Vintage Boomboxes in China?/Electronics Mall

Lasonic TRC-920 · Sep 19, 2017

While I was in China I was, of course, on the look out for Boomboxes. I wasn't in a position to bring them home, but I was of course looking. I didn't expect to find anything, mostly because the majority of the golden era of Boomboxes were built in Japan and I wasn't sure if any found their way to China.

Rob of Bumpboxx and his Chinese assistant Lewis took me to a MASSIVE electronics mall. I can not begin to express to you the sheer size of this mall. I was a bit under the weather, so we didn't take in the whole place, but it was city block after city block 3/4/5 stories high. Absolutely immense.

If it was powered by electricity, it was here. From karaoke machines, to iPhones, TV's, laptops, GoPro's, Quad Copters, Home Theater systems, DJ Equipment ect....

The most interesting this about all this stuff....

Everything you are looking at....All the iPhones, Samsung TV's, Toshiba laptops, JBL speakers, DJI Drones...

THEY ARE ALL KNOCK OFFS! None of it is real. Oceans of stolen intellectual properties!

It was just block after block of these places...

I searched and search for the "Old Electronics" section and found a whole other area of parts breakers. Where they were stripping cameras, iPhones, video equipment and I found this guy. THIS IS THEM MAN RIGHT HERE!

He had a micro shop, maybe 5' x 10'. He sat on a little stool and worked on a smaller stool as a work bench.

He was repairing vintage electronics. Reel to Reel recording, tube amps, vintage receivers (1950/60's). This guy would be my best friend if I lived here!

After hours of walking, I found found what I came here looking for....old audio equipment...

And with it.....a few boomboxes!

The man selling this Sanyo was asking 400 RMB HK Dollars or around $51 US. It was in very good condition and he told us that the deck had just been serviced and was 100% in working condition. I would have bought it, but I had no way of bringing it home. Maybe next time.

The same man had this Phillips up on the shelf, but when I inquired, he laughed and shook his head "no way!" He knew what he had! I have huge respect for a man who sells vintage electronics, barely makes a living, but still won't part with something he highly values! :bow:

jimmyjimmy19702010 · Sep 19, 2017

Wow. China really is the king of manufacturing. Can't believe there is such a huge market for fake ****. Samlung, Fony, Panalonic, JVD. :-)

Thanks for the tour.

James..... :-)

MyOhMy · Sep 19, 2017

I ca imagine walking around such a vast place: "I wish that was the genuine article......................and that one..................that one too.............."

Lasonic TRC-920 · Sep 19, 2017

jimmyjimmy19702010 said:
Wow. China really is the king of manufacturing. Can't believe there is such a huge market for fake shiat. Samlung, Fony, Panalonic, JVD.

Thanks for the tour.

James.....

It's a trip to see all this. Lewis, who is the Bumpboxx liaison between Rob and the factories among other duties stated that everything was a fake. Rob would say "even this?" and Lewis would say "even that!".

I turned on a Samsung big screen and the interesting thing is, the software that runs the device is the dead giveaway, as it was some other Chinese name and logo. Lewis was quick to point out, that, that is the easy way to tell. It you power up a Toshiba laptop, it doesn't have Toshiba's "Power up screen", it's some other Chinese brand. Same goes for all of that stuff.

MyOhMy said:
I ca imagine walking around such a vast place: "I wish that was the genuine article......................and that one..................that one too.............."

There were still some very interesting, I'll be it, very cheaply built stuff there. I want to go back and look for a nice Karaoke machine, as they had tons and tons of them there.

They had some super bright LED flashlights I was interested in and some Laser's that will set things on fire!

Not sure how to bring it home though.

The Chinese went through my luggage and took all the batteries out of my cameras which sucks. Probably lost $200 worth of batteries! They don;t allow them on planes, which is kind of lame, so I don't know how I would bring something home that has a battery in it!

Ghettoboom767 · Sep 19, 2017

Crazy place Chris! Wow,cool you saw a couple of old ones.
I'd be overwhelmed,I heard it smells kind of bad over there. Wow,just so many people. Good luck on your endeavors!!ðŸ˜®ðŸ˜ŽðŸ“»ðŸ“»

T-STER · Sep 19, 2017

LOve this thread as its a small chance to experience it with out being there. I can't believe they get away with oceans of fakes?

