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I have a mower on the bench that needs a carb rebuild or a new carb. It's about a 3 year old mower. I was kind of surprised to find a few parts sites that say the parts are no longer available. On the sites that have the parts, the rebuild kit is around $30 to $35 and a new carb is $50. I can't really put that amount in this particular mower, so for the first time, I went to Amazon and eBay. Yes, I know. Those are cheap, Chinese knockoffs. I have never used or ordered any of the Chinese parts to put on a piece of equipment I refurbished to sell. I found a carb on eBay, supposedly guaranteed to work, for $12.75 and free shipping. That will give me quite a bit of room for profit. If this happens to work out OK on this mower, I might be buying more cheap, Chinese carbs. You can't even buy many regular carb rebuild kits for 12 bucks anymore. There is a little spot in the back of my head kind of hoping it won't work. I hate to have to resort to buying Chinese parts to refurb my equipment.

What's been some of you guy's experiences with these Chinese knockoff carbs? Do they usually work?

Bought 1 and it worked well, ran and sounded just like the original. Would buy again.

mcostello said:

Bought 1 and it worked well, ran and sounded just like the original. Would buy again.

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That's good to see, I guess. I'm still having these thoughts about buying cheap Chinese stuff. As bad as I hate it, it's sure hard to pass up a $37 to $38 savings when I stop to consider this mower will probably go out for sale in the $65 to $80 range. 38 bucks is a whole, big chunk of savings. I got the mower for $25 plus a short drive to get it. Just the $25 for the mower plus $50 for a real carb would almost knock me out of making even a little on this one. I just can't see this thing being able to bring $100 or more. I see other guys on Marketplace trying to get $125 to $150 for what I call $50 mowers. I hope they get it because if they do, my stuff should then be worth $200. LOL!

I also just got a shipping update. According to what they are saying, I'll have that carb either Friday or Saturday. That's fast service, if nothing else. I just ordered it late yesterday.

Buy then off Alibaba not Amazon
With Alibaba the vendor is not hidden behind a screen name and they are all registered business becuse it is a B2B platform.
Next Alibaba hold onto your money for up to 45 days before the vendor gets paid unless you notigy them that the parts arrived and worked
If not you get a full refund or free replacement
After 45 days they will send you an email asking if the product was good and if you do not respond then the vendor gets paid
I have bought hundreds of things through alibaba and the ony problems were items damaged in transit and after sending a photo of the damaged carbs 2 new ones were despatched without question via priority freight .
OTOH at least 1/2 of the stuff I have bought off ebay was defective
IT took better than 6 months to sort out and most times I ended up being out of pocket
I have bought perhaps 10 items via Amazon and all of them were total junk and unfit for use .
Amazon did not want to know & the US vendors told me to POQ while the HK vendors sent me replacements that were equally as bad then eventually gave me a refund .

bertsmobile1 said:

Buy then off Alibaba not Amazon
With Alibaba the vendor is not hidden behind a screen name and they are all registered business becuse it is a B2B platform.
Next Alibaba hold onto your money for up to 45 days before the vendor gets paid unless you notigy them that the parts arrived and worked
If not you get a full refund or free replacement
After 45 days they will send you an email asking if the product was good and if you do not respond then the vendor gets paid
I have bought hundreds of things through alibaba and the ony problems were items damaged in transit and after sending a photo of the damaged carbs 2 new ones were despatched without question via priority freight .
OTOH at least 1/2 of the stuff I have bought off ebay was defective
IT took better than 6 months to sort out and most times I ended up being out of pocket
I have bought perhaps 10 items via Amazon and all of them were total junk and unfit for use .
Amazon did not want to know & the US vendors told me to POQ while the HK vendors sent me replacements that were equally as bad then eventually gave me a refund .

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I always clean the carburetor first, then order an aftermarket carburetor if OEM is pooched. Have had really good results with cheap Chinese carburetors, as well as many of the cheap Chinese parts I buy on Amazon and EBay. Here is an example from just today-OEM Nikki carburetor for Briggs 219807 (12.5 hp) was $135 after my markup vs $40 for Nikki copy. If these parts were bad, poor quality, poor fitting, not working, I wouldn’t keep buying them.

