Jlcpcb and tariffs

And at the end of the day, I pose this challenge: Name one thing, that’s not shipping, that has drastically changed about building pedals?
Consumers will spend less on "nonessential" luxury items (e.g. your/my pedals) because they already feel the squeeze on more essential goods, which are skyrocketing in price—due in part to tariffs.

But to those people I say, hunger is temporary and tone is forever; buy my YATS.
 
I did the same thing. Loaded up on knobs and jacks.

It goes to show you how bad their other shipping options have gotten.

Weight is going to play a factor here, just like PCBA orders from JLCPCB, and that has much less to do with the originating supplier as it does with the shipping vendor.

And of course, that’s nothing new. When I was still shipping anywhere internationally, I got tons of requests by people to try and avoid FedEx and UPS, because they tended to try and fuck people over with thier “interpretations” of tariff and customs policies.
 
I'm still waiting on a Tayda order with one enclosure from late July. Are they really that backed up?
My July 28 order just shipped yesterday. They are very backed up.

But I have a feeling if this came from the other side of the aisle, we’d not have such strong sentiment against it.
I'm going to disagree there. If a political party I normally side with announced that the thing I enjoy doing is going to cost almost twice as much for no reason, I would have some pretty strong feelings about that. I don't vote out of loyalty to a party, I vote in alignment with issues and policy. If someone I thought was great started doing things that aren't great, I would stop thinking that person was great. I can do that.
 
I'm going to disagree there. If a political party I normally side with announced that the thing I enjoy doing is going to cost almost twice as much for no reason, I would have some pretty strong feelings about that. I don't vote out of loyalty to a party, I vote in alignment with issues and policy. If someone I thought was great started doing things that aren't great, I would stop thinking that person was great. I can do that.
We don’t have to speculate here. This policy proposal was put forth by the previous administration last summer using the same spurious claims. People were skeptical then too. There’s been a whole lot of noise in the meantime that has distracted from that.

Also, that approach wasn’t Leroy Jenkins-ing into blowing up 30+ years of global supply chain systems and trade. It’s one thing to say, “we seem to have destroyed domestic industry by essentially subsidizing overseas manufacturing and propping up the VC class, maybe this trade arrangement isn’t the best. How do we frame it in terms as NatSec?” compared to “what do those economist nerds know, I wanna make the world beg.”

EDIT: I wouldn’t have believed you if you told me I’d be defending American third-way free trade economic policies of the nineties a decade ago. The issue here isn’t the soundness of that policy set, it’s that you break a whole lot and cause a lot of damaging waves when you try to do a U-turn while sailing a tanker.
 
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@vigilante398

I don't want anything I’m saying to come off as me supporting one side or another.

If anything, I’m apolitical when it comes to this. Things that suck, suck. And this surely sucks.

I think the thing I’m burnt out on is politics creeping into my hobby/side hustle in any way.

This is a crafty community. We are going to have to find ways to beat the tariff system. If anyone can, it’s us.

Should we even have to? Probably not but this is the hand we’ve been dealt.
 
It's easy to be flippant if you are geographically or economically insulated from this, but reality is that this illegal policy will materially squash the middle American who makes an average income of just under $40K/year. When your car (that you need for work) breaks down, and you have no choice but to buy artificially inflated overseas parts (the tariff gods never considered the currently nonexistent infrastructure to manufacture them here), your kid needs braces and rent is due, there will be tough decisions to make.

Not a bleeding heart sob story, but a real scenario for most of the country. It's much bigger than a few Pervert Bucks lost here and there on a hobby making modulated fart boxes, so I'm surprised that some are so quick to defend.

Anyway, less toxic fuming over tariffs for me, and more toxic fuming over lead.
 
@vigilante398

I don't want anything I’m saying to come off as me supporting one side or another.

If anything, I’m apolitical when it comes to this. Things that suck, suck. And this surely sucks.

I think the thing I’m burnt out on is politics creeping into my hobby/side hustle in any way.

This is a crafty community. We are going to have to find ways to beat the tariff system. If anyone can, it’s us.

Should we even have to? Probably not but this is the hand we’ve been dealt.
I totally get this. I am off social media to avoid a lot of toxic content. At the same time it’s a bit hard to discuss the tariffs and shipping without dipping into politics from time to time…
 
We don’t have to speculate here. This policy proposal was put forth by the previous administration last summer using the same spurious claims. People were skeptical then too. There’s been a whole lot of noise in the meantime that has distracted from that.

Also, that approach wasn’t Leroy Jenkins-ing into blowing up 30+ years of global supply chain systems and trade. It’s one thing to say, “we seem to have destroyed domestic industry by essentially subsidizing overseas manufacturing and propping up the VC class, maybe this trade arrangement isn’t the best. How do we frame it in terms as NatSec?” compared to “what do those economist nerds know, I wanna make the world beg.”

EDIT: I wouldn’t have believed you if you told me I’d be defending American third-way free trade economic policies of the nineties a decade ago. The issue here isn’t the soundness of that policy set, it’s that you break a whole lot and cause a lot of damaging waves when you try to do a U-turn while sailing a tanker.
I also think having all manufacturing out of the country is not a good state to be in. It’s pretty risky to be so dependent on foreign labor. And I also think that if you want to bring that kind of production back in the country you should start by investing in R&D and supporting innovation and the needs of those who want to rebuild these industries. The tariffs are not doing that and it’s unclear to me if they ever will have that effect. My opinion is that they won’t, but I don’t know enough about it to be authoritative in any way so just ignore me!
 
Some worse news on tariffs for PCBs (if they ever get assessed on JLC slow boat stuff, or at all):

"Importers must declare the exact amount of steel, copper, and aluminum in products, with a 100% tariff applied to these materials. This makes little sense—PCBs, for instance, contain copper traces, but the quantity is nearly impossible to estimate.

U.S. customs is demanding a Certificate of Analysis (which could cost thousands of dollars and to determine what exact amount of Aluminum, Copper and Steel are in the product), otherwise they assume the entire PCB consists of copper, aluminum, and steel, and charge a 100% tariff on the whole product. This is a prime example of unnecessary complexity in international trade."

The hobbyist at the link above is halting shipments.
 
Importers must declare the exact amount of steel, copper, and aluminum in products, with a 100% tariff applied to these materials.

HOLY SHIT, this will impact just about everything - e.g., appliances, computers, TVs, absolutely anything electronic, kitchenware, cars, you name it! This is just nuts. The cost of calculating & justifying the tariff will be so significant that it will add even more $$$ on top of the tariff itself.
 
I’m not sure who the responsible parties are but I can tell you this: In the absence of clear instructions, everything is going to be worst case scenario.
Damn straight - check this out:

Multiple postal services around Europe (and possibly elsewhere) say they are suspending the shipment of many packages to the United States amid a lack of clarity over new import duties. The US didn't even provide the rules regarding all the details of collecting and paying the duties...



TOTAL CHAOS
 
Suggestion ....

If Robert moved here to the UK he could buy things in from JLPCB at our lower tariff rates - and then providing over 50% of the value of his product was his IP (which it would be in terms of his design) then sell into the US at our lower tariffs....
 
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