Quote:
Originally Posted by Zombiez
The reality of the situation is that LONG TERM they will have to move and adapt to the changing economic and political climate.
In the future Tensions between america and china will only increase. America is most likely the biggest market for these expensive collectibles therefore if a company wants to maintain competitiveness in the american market they will have to find away around these tariffs or move productions elsewhere.
Other companies in other industries have already begun preparing themselves for tensions to get worse. Toys and collectibles can be made elsewhere with the same quality. Hasbro has started moving away from china, FIRST the big boys move then the smaller boys will.
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you are talking about very different things.
1) unskilled manual labor can be moved easily - such as making cloth, socks, etc.. and many brands have moved out of china to places like cambodia, pakistan, vietnam etc.. just look at the tag the next time you buy cloth. It's very easy to setup a makeshift factory
2) highly automated products - such as hasbro toys etc.. they are the next to move, it does require expertise to setup the machinery assembly lines but after everything is running, it can be easily managed with local cheap labor with a small skilled supervisory team from the foreign country + local skilled labor. Many are in the process of moving out of china as well
3) highly automated products with many dependencies - such as the iPhones, tvs, where to make the product, you need to source 1000s other little specialized parts. Right now the supply chain is still in china, for example if i need some special screws i can just order from the factory down the block and have it in hand in a week, if i need a custom bolt i make a call to another vendor 30 mins away etc..and it be here tomorrow. If i move my factory to cambodia...sure i can still assemble my product but if i need a special screw or part, where the heck am i going to get it? wait 3 month to have it shipped from china? - This is what the trump admin is really trying to do, to make doing business so difficult in china, that the entire supply chain moves out of the country, thus crippling the manufacturing economy forever. You need to reach a threshold then all the lemmings will follow, we not there yet.
4) Skilled 100% manual labor - it will be case by case dependent on industry, for collectible statues, this is not happening. No other countries have army of skilled cheap labors who can use airbrush well, who can cast properly, it's such a specialized niche skillset. You need the expertise to move there, then train a whole army of people, to make it viable. This is not happening.
What those statue company really should do, is invest in r&d to automate making/painting all the parts using machines. The technology is there, industry has moved pretty much to all digital sculpt instead of hand sculpt nowadays, next step is to break down the statue into smaller parts, so they can be individually made and painted by machine (also eliminate a lot of the paint issues people have) - think those gundam models but painted and with resin, then finally assembled back into full statue. Then you dont need the manual labor anymore, but noone wants to spend the money to invest or innovate. We have no disruptors, xm prime1 etc..disrupted the market with their wow factor in term of sculpt/paint, but the manufacture method is still the same.