And I’m not talking about people who import suitcases. For our purposes, a “suitcase importer” is a person who visits Bali and leaves with a suitcase, bag or backpack full of products with the intention of selling them somewhere else.

It’s the fun end of importing.

Suitcase Importers go to exotic destinations like Bali, Thailand, the Philippines and Goa, stay for a while and travel around and then, before flying out, fill up a case with small products that can be easily carried and sold elsewhere.

Years ago, I met people who did only this. They crisscrossed Asia: in Thailand one month, then Tokyo for a week to sell the products and possibly pick up casual work, then off to the Philippines for a month, learning to dive and doing a little travelling then filling a suitcase, then to Hong Kong to sell products and look for work, then to Bali and Java, travelling, exploring, filling a case, then off to Australia and so on and so forth.

Sometimes for a few months. Sometimes for a year. Sometimes never to return. A kind of Endless Summer without the surfboards… unless they were buying surfboards to sell.

In the early 90s, most of the people I met suitcase importing tended to be of a similar type. They were relatively young and carefree, often on a ‘gap year’ between university and real life. They woke up mid-afternoon, smoked, drank, partied, wore flip-flop sandals, very strange trousers and tye-died or batik tops.

They talked about LIFE, the SOUL, the FULL MOON. They stayed at bottom-end guest houses and hostels (hostiles, we used to call them) and did not smell fresh.

A new breed of suitcase importer…

From the end of the 90s and, I started to meet a greater variety of suitcase importer… some were simply on holiday and wanted to bring home some of the products; others were small business people — they would arrive, buy and be gone within a week. In other words, the sole purpose of their trips to Bali or Thailand would be product hunting.

I would assume the new breed of suitcase importer arrived with the proliferation of cheap transatlantic flights and discount airlines that have been filling up the skies for the past few years. In other words, flights to Asian destinations became so cheap that an American could plan a trip to Asia and know they would be spending little more than if they’d stayed home. To put that in perspective, you can stay in Bali or Thailand on fifty to one hundred dollars a day and live like a King or a Queen – that’s including a nice place to stay, excellent food (at nice restaurants) and doing pretty much whatever you want. In New York, Los Angeles or London, you can spend fifty dollars by lunchtime without really having to think about it.

And, even better, you can drop down the level of accommodation in Bali and Thailand, eat more simply and spend even less. Now it may not be literally as cheap as staying home but, even once you’ve counted the money you’ve spent on a flight, it is considerably cheaper than most holiday destinations closer to home.

An example of one suitcase importer in Bali…

I know one guy, a Canadian, who has been doing this for years. He has a permanent stall in a flea market in a Canadian city. Every year, certain points, the sales slow down. I’m not one hundred percent sure as to why the sales slow down – maybe it gets cold or maybe it’s that dip we all experience between the Summer tourism and the Christmas sales and the dip in January or in April.

Whatever the reason and whatever the season, at these times, he grabs a small backpack, throws in some light clothes and a camera and flies out to Thailand.

In Thailand, he visits jewelry suppliers in Bangkok he knows well, orders some stones and crystals that he likes, maybe spends a day or two relaxing up North, in Chang Mai, before returning to Bangkok, picking up his stones and then jumping on a flight to Bali. From the airport in Bali, he grabs a taxi for about three dollars or, sometimes, walks to Kuta (it’s only a few minutes away) and checks into one of the very cheap losmen or cheap traditional style hotels he’s been using for the past few years – the type of place that runs around eight dollars per night. If you’re not familiar with losmen, you might want to check out these images on google before you book one… they’re not for everyone.

First thing the next morning, delivers the stones to one of the jewellery crafts people he works with in Celuk along with a cash deposit,and pictures of the models of jewellery that he wants.

Start to finish, the order will take ten to fourteen days. Every third or fourth day, while the order is in progress, he’ll hop in a taxi or on a rented motorbike to visit the craftspeople and check on his order. The rest of the time is his – he spends a lot of it at the beach, slowly turning a deep, deep brown. Every evening, he will be at the ocean front, drinking one or two beers and watching the sun go down. Occasionally, he’ll stop into a cybercafé somewhere in Kuta to see how people are doing back in Canada and double check in case there are any new orders for jewellery. At the end of the second week, he goes back to the crafts people, double checks his products, pays the outstanding balance, brings it all back to the losmen, packs it into his empty suitcase, weighs it to make sure he’s within his fifteen or twenty kilo limit and heads back to the airport.

