Puzzleboxes

[myxpykalix]

I was tuning past QVC and something caught my eye. They were selling puzzleboxes that were in the shape of a fish, frog, cat, ect. that were about the size of your palm. The lid was made of various woods, rosewood, ebony, ect for the various parts (kind of like intarsia?) with a sliding dovetail lid for $15.00. I doubt you could buy the various woods for that price. Has anyone ever made anything like this?
http://www.qvc.com/qic/qvcapp.aspx/view.2/app.detail/params.item.H89999.desc.Handcrafted-Hardwood-Animal-Puzzle-Box

[magic]

There used to be dozens of people making puzzle boxes, Then the art died down to a father and son. It looks like people are resurrecting the art... These look nice. I have three PBs and always wanted more.

[beacon14]

The cost of having things like that mass produced in China is astoundingly low. You know in order to sell it for $15 they are buying it for $7.50 including freight. Like you say we can't buy that much wood for that price.

[magic]

I know a guy that has a Ebay store, He sells DVD players that are overstock from a large name. He pays... hold on... 4.50 per unit that retails for 90.00.. did I tell you that includes shipping? He sells big Juke boxes for 8,000 but he pays 2,700 delivered. Swamp coolers that cost 35.00 sell for 250.00. When VCR players were IN, my friend was buying them for 8.50. These were the same ones that a big name manufacturer retailed them at 245.00

I almost ordered some gears that cost me 80 cents each. The cheapest I could get them made here is 6.00 from Rush, and the quote was for 3,000.

I'm suspect the puzzle boxes cost a lot less then 7,50 and a lot of the markup ends up being all the shipping charges from boat to truck to wholesaler to retailer to end user. In reality, the shipping charges are often more then the root price of the item.

I have a Chinese friend who has connections. She gets lots of stuff - in quantity - at unbelievable prices. They sold electric scooters for 160.00 they had 200 of them in their garage, They paid... yes delivered... 47.00 each. then they resold them to other retailers for 75.00 and everyone was happy.... everyone except people that manufacture for a living.

There are only 3 reasons people buy stuff from people like us. 1, small quantity. 2 custom made, 3 they need it right away.

If you can wait - need a large quantity and they are all the same - you can get a smashing price.

We're in the wrong biz... we should have started UPS.

David, Your in a port city, Go over to the wholesale district where the boxes are coming right off the boat and go in some of the stores. You're going to throw up, the prices are so cheap!