Tiger Small Engine said:

I always clean the carburetor first, then order an aftermarket carburetor if OEM is pooched. Have had really good results with cheap Chinese carburetors, as well as many of the cheap Chinese parts I buy on Amazon and EBay. Here is an example from just today-OEM Nikki carburetor for Briggs 219807 (12.5 hp) was $135 after my markup vs $40 for Nikki copy. If these parts were bad, poor quality, poor fitting, not working, I wouldn’t keep buying them.

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Are they good enough for longevity or to just bolt on and crank up to resale?

smalltimerpm said:

Are they good enough for longevity or to just bolt on and crank up to resale?

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99% of my business is service and repair, not used equipment sales. Never had a comeback from failed aftermarket parts in 5 years. Pretty remarkable when you think of it. Way more than anecdotal evidence, not a “one off.”

Well things are different in OZ
1) everything bought retail has a manditory 12 month warranty
2) Repairs have a manditory 6 month warranty
3) parts are very expensive
4) margins are small because of the massive number of junk being sold by supermarkeys and now tool stores
5) none of this applies to scamazon or Evilpay

I give 12 onths warranty on everything I do so buying from an hidden annonomous retailer can be a disaster
I just had a fuel pump fail that I bought from Stens 4 years ago
IT was replaced without arguement as I buy a lot of stuff from them in big orders so the rep knows I might have inventory sitting around for several years
Just 1 bad part fitted to a customers mower can do a massive amount of harm to both my profitability & reputation.
And I have had stuff ail that I have bought from Evilpay and from Amazon
Try coming back to eother of them and say the stuff I bought from you a year ago but have not used till now has failed
Or even worse, as was the case with the supposedly "heavy Duty " starter that failed so I am then left being forced to buy a genuine item from the USA and pay for express delivery .

So I give my customers the option, if they want to try their luck with an unknown vendor & buy the "undranded" parts then I will fit them for my regular fitting fee.
Otherwise they will just have to wait till I get guaranteed good parts from a real business .
Around 1/2 of the customers who go down the buy it themselves route end up with faulty or unservicable goods
And some have gone through 3 or 4 vendors before they get servicable parts
Considering in the USA you have Oregon, Rotary Prime Line & Stens all selling certified goods I find it strange that people would resort to purchasing from the "invisible men" via the on line platforam designed to make life easy for scammers & counterfitters .

bertsmobile1 said:

Buy then off Alibaba not Amazon
With Alibaba the vendor is not hidden behind a screen name and they are all registered business becuse it is a B2B platform.
Next Alibaba hold onto your money for up to 45 days before the vendor gets paid unless you notigy them that the parts arrived and worked
If not you get a full refund or free replacement
After 45 days they will send you an email asking if the product was good and if you do not respond then the vendor gets paid
I have bought hundreds of things through alibaba and the ony problems were items damaged in transit and after sending a photo of the damaged carbs 2 new ones were despatched without question via priority freight .
OTOH at least 1/2 of the stuff I have bought off ebay was defective
IT took better than 6 months to sort out and most times I ended up being out of pocket
I have bought perhaps 10 items via Amazon and all of them were total junk and unfit for use .
Amazon did not want to know & the US vendors told me to POQ while the HK vendors sent me replacements that were equally as bad then eventually gave me a refund .

Click to expand...

I might have to have a real heart to heart with you about Alibaba. I have had them turn up when searching for stuff. I have never given them much of my time. I usually just go right past them. I'll give you a holler about this at a later time, when I have some more time on my hands.

Tiger Small Engine said:

99% of my business is service and repair, not used equipment sales. Never had a comeback from failed aftermarket parts in 5 years. Pretty remarkable when you think of it. Way more than anecdotal evidence, not a “one off.”

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Yeah, that is a pretty strong vote of confidence. I hate buying Chinese stuff, but like I said before, there is one heck of a difference between OEM and the Chinese parts. Just this first time for me there was a difference of $40 to $50. On a used mower for resell, $50 is one heck of a bunch.

Your are lucky then as I couldn't sell a nice walk behind for $35 with a 90 dy warranty or a rider for $500 with 90 day warranty. Finally just quit trying to sell anything used here after I was a max of $125 for the rider. I had over $400 in parts in it. I now parting it out and done at $750 in sales from it.

