Tariff Wars...

[raymondlin]

Aliexpress has increased order fees by 150% to 250%. Tariffs combined with the end of De Minimis looks like it's the end of American Consumerism and for a lot, maybe this hobby. Chifi is definitely dead in the water cus of this lol

Actually, since companies source parts from multiple other manufacturers, and manufacturers have their manufacturers, so on and so forth all the way down to the raw materials, every company will increase prices, and likely more than just X% from tariffs, as we saw wth covid price increases. Once the prices go up, they don't come down unless some companies feel a little generous

Soooo many things is affected

My other hobby is retro handhelds, they are all made in China. Retroid, Anbernic, Miyoo, all Chinese made.

The top unit is about £200, the bottom one with Pokemon is £50. Whilst I think the bottom one worth more than £50, the fact that you now have to pay 145% extra...sucks. (I think the actual amount is more than 145% as there is a base charge,)

People on the subreddit on this have basically accepted their fate, in the short term.

Another hobby I am into is guitars, and American companies make most of the best known boutiques stuff, if not the best stuff. Within the guitar hobby, guitar pedals especially, while the builder, small company is in the US, they get their parts and inventory from China. Some of these companies are nothing more than 1 guy in his garage soldering parts together, that's how a lot of them start out. Some of these companies have been sending out emails to say that once the critical component in their inventory runs dry, that particular product will be OUT OF STOCK until this tariff war is over. Because they cannot promise customer any time scale in delivery and they cannot raise prices by like 50 or 100%. (You have to know that like games, prices have stagnated in pedals a lot, a JHS Morning Glory is the same price today as it was when launched like 15 years ago, at most it only went up like $10)

This is going to hit more than just consumers with niche hobbies, this is going to hit a lot of small businesses, small businesses that relies on getting these components, some of which have no alternatives. Like when you switch out a component in a musical instrument, you changes its sound, or feature. It is no longer the same product anymore.

 

[MDKrinkles]

Soooo many things is affected

My other hobby is retro handhelds, they are all made in China. Retroid, Anbernic, Miyoo, all Chinese made.

The top unit is about £200, the bottom one with Pokemon is £50. Whilst I think the bottom one worth more than £50, the fact that you now have to pay 145% extra...sucks. (I think the actual amount is more than 145% os £50 as there is a base charge,)

People on the subreddit on this have basically accepted their fate, in the short term.

Another hobby I am into is guitars, and American companies make most of the best known boutiques stuff, if not the best stuff. Within the guitar hobby, guitar pedals especially, while the builder, small company is in the US, they get their parts and inventory from China. Some of these companies are nothing more than 1 guy in his garage soldering parts together, that's how a lot of them start out. Some of these companies have been sending out emails to say that once the critical component in their inventory runs dry, that particular product will be OUT OF STOCK until this tariff war is over. Because they cannot promise customer any time scale in delivery and they cannot raise prices by like 50 or 100%. (You have to know that like games, prices have stagnated in pedals a lot, a JHS Morning Glory is the same price today as it was when launched like 15 years ago, at most it only went up like $10)

This is going to hit more than just consumers with niche hobbies, this is going to hit a lot of small businesses, small businesses that relies on getting these components, some of which have no alternatives. Like when you switch out a component in a musical instrument, you changes its sound, or feature. It is no longer the same product anymore.

The music gear industry is going to suffer majorly. I do agree that a lot of boutique stuff is made in America sure. But the best playing guitars imo come out of Japan. And my personal fav basses come from Germany. Beyond the high end stuff tho all tubes for guitar amps are made in China, and all the entry level brands like Epiphone, squier, Ibanez, etc that are already getting a little pricey are going to be through the roof.

Also yeah boutique pedals are dead. The only reason boutique pedals are even remotely affordable is due to the ability for small batch makers to buy affordable bulk components from overseas. I actually make pedals myself sometimes and I certainly won’t be able to continue the hobby which is really unfortunate.

Basically any hobby at all related to electronics is dead.

 

[raymondlin]

The music gear industry is going to suffer majorly. I do agree that a lot of boutique stuff is made in America sure. But the best playing guitars imo come out of Japan. And my personal fav basses come from Germany. Beyond the high end stuff tho all tubes for guitar amps are made in China, and all the entry level brands like Epiphone, squier, Ibanez, etc that are already getting a little pricey are going to be through the roof.

Also yeah boutique pedals are dead. The only reason boutique pedals are even remotely affordable is due to the ability for small batch makers to buy affordable bulk components from overseas. I actually make pedals myself sometimes and I certainly won’t be able to continue the hobby which is really unfortunate.

Basically any hobby at all related to electronics is dead.

I am done, or pretty much done in my guitar buying a few years ago, after a crazy 5 year purchasing phrase I have Gibson CS Les Paul, 4 PRS (3 of them Core), Fender, Taylor etc. I also have a Bogner amp, a Lazy J and about 60 pedals, most of them are USA made.

A lot of these USA builders are going to get hit hard.

 

[PopZeus]

I went a little overboard with GAS from China between the election and the inauguration. Little did I know how glad I would be to have done that, and how badly the trump administration would botch the tariffs. In the process of generating chaos and confusion, we've officially pissed off the entire trading world. Even if we vote for sane politicians for the next 2 decades, we will struggle with gaining the trust of anyone with whom we trade.

