Airsoft vs. "Real"

[tha1000]

If I had ridiculous amounts of money I'd go buy a licensed KAC rail and compare it. But I don't and Id rather spend it on ammo. I am a believer that it is a cheaper metal used to cut the price down. Since I don't do anything airsoft related I wanted to see how much abuse a rail could actually take.

I once bought an AR with a KAC branded airsoft rail on it. I found out it was airsoft when it broke. Pisses me off even thinking about it because I thought I was paying up for quality parts.

Edited September 10, 2015 by tha1000

[RSDelta]

The fakes look convincing enough that it has become a real risk to buy parts or optics anywhere but from an authorized dealer.

[hornetx40]

If You don't support the companies that support our sport they will slowly withdraw sponsorship and eventually walk away from the business. It is difficult enough for small business to make a buck today. I always shop first at companies that support the sport even if I have to pay a little more......Why....if you don't repay them they will quit with sponsorship's. A perfect example is the large matches throughout the country that receive 10's of thousands of dollars in free and greatly reduced cost items for prize tables. If they don't see a return on their efforts they will stop giving us so much free stuff.

and for Gods sakes when you receive a prize have the decency to thank that sponsor by calling them or at least emailing.!

[Nimitz]

exactly ... I started a small company this year & we've sponsored 2 big matches. At the end of each we do a review of how much business was generated as a result of the sponsorship & donated prizes. We'll use that to decide if we will sponsor that match again next year ....

[b1gcountry]

I am also curious how much liability insurance costs for companies making firearm related gear

[BeerBaron]

Guys everyone is free to put their dollars where they can afford to and follow their conscience.

Having said that as someone with experience in the auto racing industry I've seen this before.

Basically the best intercooler maker in the world was a small Japanese company called ARC Japan (abbey road company). Their intercoolers were miles above the rest. They were expensive BUT fairly priced for the level of innovation, quality of materials, sophistication of manufacturing and ease of installation.

For arguments sake let's say an average model was $2000. On a race car with a $20,000+ engine it was a reasonable cost.

Chinese companies started copying their designs. Started at $1000. Then competing against themselves prices got down as low as $300.

They looked the same.

Sadly they had:

Poor qc

Chevalier and heavier materials

Poor airflow through the inside of the core (need to drive the turbo harder to get the same power)

Poor airflow over the core (car overheats unless you fit a bigger radiator)

Does not fit directly. Costs of labour to fit and your car gets cut up a bit.

Sadly arc went out of business. People naively bought cheap copies and for a company that basically only produced intercoolers, radiators and a few small parts they went under. The same will happen in the arms industry.

[Punished]

off topic, but when did ARC japan go out of business? I still see their products for sale at retailers. This thread went from asking about airsoft parts to turning in to a you only buy the original or nothing else. This is the nature of business and how growth occurs.

Person A makes a product- person B says they can do it cheaper and thus gain a larger market share. Person C comes in even cheaper. Quality usually suffers, but that's not what people are looking for. They have a budget and want to stay in that price range.

[blacklab]

OK....I've been reading through the posts, if you read my original post its not about Chinese copying a product. Lets put it this way: Everyone can agree that C-more is a good sight, right? C-more sells there sight to a lot of different companies. Those companies sell the exact same sight for as much a $40.00 difference. Why? Because of there "NAME" not that they have a better sight. I am 98% sure that the mag pouches I bought are made by the same company and sold under different names for a big price difference. They have the exact same injection molding marks and everything. If the airsoft ones were copies I don't think they would be that exact. I'm just trying to figure out why I should pay $40.00 more for the same sight or anything else at the "BIG NAME" companies. Especially if the generic company has just as good of customer service.

[BeerBaron]

off topic, but when did ARC japan go out of business? I still see their products for sale at retailers. This thread went from asking about airsoft parts to turning in to a you only buy the original or nothing else. This is the nature of business and how growth occurs.

Person A makes a product- person B says they can do it cheaper and thus gain a larger market share. Person C comes in even cheaper. Quality usually suffers, but that's not what people are looking for. They have a budget and want to stay in that price range.

Around 2008. There was a big push in the auto racing community to bring them back. Some guys bought some of their equipment etc and rebirthed a company that produces a growing number of their old product lines. I have no idea if it's ecaxtly the same level as their old stuff as I'm pretty much out of that game now.

[echotango]

I was head of sales for 9 yrs at a large hp parts manufacture(in the 90's). We were copied all the time and we would order all the copies. Few were decent/ok copies but most were junk. We did lose sales to them as per our vendors who also offered the cheaper versions. It definitely affected our bottom line.

Edited September 18, 2015 by echotango

[Ming the Merciless]

OK....I've been reading through the posts, if you read my original post its not about Chinese copying a product. Lets put it this way: Everyone can agree that C-more is a good sight, right? C-more sells there sight to a lot of different companies. Those companies sell the exact same sight for as much a $40.00 difference. Why? Because of there "NAME" not that they have a better sight. I am 98% sure that the mag pouches I bought are made by the same company and sold under different names for a big price difference. They have the exact same injection molding marks and everything. If the airsoft ones were copies I don't think they would be that exact. I'm just trying to figure out why I should pay $40.00 more for the same sight or anything else at the "BIG NAME" companies. Especially if the generic company has just as good of customer service.

Are you talking about rebranded C-more sights or are you talking about distributors who sell with a smaller margin than C-more because they are online only that don't have the overhead of a brick and mortar business?

As to the injection molding marks, the clones (you say generic, I say thieves) simply copy the part exactly, including where and how to make the mold seams and injection points. That saves them a bunch of engineering work figuring out how to make efficient molds.