I have the same problem as Star
Every second idiot seems to think I have a yard full of completely serviced mowers with brand new service parts for next to nothing.
I now keep 2 wheels by the front gate
When some one comes in for a $ 10 push mower I offer them the Victa wheel
If they want the rest then that will be $ 150 more
Same story fo the $ 100 ride ons
Wheel with new tyre is $ 100
Rests of the mowwer is $ 1400
Apart from that you can put a lot of hours into a single once only sale whereas the hours you put into a repair get paid back by repeat repairs

Tiger Small Engine said:

99% of my business is service and repair, not used equipment sales. Never had a comeback from failed aftermarket parts in 5 years. Pretty remarkable when you think of it. Way more than anecdotal evidence, not a “one off.”

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First your post was about saving money over profitable parts you buy from Amazon to save money and help resale? Then you state 99 percent of your business? I have no dought you must be pretty profitable then.

smalltimerpm said:

First your post was about saving money over profitable parts you buy from Amazon to save money and help resale? Then you state 99 percent of your business? I have no dought you must be pretty profitable then.

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smalltimerpm said:

First your post was about saving money over profitable parts you buy from Amazon to save money and help resale? Then you state 99 percent of your business? I have no dought you must be pretty profitable then.

Click to expand...

The vast majority of my business is service and repair. Occasionally I sell a mower, etc. I have a small fair markup on the parts (mainly used on customer equipment for repair). The cost of everything these days is so high, so instead of buying OEM parts at 2 to 5 times the cost of aftermarket, I normally buy aftermarket to save the customer money. Hope this clears up any confusion.

Tiger Small Engine said:

The vast majority of my business is service and repair. Occasionally I sell a mower, etc. I have a small fair markup on the parts (mainly used on customer equipment for repair). The cost of everything these days is so high, so instead of buying OEM parts at 2 to 5 times the cost of aftermarket, I normally buy aftermarket to save the customer money. Hope this clears up any confusion.

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No confusion here. If it works for you then that's all that matters.

bertsmobile1 said:

Buy then off Alibaba not Amazon
With Alibaba the vendor is not hidden behind a screen name and they are all registered business becuse it is a B2B platform.
Next Alibaba hold onto your money for up to 45 days before the vendor gets paid unless you notigy them that the parts arrived and worked
If not you get a full refund or free replacement
After 45 days they will send you an email asking if the product was good and if you do not respond then the vendor gets paid
I have bought hundreds of things through alibaba and the ony problems were items damaged in transit and after sending a photo of the damaged carbs 2 new ones were despatched without question via priority freight .
OTOH at least 1/2 of the stuff I have bought off ebay was defective
IT took better than 6 months to sort out and most times I ended up being out of pocket
I have bought perhaps 10 items via Amazon and all of them were total junk and unfit for use .
Amazon did not want to know & the US vendors told me to POQ while the HK vendors sent me replacements that were equally as bad then eventually gave me a refund .

Click to expand...

I couldn't find the ring size I needed in the US for any reasonable price. It was some rings for an old blower. I've tried Alibaba and got exactly what I needed. But it just took so long to get them. IIRC, it was close to 3 weeks.

Tiger Small Engine said:

The vast majority of my business is service and repair. Occasionally I sell a mower, etc. I have a small fair markup on the parts (mainly used on customer equipment for repair). The cost of everything these days is so high, so instead of buying OEM parts at 2 to 5 times the cost of aftermarket, I normally buy aftermarket to save the customer money. Hope this clears up any confusion.

Click to expand...

I always give the customer the option of aftermarket or OEM. If it's something like a Stihl blower or weed eater with good compression and no ring groves, and the customer has the money, they usually go with the OEM.
But if the equipment is older and they just need something to get them buy, even my rich customers will choose aftermarket.
Aftermarket parts don't have a warranty. OEM's do. They know this upfront.

I gotta admit though, those cheap carbs from Amazon, IMO have gotten a little better over the years. Especially since Amazon has made these sellers upgrade their refund policies. I'm a Prime member. I'm not sure if that has anything to do with anything, but 80% of the carbs (or anything else) that I bought, I didn't have to return and still got a refund on.

On Chinese carbs from Amazon or Ebay, I water test them first. Some times you have to buy from those two places. Parts no longer available.....

Place the carb in a padded vice. Hook a bottle of water to the fuel bowl inlet pipe. Take a shop vac and place it next to the throttle shaft. That simulates running on a real engine. See if the needle and seat work and you get actual flow from the main jet slash emulsion tube. Next I pressure test the carb needle again with 7psi for 30 minutes. If all is good I install and test.

Sometimes I've had to massage some internal parts or metal work to get things to function proper. Need to do a full eyeball scan and check it all over.

