As one of the resident young guys here, I can confidently say my experience with all this pales in comparison to you all, but I’ll throw my $.02 in here anyways.
I’m in school for engineering, and I have some good insight into that world through family and friends as well. So much of what we buy and produce now comes from China. I have family that works for large American companies that do all of their production in China, and insight from them says exactly what you said Ken. You get what you pay for. Big companies based in the U.S. can have a ton of insight into what happens in Chinese factories, and work closely with engineers located and working in those factories. This drives up cost, but also ensures better quality and quality control. I work at a company that produces products on a completely different scale, but largely everything we do is made right here in the states. We have plenty of quality and qc issues here too, and while it’s more easily controlled as we can correct it on site, it still exists just the same.
When we buy super cheap stuff from China or the likes, it’s not unlikely that we’re buying something from the same factory off the same line that produces the stuff that is sold for more money by an American company. Logic says then that we’re buying the exact same thing, just for cheaper because we’re getting it direct. But, and this is the important part, it is also entirely likely that it failed qc or was not to the spec that the American company requires. I’m not saying this is true every time, but it definitely happens. So while we might be getting the exact same part as someone like mikes or the other companies mentioned here earlier (pick your poison) is selling, it may very well not be of the same quality.
Like I said, take this all with a grain of salt. This is mostly conjecture based on things that we know to be fact, and coming from someone with a whole lot less experience than you guys.
Anyways, just my opinion. You can totally get lucky and get great stuff for cheap, but sometimes you’ll get a flop too