cardaddy
New member
- Nov 20, 2012
- 3,937
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Sorry Don, didn't catch this one earlier.
Yes, I have a few of the 400's and 500's. Actually I think the TRC Spectrum would be a pretty close match.
The thing is, do you *need* the finer thread? I've not seen anything yet that the 360's scratch, (when they are clean, and well taken care of).
Do I do all of my QD duties with them? OH NOOOOOO!!!!! (Do you think I'm NUTS!):laughing: That's what they make split pile for.
But if I take a 700 gsm Chinese towel on the same surface it'll not scratch anything any worse than the Korean split towel would.I would venture to say that the 500 ultra-fine is likely as soft as you'll get in that type of construction.
None of these however are the same as the earlier mentioned DG towels. And likely the Zanio (which I don't have).
As for dye residue, ALL your towels need to be washed, (twice I'd say) before use. The darker dyes tend to bleed quite a bit as well. I have several gold 360's that are now army green because I washed them with fairly new black ones.
(Of course that just helps me keep them separated to work in areas that the REAL gold ones never touch.) :dblthumb2:Gold plus Jr's and all the other 360's, especially MFT's are as close as you can get to one another. But when you're paying $15.95 for 3 versus $6.69/3 is where I draw the line. I challenge anyone to find 3 of them in a stack of 12 from MFT (but you can find the Chemical Guys towels, different border, different gold). Like I said earlier, last batch of 360's I bought (180) I've half that much into them. Honestly, I think wholesale was around 89¢ plus shipping a year ago. :dblthumb2: Wish I could say that now!
(See below.)Yeah, like I said above, there are a number of sources. If you've had good dealings with a company and are comfortable with what they charge for the products that have pleased you, it's a win.... QUOTE]
I agree Francesco, at least somewhat.
It's nice to see these days that TRC and MFT's prices are more closely matched. OTOH that just means that Ian has gone way up on his because TRC was always higher. And now in fact, TRC is actually cheaper on some, or at least the Spectrums.
What bothered me more than anything however was when Junkman seemed to be the sole determining factor with TRC as to whether or not they'd totally ignore their wholesale buyers.Instead, claiming a shortage of towels due PURELY to Junkman (of all people), and doing nothing but selling those "tiny" orders (for considerably more money than they'd sell to customers that spend much more in the long run).
All that's (hopefully) in the past of course.
Meanwhile, MFT's prices have more than doubled in the last year, thanks I'm sure wholly to TRC's pricing structure. That's a win-win for importers such as they (both) are, but in the end all the rest of us little guys take a hit. Yet both of them will still KILL the prices of towels offered from "detailing sites" any day of the week. Most recently for instance, rolled edge 360gsm "freebies" that were sent out by the hundreds around Christmas. Those are offered at what, 6/$24.99 yet you can get them 6/$18.66 (somewhere, wink wink, nod nod). I know absolutely these are the same because I have them.
But yeah, take another 20% off, throw in free shipping, and it starts to close the gap. That's where things get interesting as AG doesn't sell wholesale, but they'll regularly offer 15%~20% off (sometimes 25%), which is all you'll get when buying a whole host of products via a distribution channel. For instance, I've been able to buy select electronics since the late 90's from local distributors, receivers, some TV's, AV distribution, whole home networking, etc. you're lucky to get 20%~25%, where speakers you regularly get 40%~50%. Go to a big box store during a good sale and you're better off buying there! Same thing would hold true with a BOGO, or 25% off sale, with free shipping on a big order at "detailing houses". But nobody really has to pay retail for microfiber detailing towels, as both of the places we've mentioned will offer wholesale accounts fairly easily. (But they'll not offer free shipping, which can add 25¢ per towel depending on what, where, and when.)
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One note on the whole Korean / Chinese debate.
There is much said about "did you feel"/"you can feel" when referring to the Korean towels. SURE they feel different, they are constructed different! Just as velvet feels different than flannel, feels different than terrycloth towels. Loop pile will always grab your hands/skin, even if it's made on the surface of the moon and ferried here on 24k golden threads suspended around nano-tubes by fairy princesses at the speed of light. Split pile feels different, acts different, and IS different.
What I'd like to see is the same construction, same ratio (80/20~70/30~72/25 whatever) made in the same color, same edging, from both sources. Take one in a dual-pile closed loop from both sources and another with the typical (as now known) split pile made in both locations. I'd bet a dollar to a donut that all things being equal (in the construction/size/weight) that we'd not be able to tell the country of origin, regardless of where the 'thread' came from.
