Shipping from China

[Matt S]

@TomG I've bought hardware from China when I can't get what I want from closer to home, but can you seriously not find it in the US? The UK has a fraction of the manufacturing capability of your country and I have two foundries I order from regularly. Often with next-day shipping. They're 2-3x the cost of the ones from Chairman Xi's Workers' Paradise but it's well worth it for the quality, the speed of delivery, and keeping the money and skilled jobs onshore.

These are the two I use, both long-established firms in Walsall, the traditional home of English saddlery and associated leather trades:
https://www.abbeyengland.com/ (you'll need to sign up for an account to see prices)
https://www.fmartinandson.co.uk/

[TomG]

4 hours ago, Matt S said:

@TomG I've bought hardware from China when I can't get what I want from closer to home, but can you seriously not find it in the US? The UK has a fraction of the manufacturing capability of your country and I have two foundries I order from regularly. Often with next-day shipping. They're 2-3x the cost of the ones from Chairman Xi's Workers' Paradise but it's well worth it for the quality, the speed of delivery, and keeping the money and skilled jobs onshore.

These are the two I use, both long-established firms in Walsall, the traditional home of English saddlery and associated leather trades:
https://www.abbeyengland.com/ (you'll need to sign up for an account to see prices)
https://www.fmartinandson.co.uk/

Believe it, Matt. Look at my OP and see the list of suppliers I tried. There may be others, but Google search doesn't pull up anything promising. I know it's not all-inclusive, but fairly thorough. I have 5 wholesalers I use and between them, I was able to get 50 of the 3/4" x 3" , solid brass, square eye swivel snaps. I routinely pay around $1.80 - $2.00 ea for them. 3 of them were out of stock and I cleaned out the other 2.
eBay, Etsy, Amazon, and several others had a few in stock..Limited quantities and anywhere from $4.50 to $8 ea. When you are making a quantity of items that sell for $14 ea,, a 20% - 400% increase in hardware costs equates to about a 60% product price increase. Can't do that and the customer's won't pay it.
I have checked into both of those sites you referred to and by the time you add VAT, shipping and customs fees, you're in the same price range as US retailers.
Hopefully, supplies will open up soon and bring reasonable prices back.

.

 

[sbrownn]

10 hours ago, Doc Reaper said:

The reason the boats are sitting in the harbor is because of politicians! Gavin Newsome is the son in law of Nancy Pelosi, she and her friends need to be sent to the gallows or firing squads

Did you forget the /s?

[Matt S]

15 hours ago, TomG said:

Believe it, Matt. Look at my OP and see the list of suppliers I tried. There may be others, but Google search doesn't pull up anything promising. I know it's not all-inclusive, but fairly thorough. I have 5 wholesalers I use and between them, I was able to get 50 of the 3/4" x 3" , solid brass, square eye swivel snaps. I routinely pay around $1.80 - $2.00 ea for them. 3 of them were out of stock and I cleaned out the other 2.
eBay, Etsy, Amazon, and several others had a few in stock..Limited quantities and anywhere from $4.50 to $8 ea. When you are making a quantity of items that sell for $14 ea,, a 20% - 400% increase in hardware costs equates to about a 60% product price increase. Can't do that and the customer's won't pay it.
I have checked into both of those sites you referred to and by the time you add VAT, shipping and customs fees, you're in the same price range as US retailers.
Hopefully, supplies will open up soon and bring reasonable prices back.

Well you didn't exactly make it clear in your OP that you were looking for the cheapest supplier, just that you were struggling to get any!  I was "there" in 2020, most of my business is dog collars. I was scouring every supplier I could find in the country for suitable buckles, cleaning most of them out. Most of my leather suppliers either closed their doors for a while or couldn't restock. I ate some of the increased costs, raised prices a little, and simply turned away work when I couldn't get materials at the right price. After that I started reading about business resilience planning.

$2 hook on a $14 item. That's a tight rope to walk, especially if that includes postage. Part of the problem when selling a narrow-margin product is that any price increases eat into your profit, and something has to give. Buying/stocking large quantities of material helps to get a lower per-unit cost and insulates you some against price and supply issues but you're still relying on a chain with an awful lot of links, many of them recent world events have proved to be be far weaker than previously believed.

They're showing out of stock RN, but it may be worth reaching out to Weaver (some of their lines are getting restocked very soon). Their solid brass 3/4" square eye swivel hooks are <$2 in small quantities, and looking at my wholesale catalogue significantly less in large quantities.

I would again suggest that you avoid relying on retail-type wholesalers (middle-men resellers, probably a lot of their product coming from China) and research US-based trade suppliers and manufacturers. As I said before UK "hard" manufacturing is a fraction that of the US and I've got several to choose from. There's got to be something for you Stateside.

(Incidentally VAT would be discounted for a sale outside of the UK, it's a domestic-only tax.)

[HandyDave]

I use buckleguy allmost exclusively for my hardware. They very seldom are sold out of the parts i use. Except black 1 1/2" belt buckles. They do sell out of those often it seems. But when i get down to a dozen or so i order more soon as available to make sure i have them when i need them. Another site i use for bits and pieces is Steckstore.com