customer decide for themselves. I don't manipulate with guilt trips and false comparisons. I put the product out there at the price that makes sense for us and most of the time that price happens to be lower than my competitors which given our quality makes them a great value.
One thing we offer as well is the customization. We just finished a case for a GTF customer that is purple. Since we are now pretty good at using thinner veg tan leather, almost a nappa softness, we can and do color dye it to any color the customer desires.
This was the cue we did the case for:
This is the case with hand finished ends.
Total price for this custom case with our Fellini-style hand finished ends?
$375 shipped from our shop in China directly to the customer.
I sincerely hope that this GTF/Tonkin combo never has to endure the type of trauma that the Fellini/Bushka had to but if it does end up in a fire I hope that it protects just as well.
Total cost including shipping directly from our workshop in China - $375 for a case with the hand-finished ends instead of the press-on It's George style endcaps.
This is what the customer had to say about it when he got it last week.
"Hi Karen,
I hope you are feeling better and hopefully you are out of the Hospital!
I got the case today and it is stunning---absolutely beautiful.
Thanks so much,"
