ch00f goes to Shenzen
I was also surprised to see a number of PC modders walking around toting their cases. There were a number of legitimate PC parts for sale. The customers would bring their PCs and install the new parts in the shop to make sure that they worked correctly. It's not like there would be any return policy or warranty once they left.
I really don't think my photos are even coming close to capturing the absurdity and enormity of this place. Ten stories of tons of little kiosks selling all kinds of junk.
[...]
I still can't believe how incredibly cheap everything was. I would pay anything to have a market like this near my home just so I could get some parts same-day, and yet here are all the parts I could ever need for prices that I can hardly believe. We purchased four micro-switches along with two rocker and two momentary push-button switches, and the bill ran us about $2 USD. Just one of the micro-switches on Digikey would have run us almost half that. I guess a lot of the value in the parts we buy in the States must be added by shipping costs.
http://ch00ftech.com/2012/09/10/china-is-awesome/
You remember when Steve Jobs said: "Those jobs aren't coming back"? This is why.