With the US being a couple of weeks away from the first non-shipments from the east, what is true about these tariffs is that no taxes will be collected from goods that are never imported. So, the 2 options for most American consumers are prohibitively expensive goods, or bare shelves. Neither of those things is good for the economy or jobs.

Funny how Amazon US tried to be more transparent about the cost of tariffs and was immediately smacked down by trump. If these tariffs are so great for the country, why are they trying to hide the impact of their policies?

 

[raymondlin]

I went a little overboard with GAS from China between the election and the inauguration. Little did I know how glad I would be to have done that, and how badly the trump administration would botch the tariffs. In the process of generating chaos and confusion, we've officially pissed off the entire trading world. Even if we vote for sane politicians for the next 2 decades, we will struggle with gaining the trust of anyone with whom we trade.

With the US being a couple of weeks away from the first non-shipments from the east, what is true about these tariffs is that no taxes will be collected from goods that are never imported. So, the 2 options for most American consumers are prohibitively expensive goods, or bare shelves. Neither of those things is good for the economy or jobs.

Funny how Amazon US tried to be more transparent about the cost of tariffs and was immediately smacked down by trump. If these tariffs are so great for the country, why are they trying to hide the impact of their policies?

I am not even in the US and I kinda did the same thing, fearing the impact it will have on the wider economy around the world like 2nd hand smoke. I figured that if companies now making less profit as they loses out from the US market, they have to make their profit elsewhere and the first thing is to raise prices everywhere else, even if a little bit like 5%-10%.

So I pulled the trigger on a new Mac mini, a OLED monitor, 6TB of nvme SSD, Mac accessories, also got myself new headphones, DAC/Amp and the other week in HK I bought a new lens. I lot of things I have been thinking of getting and now it gave me a reason to, knowing that prices as is today is the cheapest it will be.

 

[PopZeus]

I am not even in the US and I kinda did the same thing, fearing the impact it will have on the wider economy around the world like 2nd hand smoke. I figured that if companies now making less profit as they loses out from the US market, they have to make their profit elsewhere and the first thing is to raise prices everywhere else, even if a little bit like 5%-10%.

So I pulled the trigger on a new Mac mini, a OLED monitor, 6TB of nvme SSD, Mac accessories, also got myself new headphones, DAC/Amp and the other week in HK I bought a new lens. I lot of things I have been thinking of getting and now it gave me a reason to, knowing that prices as is today is the cheapest it will be.

Yeah, as we can see from how Sony is handling tariffs for PlayStation, they're raising prices everywhere to compensate for the exorbitant tariffs here in the US. So the possibility still exists that other companies will also follow suit. Really looking forward to that! [/sarcasm]

Tbh, I'm just bummed right now because FiiO's 2025 lineup was starting to look incredible, and I've loved a lot of what they've put out recently. I'm ok with paying more for Chinese audio gear but as prices go up, it's reasonable to expect better customer service. Sadly a lot of the extra money that might go to improving customer service will be used to pay for billionaire tax cuts.

 

[Charai]

Yeah, as we can see from how Sony is handling tariffs for PlayStation, they're raising prices everywhere to compensate for the exorbitant tariffs here in the US. So the possibility still exists that other companies will also follow suit. Really looking forward to that! [/sarcasm]

Tbh, I'm just bummed right now because FiiO's 2025 lineup was starting to look incredible, and I've loved a lot of what they've put out recently. I'm ok with paying more for Chinese audio gear but as prices go up, it's reasonable to expect better customer service. Sadly a lot of the extra money that might go to improving customer service will be used to pay for billionaire tax cuts.

Yea, a slight bump in prices in line with cost-of-living-adjustments or a better product, sure. But having them go toward unnecessary fees over unnecessary harm to everyone but the rich, does feel like hurting us for harm's sake. Not only that, it's hurting everyone else around the world, and the only people to blame is America. We can't even keep that harm to ourselves. Just perpetuating more reasons for others to hate us

A shame since it's impacting currencies so bad, we likely won't even be left with good conversion rates if we were to travel and buy things outside of the US

 

[EchoAudiogram]

This shelf is all from April. 1 interaction w/ fedex customs so far, never heard back.

 

[MDR7506Mike]

Yea, a slight bump in prices in line with cost-of-living-adjustments or a better product, sure. But having them go toward unnecessary fees over unnecessary harm to everyone but the rich, does feel like hurting us for harm's sake. Not only that, it's hurting everyone else around the world, and the only people to blame is America. We can't even keep that harm to ourselves. Just perpetuating more reasons for others to hate us

A shame since it's impacting currencies so bad, we likely won't even be left with good conversion rates if we were to travel and buy things outside of the US

Our Canadian dollar will probably be going way up relation to the American dollar, but what good it does us when we're not buying anything from there anymore.

Time will tell how this affects us here as new trade relationships are made in Europe but I still feel like prices are going to go up for everyone everywhere.

 

[gikigill]

This shelf is all from April. 1 interaction w/ fedex customs so far, never heard back.

Can you tell a bit more please? Are these at customs or something else happened here?

 

[EchoAudiogram]

mostly Japanese sacds. there is some dollar threshold that triggered customs asking me the dimensions of the package and signing some homeland security form. I wondered why they thought the recipient would know the package size and not the sender, but got them that info from the sender and never heard back. im hoping that purchase doesn't fall through. a lot of these are out of print and not terribly easy to acquire new. they aren't free now, and a tariff hike would quickly limit how many i could grab in a short amount of time.