I've gotten some Stens aftermarket carbs that were good. So far, I don't think I've gotten a bad one.

Well, back to my original post. I got the cheap carb over the weekend and put it on the mower today. I obviously can't speak to the longevity of the carb, but I can say that it bolted on perfectly and started right up. It just sat there purring exactly the way it should.

I will now at least look to places like Alibaba, Amazon, and eBay for parts, especially on these older mowers I'm refurbishing. I can now make a decent profit on an under $100 mower. It sure makes a difference in what I have to charge for a refurbished mower.

smhardesty said:

Well, back to my original post. I got the cheap carb over the weekend and put it on the mower today. I obviously can't speak to the longevity of the carb, but I can say that it bolted on perfectly and started right up. It just sat there purring exactly the way it should.

I will now at least look to places like Alibaba, Amazon, and eBay for parts, especially on these older mowers I'm refurbishing. I can now make a decent profit on an under $100 mower. It sure makes a difference in what I have to charge for a refurbished mower.

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I can see about being concerned about a warranty on a $45,000 vehicle, but warranty on a $80 carburetor, really?
The fact is most parts are now made in China, Mexico, India, Taiwan, Korea, etc. The United States sold out our manufacturing business many years ago (very sad). It is a different world than even 20 years ago. Most parts are now replaced and not rebuilt.

Tiger Small Engine said:

I can see about being concerned about a warranty on a $45,000 vehicle, but warranty on a $80 carburetor, really?
The fact is most parts are now made in China, Mexico, India, Taiwan, Korea, etc. The United States sold out our manufacturing business many years ago (very sad). It is a different world than even 20 years ago. Most parts are now replaced and not rebuilt.

Click to expand...

The problem is when there is no warranty then there is no quality control either because it does not matter if the parts work or not so 100 % of what comes off the end of the production line is deemed to be saleable quality.
This is one reason why there is so much trash sold on line .
QC costs a lot of money .
Down here because we are a long way from most markets we have a government mandated 12 month warranty on everything sold via a retail outlet .
So yes I get warranty on an $ 80 carb, in fact I get warranty on a $ 2 rebuild kit .
The down side is warranty inflates the price a bit to cover warranty claims so the $ 80 carb in the USA will be $ 90 down here

Tiger Small Engine said:

I can see about being concerned about a warranty on a $45,000 vehicle, but warranty on a $80 carburetor, really?
The fact is most parts are now made in China, Mexico, India, Taiwan, Korea, etc. The United States sold out our manufacturing business many years ago (very sad). It is a different world than even 20 years ago. Most parts are now replaced and not rebuilt.

Click to expand...

At the wages manufactures have to pay, it's almost impossible to make anything here anymore. Remember when $15K per year was a decent living? It should still be that way. Because those countries we're having to outsource to, that same $15K per year is a decent wage.
Since Reagan, the USD has lost 75% of it's buying power. Probably more in the last 6 years.

Tiger Small Engine said:

I can see about being concerned about a warranty on a $45,000 vehicle, but warranty on a $80 carburetor, really?

Click to expand...

I don't provide a specific warranty on any repairs I do or even on the equipment I refurb and sell. What I do is tell the customer that if he has any problems, to get in touch with me. I kind of use a one month rule. If the customer comes back with a problem within 30 days, I'll most certainly consider fixing it either for free, or at a reduced cost. Now, that is if I see no signs of mistreatment to the equipment. I also separate my repairs from whatever problem he comes back with. If I replaced a carburetor and two weeks later he brings the piece back with a sheared flywheel key, that's no freebie. Same holds true, even for that carb, if I pull the air filter and it's completely filthy and plugged up. I'm not going to do a repair for free on that one either. When I was doing this work a few years ago, I maybe had 5 or 6 customers that had a problem with something I did. I didn't hesitate to fix it for free. I'm not a big enough shop to refuse to repair something I might not have gotten right the first time. My little business can't handle too much bad publicity, especially the word of mouth kind. If you have never heard it before, you can have 100 happy customers that will never say a word about your business, but one unhappy customer will tell every person he knows about you. I find that to be very true.

bertsmobile1 said:

The problem is when there is no warranty then there is no quality control either because it does not matter if the parts work or not so 100 % of what comes off the end of the production line is deemed to be saleable quality.
This is one reason why there is so much trash sold on line .
QC costs a lot of money .
Down here because we are a long way from most markets we have a government mandated 12 month warranty on everything sold via a retail outlet .
So yes I get warranty on an $ 80 carb, in fact I get warranty on a $ 2 rebuild kit .
The down side is warranty inflates the price a bit to cover warranty claims so the $ 80 carb in the USA will be $ 90 down here

Click to expand...