Im glad you found the old guy making repairs, he looks a happy soul in his little shop.

Lasonic TRC-920 · Sep 19, 2017

Ghettoboom767 said:
Crazy place Chris! Wow,cool you saw a couple of old ones.
I'd be overwhelmed,I heard it smells kind of bad over there. Wow,just so many people. Good luck on your endeavors!!

If you don;t like the smell, walk 20 feet, it changes often! LOL

T-STER said:
LOve this thread as its a small chance to experience it with out being there. I can't believe they get away with oceans of fakes?

Im glad you found the old guy making repairs, he looks a happy soul in his little shop.

I wish I could bring that little guy home with me and set him up a shop in my Boom Room! He is the REAL DEAL! All Analogue equipment in his shop! I know there is no job he couldn't handle on these old blasters.

Superduper · Sep 19, 2017

Well, you could have seen this coming decades ago... Other countries design all this stuff but lured by cheap labor, relaxed environmental concerns regarding industrial waste, etc. moved or subcontracted the manufacturing processes to China. So after decades of continual expansion to meet the global manufacturing demand, they are now an industrial powerhouse since they can do what other countries were too lazy or didn't want to do. Even apple. And what happened? With other developed nations teaching them how to make a quality product, and demanding that their quality meets certain specs. it was only a matter of time until they became capable of producing products in mass scale with acceptable levels of quality (unlike the toy like quality of stuff from decades ago). Unfortunately in the meantime, in order for them to produce something you want (iphone, or car parts for example) you must design and provide them with the specs or the information of how to make it. Once they have those, what's the incentive for them to make their own when they already have the plans and templates to make a quality product? After all, they don't need R&D, just needs to refine their master cloning skills of OPS (other people's stuff). Right?

The danger of course is that now that they've reached critical mass, have not only the industrial ability to manufacture stuff, but also with access to quality and sensitive instruments, and knowledge, they can begin to design their own. At what point does it become more advantageous to them to design their own goods rather than clone OPS? Not sure but I do believe they are not far away, if not already there.

There are also some unfair trade stuff going on that benefits China but not the other way around. I'm not exactly sure how they are managing this or what kind of subsidies is being applied but take for example stuff on eBay from China -- you can buy stuff shipped to your door for less than the cost of domestic shipping alone. That means even if we have a tree in our backyard that sprouts widgets that we can harvest for free -- we still can't compete with these Chinese goods because we can't even ship our free stuff for less than it costs to get them from China. Now someone please explain how that works? Because something smells fishy here and 1 + 1 is not adding up to 2.

caution · Sep 19, 2017

That looks so much fun Chris, I hear they're all over the place. Not long ago I watched a video of a guy at one of those in Shenzen, he managed to buy every part for an iPhone at different stalls and got it assembled and working it in his hotel room.

By the way the cheap shipping from China is an agreement the USPS made a few years ago (link)

Superduper · Sep 19, 2017

caution said:
By the way the cheap shipping from China is an agreement the USPS made a few years ago (link)

Sounds like a stupid one sided deal if someone can manufacture something, wholesales it to a distributor, who markets it and resells it on eBay, pays a fee to ebay and paypal, and then pays shipping all the way across the ocean to the USA, to our door, and presumably, after all that, each player made some money. BUT if we can't even ship that same item, say as a gift, one town or state over for less than what we initially paid for the item in the first place -- something just isn't right about that and someone is getting shafted but doesn't know it. After all, there is no such thing as a free lunch.

JVC Floyd · Sep 19, 2017

Hell I'm just glad china is there for us poor people who need cheap Chinese auto parts for american cars lol.

Reli · Sep 19, 2017

Cool pics Chris!

JustCruisin · Sep 19, 2017

Reli said:
Cool pics Chris!

ford93 · Sep 19, 2017

it's just sad that Japan once the mecca of manufacturing boomboxes is no longer in the game.

