Harbor Freight time?

[Fuddy1952]

I was curious what others thought about this. Now would be the time to buy anything made in China because of the tariffs, especially something expensive.
My thought is (and not to be frivolous) if there's something you can buy now for, say, $500...within a few months it may be $750.

 

[quicksandfarmer]

Nobody knows how long the tariffs will last.

 

[duffer]

And the tariffs are scheduled to be 25%, not 50% per your math. Will likely be less than that at retail price, as distributors and wholesalers will absorb some portion, as will the retailer. Not saying things won't go up, but might not be nearly as bad as the lame-stream media makes it out to be.

 

[RNeumann]

I think it’s a little naïve to think that China is the only place that makes cheap tools etc. HF won’t be slowed for more than a few weeks IMHO. Suddenly the stuff will say Taiwan or Vietnam.....or God forbid USA.

 

[JasperFrank]

I don't think any one will see any difference at all. Tariffs are directed to specific countries. Supply chains are not. Transport costs are so low now that anything can be rerouted through another country that is not affected or subject to the tariff as a third party. For instance, did that Canadian Steel really come from Canada? Or was there a broker that bought Chinese Steel in Canada and then sold it to the USA? This is how the world works now: All the rest is political posturing.

 

[Oldoak]

I think we will see prices go up because of the tariffs. How much of an increase, I don't know.

The potential problem for us consumers that I see is if/when the tariffs are called off, we will not see a price decrease equal to the tariff caused increase.

 

[fried1765]

I was curious what others thought about this. Now would be the time to buy anything made in China because of the tariffs, especially something expensive.
My thought is (and not to be frivolous) if there's something you can buy now for, say, $500...within a few months it may be $750.

I believe that is called "panic buying".
Usually not a good idea.

 

[aczlan]

The potential problem for us consumers that I see is if/when the tariffs are called off, we will not see a price decrease equal to the tariff caused increase.

You can bet on it...

Aaron Z