This thread on SMD was pretty interesting.

Pretty much guy buys a no name sub that is the same as another name brand sub for 3x less, then other poster sheds some light on how much imported subs really cost and how most of the money is marketing.

http://www.stevemeadedesigns.com/board/topic/152076-vvme-12-ebay-mystery-subs-12000-for-2/page__st__180

http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/325679659/car_subwoofer.html

We live in a capitalist market. It's the same for gas, eggs, milk, and bologna. It's worth what people are willing to pay for it.

We live in a capitalist market. It's the same for gas, eggs, milk, and bologna. It's worth what people are willing to pay for it.

Man that really makes you thing about society differences lol

they make all of these things and bulk sell to us, when citizens there probably could buy all of these things for dirt cheap, but i suppose feel no desire to.

The first time you see someone beat another over the head with a brick for a bag of rice. Or see people dump out $5,000 barrels of vegetable oil onto the ground so they can use it to hold water you learn people in other countries have very different priorities.

Have to love 1st world problems

Why do you think so much shit comes from China? We want it now and in constant supply. Throw in the free trade, and you quickly see a larger benefit and reason why China is soon going to take over the world.

Now, some technologies are more, for instance, if you order drivers with patented technologies or what not, such as XBL^2. You are paying a premium for the technology, but still pennies on the dollar in comparison. What would cost $13 with a non-XBL motor would cost $18 with it.

Have to love 1st world problems

We can just sweep our other issues away or manipulate the press not to cover them.

Also, be very careful with what something looks like from Alibaba or overseas markets in general. Just because something "looks" the same, doesn't necessary mean it is the same. There is a lot of IP theft and counterfeit products coming from China and overseas markets, and they will make many products that "look" similar to something else but perform nothing alike because they use much cheaper parts, cheaper glues, etc. That mainstream product might use similar looking but much better parts and/or design that in the end performs much better than the generic/counterfeit you can get off Alibaba.

There was a guy on DIYMA who was looking into importing tweeters because they "looked" like some other tweeters and thought they were similar but for a much better price. If they were good enough he was going to wholesale them back to the community for a good price. When Erin measured them, they were absolutely terrible to the point of basically being unusable for anyone with any remote understanding of or desire for good reproduction. Point being....looks aren't everything.

That's not to say you can't find an exact product overseas, and as pointed out the mark up on anything is outrageous. But just seeing something similar online doesn't mean it is necessarily the same product.

Hell, the original and beloved JL W6 used all off the shelf parts. The brand SPL released literally a direct copy of the original W6 several years ago for less than half the price that the original W6 costs, but they used lower quality parts and as a result some things were different. The copy bottomed out a lot easier, generally didn't handle power as well and IIRC the glue didn't hold up as well.