I like sitting back and watching all the speculation about what we vendors are doing and how we buy everything on Alibaba. I'll give you some hints and hopefully it won't come off as abrasive or defensive. The current state of the market goes like this. A vendor spends $x on R&D, CAD drawings, 3D printed prototypes and then when happy with the design they go to several manufacturers that are capable (or claim to be) manufacturing those designs. After getting turned down by all the U.S. manufacturers, the designer goes to China. They are happy to produce the product if you either pay $xxxx. for the mold for any plastic pieces or at least commit to X number of units to cover that cost. After some time, either that same manufacturer offers the same product to other vendors (who now don't have to cover mold costs) or they put the product up on Aliexpress to direct retail market at a price that the U.S. vendor cannot compete with. Another thing that happens is Chinese vendors steal images or mocks up products by epoxying some 3D printed parts together for a non functioning prototype and they will get the molds made after the bulk order comes in.
I get it, you want really good prices. The only way I can stay in business is to stay ahead of the curve and hope that I can pull any profit before the copy Chinese retailers can get to my latest product. It's not going to get any better for innovators. Eventually this model will drive us out of business and then the newest products will be driven by Chinese folks that don't even brew.