With that cheaper stuff I get from Amazon, I don't even worry about a warranty. I just throw the carb in the box and buy another one from a different seller. I'll start the refund process. But if I gotta pay to ship it back, in the box it goes.

smhardesty said:

I don't provide a specific warranty on any repairs I do or even on the equipment I refurb and sell. What I do is tell the customer that if he has any problems, to get in touch with me. I kind of use a one month rule. If the customer comes back with a problem within 30 days, I'll most certainly consider fixing it either for free, or at a reduced cost. Now, that is if I see no signs of mistreatment to the equipment. I also separate my repairs from whatever problem he comes back with. If I replaced a carburetor and two weeks later he brings the piece back with a sheared flywheel key, that's no freebie. Same holds true, even for that carb, if I pull the air filter and it's completely filthy and plugged up. I'm not going to do a repair for free on that one either. When I was doing this work a few years ago, I maybe had 5 or 6 customers that had a problem with something I did. I didn't hesitate to fix it for free. I'm not a big enough shop to refuse to repair something I might not have gotten right the first time. My little business can't handle too much bad publicity, especially the word of mouth kind. If you have never heard it before, you can have 100 happy customers that will never say a word about your business, but one unhappy customer will tell every person he knows about you. I find that to be very true.

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When I was selling a lot of used stuff, I'd write down what I did to get it back up and running. So the customer the list and tell them if any of those things went wrong in 30 days, it was no questions asked. Unless, like you say, there was signs of abuse. Anything that wasn't on the list, was on them. But I'd give them a discount on the repairs that came up, even a year after they bought it. (I didn't tell'm how much of a discount)

PTmowerMech said:

At the wages manufactures have to pay, it's almost impossible to make anything here anymore. Remember when $15K per year was a decent living? It should still be that way. Because those countries we're having to outsource to, that same $15K per year is a decent wage.
Since Reagan, the USD has lost 75% of it's buying power. Probably more in the last 6 years.

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I just had a conversation with a guy about that very same thing. I'll promise you that I had more excess money in the 70s and 80s than I do now. Maybe not the exact dollar amounts, but percentage wise I had more "excess" funds than I do now. I realize a lot of that has to do with the fact my wife and I are both retired, but our incomes now aren't as healthy as we had anticipated. What has happened in the last few years has REALLY affected our standard of living. Once you commit to living off your retirement income you are kind of locked in. Then, when gas prices double, electric rates take a 75% to 100% increase, and groceries increase by 25% to 40%, it sure makes getting by on a fixed income troublesome.

smhardesty said:

I just had a conversation with a guy about that very same thing. I'll promise you that I had more excess money in the 70s and 80s than I do now. Maybe not the exact dollar amounts, but percentage wise I had more "excess" funds than I do now. I realize a lot of that has to do with the fact my wife and I are both retired, but our incomes now aren't as healthy as we had anticipated. What has happened in the last few years has REALLY affected our standard of living. Once you commit to living off your retirement income you are kind of locked in. Then, when gas prices double, electric rates take a 75% to 100% increase, and groceries increase by 25% to 40%, it sure makes getting by on a fixed income troublesome.

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If they'd stop using the Federal Reserve like it was an unlimited credit card, things would just barely change. Like down in Mexico, 30 years ago, you could live very well on $1000 per month. Now, you can still live good on just $1500 per month. That's only a $500 increase in 30 years.
Try living on $1000 per month here now a days.

If I hadn't found this place in Arkansas, I was headed for Mexico. Texas went nuts with their home prices and rent.

PTmowerMech said:

If they'd stop using the Federal Reserve like it was an unlimited credit card, things would just barely change. Like down in Mexico, 30 years ago, you could live very well on $1000 per month. Now, you can still live good on just $1500 per month. That's only a $500 increase in 30 years.
Try living on $1000 per month here now a days.

If I hadn't found this place in Arkansas, I was headed for Mexico. Texas went nuts with their home prices and rent.

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My wife and I actually had a couple of very serious conversations about moving to one of the Central American countries that allow dual citizenship. There are a few that allow dual citizenship where you can live like a king for $1500 to $2000 a month, and that includes a full time, live in housekeeper/maid. We kind of just let go of the idea. We never made a decision NOT to do it. We just stopped talking about it. If things keep on the way they have been going the last few years, we may very well be discussing it again.

