I’ve been searching for all sorts of DIY materials and noticed that many of them are made in and shipped from Taiwan, but can only be purchased retail from American retailers who want to charge me hundreds of dollars to ship it back to Taiwan. How can I buy these things (ie lighting, furniture, garden supplies, building supplies, aquarium supplies, wallpaper). I’m typically looking for fairly specific stuff because I know exactly what I want, but something shipped from Taiwan if bought in America costs, for example, $30 plus $80 to ship it from the US back to Taiwan which makes it unreasonable. Many brands I can’t find at BnQ or IKEA, so how can I access these products directly without them shipped to the US. I’ve already tried going to the corresponding local stores to see if they can get them, but it’s a pointless venture. Nobody is willing to try and get something they may not be completely familiar with here, even if they stand to make a fair bit of money off of it. Thanks in advance for any info.
I’ve had friends in similar situations. They’ve located products they liked on US and international websites and then discovered they were made here. However, often these products are made for export only and don’t have a local distributor. In these cases, the products are not supposed to be sold locally (taxes). Occasionally, if you can locate the actually factory, someone will “unofficially” sell you what you are looking for.
Yeah, if you can get the producer’s name and location, sometimes you can track them down online or with operator assistance, and explain that you’d like to buy one locally. Or ask whether samples are available – sometimes they don’t sell locally, but ‘samples’ are available, for a fee, to ‘trade representatives’. 