Gene Kearns wrote:
On Thu, 03 Jan 2008 12:52:29 -0500, Reginald P. Smithers III penned
the following well considered thoughts to the readers of rec.boats:


| Another significant consideration is that
| in some of the ecnomically developing countries a variety of cheaply
| available but dangerous inks can be used that are no longer legal in
| the US or Canada. In many of these countries, there is a lot less risk
| of class-action lawsuits 10-20 years down the road as workers become
| sickened by exposure to a variety of chemicals or a lack of many
| "expensive" safety precautions that would be mandated in the US.

Along with unfriendly inks is the problem of solvents. One of the
MAJOR expenses in printing is reclamation of solvent vapors.

| Shipping costs of the finished product are higher, of course, but for
| items like a novel (with perhaps a $20 cover price on a paperback)
| there is enough revenue generated per unit sold to offset the
| increased shipping.
|
|I followed everything but the cover price concept. Why would anyone
|care what the cover price is? If they can manufacture and ship the
|product to the US cheaper than manufacturing and shipping the product
|from the USA, it shouldn't matter if it has a $1 cover price or a $100
|cover price.

Bean counters? If you print a million copies, a $100 cover vs. a $1
cover is $99,000,000! That sort of number gets attention. The
difference in price of $.50 over 100,000 copies would mean the gain or
loss of $50,000! It adds up fast.

If you can print and ship an average book for $1.00 less then doing it
in the US, it doesn't matter what the cover price is. If the book has a
cover price of $100 but they are only selling 1,000 of them, they will
save themselves a $1,000. If you sell a book for $10, but sell
1,000,000 you have increased your profit by a million dollars. The
cover price should not impact in your cost analysis.

Shipping.... now, that.... *I* don't get. How can I buy a Chinese made
anvil weighing 50# from a retail/importer company for less than I
could just ship the anvil across town? Do we need a level playing
field?