PTmowerMech said:

At the wages manufactures have to pay, it's almost impossible to make anything here anymore. Remember when $15K per year was a decent living? It should still be that way. Because those countries we're having to outsource to, that same $15K per year is a decent wage.
Since Reagan, the USD has lost 75% of it's buying power. Probably more in the last 6 years.

Click to expand...

A very popular misconception
Th problem is management will not invest in high volume modern production equipment
If the machine is pumping out 10,000 widgets a day it makes no difference to the price of the widgets if the single worker operating the machine is paid $ 1 /day $ 100/ day or $ 1000/day.

Now MBS'a invent all sorts of economic markers for efficient running of a business.
One of these is the profit to equity ratio and the screen jockies on Wall st live & die by PE ratios.
The highest PE ratio you will ever make is by importing something and directly selling it on the WWW so it can be dropped shipped from the supplier.
Thus no CEO wants to have anything to do with making anything unless the company can get BIG & I MEAN REALLY BIG subsidies from the governments for doing it
If you ever go to Brazil, have a look at the VW factory
An airconditioned glass walled building inside and outer shell
Inside are hundered of robots & automated assembly machines and not 1 single human being
AFAICT things are ever worse n the USA
Untill some one shoots all of those over educated idiot accountants with MBA's who can not understand the difference between
"All profits originate in the board room "
&
"All profits are made in the board room"

If you really want to see what is happening, look at the % increase in renumeration of executives & directors ( including bonuses ) and those on the shop floor for the past 20 years

In OZ executives had increased their pay packets by 3500% or 35 times if you like
Workers have increaed 42%or slightly less than 1.5 times
CPI increases were 57%
So yes workers down here are going backwards

smhardesty said:

My wife and I actually had a couple of very serious conversations about moving to one of the Central American countries that allow dual citizenship. There are a few that allow dual citizenship where you can live like a king for $1500 to $2000 a month, and that includes a full time, live in housekeeper/maid. We kind of just let go of the idea. We never made a decision NOT to do it. We just stopped talking about it. If things keep on the way they have been going the last few years, we may very well be discussing it again.

Click to expand...

Living abroad is a major change. The culture shock alone is tough to get over. And if you don't learn the language, like 80% of it before you make the move, the chance of giving up quadruples.

bertsmobile1 said:

A very popular misconception
Th problem is management will not invest in high volume modern production equipment
If the machine is pumping out 10,000 widgets a day it makes no difference to the price of the widgets if the single worker operating the machine is paid $ 1 /day $ 100/ day or $ 1000/day.

Now MBS'a invent all sorts of economic markers for efficient running of a business.
One of these is the profit to equity ratio and the screen jockies on Wall st live & die by PE ratios.
The highest PE ratio you will ever make is by importing something and directly selling it on the WWW so it can be dropped shipped from the supplier.
Thus no CEO wants to have anything to do with making anything unless the company can get BIG & I MEAN REALLY BIG subsidies from the governments for doing it
If you ever go to Brazil, have a look at the VW factory
An airconditioned glass walled building inside and outer shell
Inside are hundered of robots & automated assembly machines and not 1 single human being
AFAICT things are ever worse n the USA
Untill some one shoots all of those over educated idiot accountants with MBA's who can not understand the difference between
"All profits originate in the board room "
&
"All profits are made in the board room"

If you really want to see what is happening, look at the % increase in renumeration of executives & directors ( including bonuses ) and those on the shop floor for the past 20 years

In OZ executives had increased their pay packets by 3500% or 35 times if you like
Workers have increaed 42%or slightly less than 1.5 times
CPI increases were 57%
So yes workers down here are going backwards

Click to expand...

Reduce overhead, increase profit. The guys at the top have it all. And all they want is more. They sack their blue collars with a 1% rate increase (instead of the 5% they were planning) just to give themselves bigger bonuses.

PTmowerMech said:

Living abroad is a major change. The culture shock alone is tough to get over. And if you don't learn the language, like 80% of it before you make the move, the chance of giving up quadruples.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I can see that. If we ever do get serious about making a move like that, we'd have a lot to do in preparation for it. The honest truth is that we'll more than likely never do it. That's a whole lot of change for a couple of 65 to 70 year olds. LOL!

smhardesty said:

Yeah, I can see that. If we ever do get serious about making a move like that, we'd have a lot to do in preparation for it. The honest truth is that we'll more than likely never do it. That's a whole lot of change for a couple of 65 to 70 year olds. LOL!

