Took a little Sunday drive into the city and viewed some markets that i am sure were 95% stocked with Chinese plastic items & textiles…. etc etc… sorta made me a little sad to think that our local people are that hung up on a buck that they will bring this rubbish in MASS to the masses????? I certainly erked at the whole situation and felt like screaming….. ” omg Get creative and make some good ol’e Aussie stuff from natural materials, grow a chilli, learn to sew or just bring originality…. but hey most people out there look at the shiny glossy Chinese products and all they see is BARGAIN…price….not longevity….

Anyways, stumbled across a MOBILE phone case stand.. hundreds of ’em…. n only cases for mobiles … nothing else…..but mobile cases…. picked up a design that looked good & practical, as per usual it was a synthetic Chinese product….so, with a quick ‘question to salesman’ ….. ” price please un-gin-son” reply ” $45.00 dollar sir….. it leather!!!!!!!”

ouch!!!…. my reply…. ” arrrr, no it’s not leather, it’s a synthetic material that will crack in 6 months & turn to a sticky plastic gunk within two years…” salesman reply…. ” o if it’s not leather it’s a far more stronger material and will last longer than leather anyway”……….

I thought about replying but couldn’t rely on what may come out of my mouth….i walked off leaving the conversation with this on my mind…..

“As a producer of leather products i could see around $15 to $20 in materials IF this case was made from a fine Kangaroo Leather” further to that add around 2 -3 hours to hand make such a product…. so a selling price would have to be close to a $100…. resulting in a fine looking product that had a nice leather smell and would perform it’s duty aging beautifully for the next 10 to 20 years and maybe longer depending on the care and exposure it had. Not Bad for around $100.”

BUT the sad fact of this is people’s perception….and the Chinese know how to manipulate that so well, there getting into your minds and that of most people and the people don’t for one minute realise what’s happening, they can produce what looks like the real McCoy for peanuts in labour, slave working the young for a few bucks a day, to add to the fact just about every product out of China is made from environment harming synthetic materials and they polish it all up to convince the consumer that they are getting a great deal and the other products made by hand from the finest materials are just way over priced and companies and crafters such as myself are trying to rip the consumers off!! I find a similar product from China and view the cost and it’s absolutely clear to me that their selling price is generally less than it would cost me to just purchase the material to make it!!

But chin up, i know what i am making and i know the value of quality over price…. a Stamped “Genuine Leather Product” is NOT REAL… (I’ll be writing a post on this later)… it will deteriorate after a few months and then virtually fall apart in two years…..so what’s the point you may ask…

The Maths – Fax or Fake Leather is allowed to be stamped with the “Genuine Leather” – Cost for phone case = $45 life up to 2 years max….. 100% Top Grain Leather Case = $100 life up to 20 year

You would pay around $450 over 20 years to keep a Chinese phone case for your phone.
You would pay around $100 over 20 years to have a beautifully hand made authentic Leather case for the same period.

Hopefully this points out the way we are being manipulated on price alone.
(Buy Quality & support Australian Products…if you can of course as China’s pricing structure is putting Australian manufacturers out of business and manipulating you, the people:-()