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When UPS charged me a $684 tariff on $355 of vintage computer parts

(oldvcr.blogspot.com)
320 points goldenskye | 1 comments | 15 Nov 25 23:55 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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JSR_FDED ◴[16 Nov 25 00:41 UTC] No.45941785[source]▶
Tariffs are great. They protect the struggling domestic IT industry and gives it time to ramp up its production of vintage computer parts.
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varispeed ◴[16 Nov 25 00:53 UTC] No.45941825[source]▶
I know one US business that used to make niche electronic product. Most components they used were from China. Got hit by the tariffs that wiped all the operating profit. Guy also had to sell his home and is now couchsurfing. Business is unlikely going to recover.

Of course he considered making chips and other components in the US, but he was few billions short to start the fab.

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calvinmorrison ◴[16 Nov 25 01:47 UTC] No.45942040[source]▶
a purported niche/low-volume electronics, but the profit is somehow dependent on BOM price? a tariff bump on a small BOM doesn’t take you from profitable to homeless.

if that happened, the business already had seriously bad margins, bad cash flow, over-leverage, or maybe he was just doing it out of love getting paid maybe back for his time or not.

tariffs might’ve hurt, but they don’t collapse a healthy niche hardware company where buyers are presumably also into the niche.

seems weird i dont get it. can you explain further?

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1. herdymerzbow ◴[16 Nov 25 02:31 UTC] No.45942272[source]▶
gamers nexus did a great (and very long) video on the impact of tariffs on US computer businesses. Some of the manufacturers went into quite a bit of detail breaking down their costs and how tariffs would render some products so unprofitable that they would cease to serve the US market. Not sure if it necessarily applies to a niche/low volume business, but the impacts on a larger business were eye opening:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1W_mSOS1Qts

tariffs have chopped and changed so much since this video that the specific tariff amounts mentioned are likely not accurate.