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But here's the thing. The friends I've made who are Mexican expats, wished so much they would've done it years ago. I lot of folks give up. But some just fall in love with it.
One couple, the wife wanted to try it so much. But the hubby was pretty much against it. So they decided to try it for 3 months. They've been there for 6 years now and both of them wouldn't even think about moving back to the states.

We all think the country we were born into is the bees knees till we spend some good time some where else.
In this last year I have run into a lot of USA citizens who have fled the USA out of fear that President Trump could be the catalyst for a massive outbreak of violence if not an actual civil war .
All of them said they were frightened about all of the "killer " wildlife that was supposed to roam around OZ looking for humans to wipe out .
Then they got here & found that the streets are not curb to curb venemous snakes and they don't wake up every morning to find the sheets awash with deadly spiders .
On chap came here before the last election by himself and has now brought out his entire extended family of over 30 people and they would have brought out more but that was all of the visas they were allowed . And the only thing they missed was their fire arms but they were starting to realize that down here guns are not needed to live a normal life .

Decent gun owners out number the bad 1000 to 1. Problem is, the bad ones are sneaky. That "trans-thing" that just killed those people in TN, had first planned to shoot up the mall. But found it was too guarded by armed security.

I was shocked to find that almost all of the expat destinations in MX were very safe. The news here is that there's no safe place in MX. The US news is something most expats don't miss.

The problem is people are not rational beings and tend to react immediatly to emotions.
A chap from my school year ( during those years ) got stood up by his girlfriend because she was entertaining her cousin, which was absolutely true.
Problem was he was an extreamly good looking cousin .
Terry went to the club for a beer & play pool, saw them together assumed he was lied to went home got his rifle went back to the club , shot her & him dead on the dance floor, shot a third person not fatally who stepped in to affer first aid, shot the security guard dead and then when fleeing shot one of the police who had arrived .
An over emotional 17 year old kid got 25 years , no parole 3 people died and 3 more were forever traumatised .
The big willers are the depressive farmers as rural suiside went down by over 80% once fire arms were restricted and in the case of farmers who are all allowed to own single shot firearms it is just the amount of time it takes to retrieve the fire arm from a locked cabinet then get the ammo which has to be in a locked container in a different room .
People see way too much US TV and think a bullet makes a cute little hole which gets a bit of blood around it .
In reality the 303 service rifle blew their heads apart at close range and splattered all the bystanders with blood & brain material
I was there but outside having a smoke at the time and many of the patrons never actually recovered from jst seeing what happened, including my then girlfrien who would never go the that club or any dance venuse ever again.
I went to her wedding and even then there was no dancing and that was near 20 years latter

bertsmobile1 said:

The problem is people are not rational beings and tend to react immediatly to emotions.
A chap from my school year ( during those years ) got stood up by his girlfriend because she was entertaining her cousin, which was absolutely true.
Problem was he was an extreamly good looking cousin .
Terry went to the club for a beer & play pool, saw them together assumed he was lied to went home got his rifle went back to the club , shot her & him dead on the dance floor, shot a third person not fatally who stepped in to affer first aid, shot the security guard dead and then when fleeing shot one of the police who had arrived .
An over emotional 17 year old kid got 25 years , no parole 3 people died and 3 more were forever traumatised .
The big willers are the depressive farmers as rural suiside went down by over 80% once fire arms were restricted and in the case of farmers who are all allowed to own single shot firearms it is just the amount of time it takes to retrieve the fire arm from a locked cabinet then get the ammo which has to be in a locked container in a different room .
People see way too much US TV and think a bullet makes a cute little hole which gets a bit of blood around it .
In reality the 303 service rifle blew their heads apart at close range and splattered all the bystanders with blood & brain material
I was there but outside having a smoke at the time and many of the patrons never actually recovered from jst seeing what happened, including my then girlfrien who would never go the that club or any dance venuse ever again.
I went to her wedding and even then there was no dancing and that was near 20 years latter

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In you're country, if someone would've shot him as he was raising his gun to fire on the couple, that person would've went to jail. Seems OZ will send people to jail for saving lives.

All it takes is one decent person with a gun, to end some lunatics rampage.