Bertha's Big Boned Bargain Bin

I wandered around the Roseville auction today as I've been doing since I was a kid. First, I hit the Jimboy's taco stand then headed straight towards the real "flea" market -- the junk everyday-people are selling at the back. I normally avoid the "new" stands, the permanent sellers who import Chinese luggage, cheap tools, poorly built housal unit items, that sorta stuff.

I had a U.S. manufactured tri-fold wallet that held up for nearly 12 years, but it gave up the ghost and I had to replace it a few months ago. I bought a cheap Chinese made wallet at the Folsom auction five months ago but it is now falling apart. It survived 1/30th the time my U.S. made wallet did, and cost a whole lot more than 1/30th of the U.S equivalent. But, the only wallets available at the Folsom auction were Chinese. What choice did I have?

Therefore, today I bought another wallet at the auction, and I took great pains to not buy Chinese. I gave up looking for a U.S. made wallet a long time ago because they simply don't exist at flea markets. I am willing to buy good stuff, but the rest of our nation's residents aren't, so good quality U.S. made goods are simply not available at these venues. Shopping at the flea market these days is nothing more that a direct line between cheap Asian importers and you. Flea markets are like shopping at Bertha's Big Boned Bargain Bin, where every item is marked down cheaper than the last, where only bargains are offered, and where only cheap imported shit is sold, barely able to endure the tortuous outfitting of a plus-sized American woman beyond one fitting. They rarely survive two.

However! I found an Indian made tri-fold wallet today! I am excited at the prospects for this wallet because I am a great fan of Indian manufacturing. They build good stuff; everything I've every owned from India has turned out as good or better than American manufactured goods, and I am hopeful this wallet is the same. It cost me no more than the Chinese version, and would probably cost less than the U.S. version but remember, U.S. citizens are no longer willing to buy U.S. made products with their ridiculous pricing. I didn't have the choice at Roseville to buy American...so I bought Indian.

I long ago blogged about my good experiences with Indian manufactured goods and I fully expect my tri-fold to hold to that good standard. I would have bought American under every possible scenario while at the auction, yet truthfully I'm not willing to pay the added "service industry" markup at Nordstrom's for a U.S. wallet. $18 at the auction? Yes. I'd do that, for 12 years of walleting. $44.99 at Nordstroms? Hell no. Instead I blew $5 for my Indian wallet.

I expect it to last five years...not five months like that Chinese made piece of shit...