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didn't you just answer your own question? go build or lease a building, get the lights, water and phone hooked up, hire an employee or two or three and pay them a decent wage, supply them some uniforms, pay for the materials, buy the equipment, jigs, dies and tools required, and by the way, don't forget to pay your business taxes, especially the county and state for all that equipment you just bought. pay for your advertising to let people know you are in business. oops, better hire someone for quality control while your at it. i've left out a lot but you get the idea.
Voila, you now have a merge collector. don't forget to price it cheap enough so the retailer can make a few bucks too.
now how much did that collector cost to build ???



You forgot EPA, OSHA and other intrusive government regulations.



there's that and even more, that's why i said i left a lot out. unless you own and operate a small business with employee's, you would never understand the overhead that can be involved.

i'm not here to bash the foreign made parts, i just wanted to point out how the pricing can be so different. our businesses in the USA are not government subsidized like in some countries.

and by the way, if you've bought what you belive to be a "junk" product or tool you believe was made in the U.S.A. please tell us what brand it was. all too often things are boxed to make you think the product is made here (i.e. Scat cranks and rods) but are actually made overseas.

machine shop owner and engine builder