When the Bargain Bin is Not What You Bargained For

Jim Hisert's Dad demonstrating a jar of old flux which pales in comparison to Indium's new advanced flux technologies.

Ive learned this lesson time and time again that a lower price does not make for a better deal. ҂I learned this lesson yet again as I bought my cedar summer Adirondack chairs at the grocery store at what seemed at the time to be an unbeatable price. When I got these home and saw their made in China label I should have known then that these were not all I had bargained for. ԂCedar doesnt even grow in China. Does it?

This lesson should go without saying, but it applies to products of all types. That is, it also encompasses solders and their fluxes.

Jim Hisert recently posted this image of his dad with some OLD flux in his July blog posting titled, Juxtaposition.Ӕ This got me thinking because just the other day I was shopping at my local home store and saw the rack of fluxes and solders made for soldering home water pipes. A jar of flux was in the $10 price range.

Coming from the industry of electronic-grade solders, this at first seems like the bargain of a lifetime. When investigated further however, it is quickly realized what technology went into making this versus the attentiveness we put into our materials and it is apparent that this bargain is not a bargain at all outside the old pipe soldering industry. There is no comparison

Comments for When the Bargain Bin is Not What You Bargained For

Tuesday, July 8, 2008 by Jim H.:: My Dad’s a star, Awesome!
Saturday, October 25, 2008 by I am not happy with your comment:: FYI, cedar does grow in China. Were you trying to say products made in China are all low quality?
Wednesday, April 8, 2009 by Amanda Hartnett:: Thank you for making the point that just because something is made in China, it is not low quality. That is not the point I was trying to make in my posting and I do not want to be percieved as believing that. The vast majority of things purcahsed on a daily basis are made partially if not entirely in China and are great quality. Unfortunately, my Adirondack chairs were not what I bargained for. The Adirondacks are quite local to me and these particular Chinese manufactured Adirondack” chairs were not near the quality of the authentic Adirondack-made ones. Regardless of whether these were made in China, Michigan, or the Bahamas, they were not authentic. In order to achieve the product I desired, I had to fork over the funds to support it. A great deal more effort goes into manufacturing these local chairs than the generic manufacturers include.

Amanda Hartnett