Lasonic TRC-920 · Sep 20, 2017

Superduper said:
Well, you could have seen this coming decades ago... Other countries design all this stuff but lured by cheap labor, relaxed environmental concerns regarding industrial waste, etc. moved or subcontracted the manufacturing processes to China. So after decades of continual expansion to meet the global manufacturing demand, they are now an industrial powerhouse since they can do what other countries were too lazy or didn't want to do. Even apple. And what happened? With other developed nations teaching them how to make a quality product, and demanding that their quality meets certain specs. it was only a matter of time until they became capable of producing products in mass scale with acceptable levels of quality (unlike the toy like quality of stuff from decades ago). Unfortunately in the meantime, in order for them to produce something you want (iphone, or car parts for example) you must design and provide them with the specs or the information of how to make it. Once they have those, what's the incentive for them to make their own when they already have the plans and templates to make a quality product? After all, they don't need R&D, just needs to refine their master cloning skills of OPS (other people's stuff). Right?

The danger of course is that now that they've reached critical mass, have not only the industrial ability to manufacture stuff, but also with access to quality and sensitive instruments, and knowledge, they can begin to design their own. At what point does it become more advantageous to them to design their own goods rather than clone OPS? Not sure but I do believe they are not far away, if not already there.

There are also some unfair trade stuff going on that benefits China but not the other way around. I'm not exactly sure how they are managing this or what kind of subsidies is being applied but take for example stuff on eBay from China -- you can buy stuff shipped to your door for less than the cost of domestic shipping alone. That means even if we have a tree in our backyard that sprouts widgets that we can harvest for free -- we still can't compete with these Chinese goods because we can't even ship our free stuff for less than it costs to get them from China. Now someone please explain how that works? Because something smells fishy here and 1 + 1 is not adding up to 2.

I'm with you 100% Norm. I don't want this thread to turn into a political argument, but what I saw, told me the change of power has already taken place. There is no coming back. I don't know enough about what is going on there from one visit to say how or why, but the amount of money that is being generated and the way it is happening is insane. There are no countries here in Europe that can compete and the US is way behind the game now. China is a powerhouse and we gave it all too them. It is what it is.

There are many cars driving around that are direct knock off's of Land Rover's, Jeeps and others, that look almost the same, but with different names.

In the end, China is right on the verge of not needing the outside world to be financially successful. It was hard for me to see and not feel bad for my home land, but at the same time, we did it to ourselves, by outsourcing all our work and intellectual secretes. And there is no taking it back now and no way that I can see, for us to compete. These people work with no safety net, no insurance, no accountability. If someone gets hurt or killed on the job, replace him with another Chinese! You can't run a business anywhere else but India that way and they aren't far behind.

It's a crazy world, I'm just trying to ride it out.

ford93 said:
it's just sad that Japan once the mecca of manufacturing boomboxes is no longer in the game.

Even Sony has their stuff made in China now!

Mystic Traveller · Sep 22, 2017

Great photos, Chris! :yes:

ford93 said:
it's just sad that Japan once the mecca of manufacturing boomboxes is no longer in the game.

Unfortunately yes, right, very sad, man.

Even Sony has their stuff made in China now!

Not yet all stuff but a lot,
recently bought a Sony receiver (FM/AM/SW) and was so glad to see
that it was still made in Japan.

Radio raheem · Sep 22, 2017

Great thread, reminds me of what it was once like here in the uk and most of the world, even though it's all fake gear... thanks for shearing with us Chris cheers :w00t:

Lasonic TRC-920 · Sep 23, 2017

Rimmer36 said:
Great thread, reminds me of what it was once like here in the uk and most of the world, even though it's all fake gear... thanks for shearing with us Chris cheers

It does remind me of being a kid, seeing all the shops with the front windows full of the latest and greatest. Other than the classic Boomboxes, I didn't see anything of real interest, but maybe a kid today would just be in heaven

JVC Floyd · Sep 23, 2017

Hell pretty soon I'll be shoehorned into a cubicle surrounded by all the stuff I have to fix just like the Chinese dude.

BoomboxLover48 · Sep 23, 2017

One will never know where the hidden boomboxes are....Only a few come up on Ebay!

Vintage Boomboxes in China?/Electronics Mall

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