Hard to compete against China. I was buying magnetic mounts for holding work related measuring. Local vendor was selling them for $200 each, imported from Germany. Was also buy prism spheres that the same mount’s hold and from same vendor for $250 each.
Checked with a fab shop to see if they could beat those prices, they quoted $20 a piece more to fab locally.
Got to checking options online and found a Chinese outfit that sells one of the apparatuses I need but not the other, however they said they could fab the other also. I sent some pics and specs and they respond saying $27 a piece so now just waiting on delivery.
Cool to support local business but that’s hard to compete with.