Source #1: the Americans

A friend introduced me to a Philadelphia-based group that he uses to coordinate overseas orders for various plastics products. The advantage with this source was their presence in the U.S.A.: this made communication easier which is important when getting custom work done.

This source also represented less risk: they own the factories, stand by their work, and they would be far less likely to run away with our money than an unknown overseas supplier.

The downside was price: the cost per unit from Source #1 is triple that of Source #2. The increase in cost, we assumed, meant that they would be higher-quality cables. Quality is important.

We ordered a sample. They didn’t ask to be paid for the units, only that we cover shipping. We gave them our newly-created FedEx account number, watched them bill us $98.32, died a little when we heard that they apparently sprung to have our FedEx package dipped in gold, and waited.

One-word reaction: yikes.

Why were some of these cables white when I asked for all-black cables? Why were these cables all different in terms of plug-size/style and length? What is that thing around the Lightning plug?

Not a great start.

Strike two was how thin and flimsy the cabling felt, and strike three was what the Lightning cable did when you plugged it in to a power source:

And when it plugged into an iPhone:

Ain’t nobody got time for that.

The Americans even managed to get a fourth strike (!) when the Lightning cable stopped working after a few minutes of beating it up.

Given the price ($1.77 for the USB-C), I really expected more from team USA. Lesson: don’t judge a book by its price.