Just to be super clear: fifteen to twenty kilos of silver, gold and otherwise precious jewellery is a lot of jewellery and represents a lot of potential profit. If he spends two to three thousand just on the rings, pendants, bracelets, chains and assorted knick-knacks, he may be able to turn that around for between ten and twenty thousand on the Canadian side at his permanent stall. So, from where he’s sitting, the flights, hotels, trips to the beach and to the spa cost him absolutely nothing. He has, I think you’ll agree, a good system. He gets to travel to warm, fun and exotic places at least twice a year, some years he’ll manage four trips and come home to make profits.

On the next page, I’ll go into some ideas about where to go in Bali and what to buy.

Bamboo root ducks have been a popular export from Indonesia for many years — here’s a new twist on the line… airbrushed and handfinished rather than the usual natural or stained finishes you associate with the line… cute.

Click here to visit our bamboo root ducks category in the catalogue (opens in a new window or tab)

Other bamboo categories that may be of interest:

Bamboo & Wood Containers…
Bamboo Bird Houses…
Bamboo Products…
Bamboo Root…
Bamboo Root Ducks…
Bamboo Serving Trays…
Bamboo Totems…
Bamboo Vases…
Bamboo Windchimes…
Ceramic Incense and Spice Dishes…
Drums, Rainsticks & Didgeridoos…
Furniture — Bamboo…
Inlaid Resin Photo Frames…
Javanese Wood Trays & Coasters…
Lampshades…
Natural Flower…
Pandan Boxes…
Potpourri…
Stationery – Organic Material…
Tiki Bamboo…
Wall Decorations…
Woven Placemats…

Also, as a reminder, all of our prices are online but you first need to logon at: http://www.indonesiaexport.com/logon.php. If this is your first visit to Indonesia Export (hello & welcome), we’re a wholesale only company based in Bali — please take a moment to fill out our contact form and we’ll send you details for accessing our prices.

You can read the warnings yourself by going to:

• Australian Travel Warning
• US Travel Warning
• UK Travel Warning

It seems the warnings are a response to the somewhat confusing messages coming out of Bali before New Year’s Eve — first there was a warning of a possible threat on New Year’s Eve sent out by the US Embassy in Bali in which the Governor of Bali, Mangku Pastika, warned of a possible New Year’s Eve attack. The confusing part came later when a spokesman for the Governor’s office yesterday denied Mr Pastika had made such a statement.

You can read that story in detail at: The Herald Sun (Australian Online News).

Despite the confusion and that I’m mostly sure (99%) that nothing will happen, please read the warnings if you’re planning a trip out here any day soon.

Sean

Handmade Buddha products from Bali — a preview page including wholesale pricing. You’ll find random examples from our product lineup along with links to the main Buddha categories in the catalogue.

Buddha Wholesale Presentation with Prices (link opens in new window)

You can also read other update posts on Buddha products:

• Wholesale Bronze Statues (with many Buddha pieces)
• Buddha Relief Carvings
• Buddha Wood Statue Carvings

And here are links to related Buddha categories in the catalogue:

Balinese Classics — Buddha Carvings…
Bird Cages… with some Buddha accents.
Buddha Reliefs… handcarved wooden bas reliefs with a Buddha face motif.
Ceramic Incense and Spice Dishes… a number of different Buddha related styles in the category.
Golden Buddha… handcarved, albesia wood statues finished a gold finish.
Javanese Style Wooden Decor… a few different Javanese antique style Buddha faces in the category.
Recently Shipped… there are always a number of different Buddha styles to be seen in the recently shipped category (popular product).
Shoulder Bags… printed Buddha faces in different colors on a number of bags.
Sun Motif Mirrors & Medallions… a few Buddha styles here.

Enjoy.

Sean

Enjoy,

Sean

Handmade, hand painted and finished — bright colors, cute motifs, characters and shapes — a fresh line to update our metal homeware and decor categories.

Click here to visit our metal wall decor category in the catalogue (opens in a new window or tab)

When you have finished, you might also like to check out yesterday’s update on Metal Clothes Hooks.

Painted Bali Metal Products

Handmade and handpainted metal signs.
Bright, modern — themes will suit
anything from a child’s bedroom to
a seasonal shop display.
Custom / Bespoke orders welcome.

We have nearly one thousand handmade Balinese metal products in our catalogue at this time — click here to see them all.

Metal Wall Decoratations

[Update: December 29th, 2009]

We’ve just uploaded a “preview page” for Metal Wall Decorations…

you’ll get the first page of thumbnails with pricing — simply click below:

Preview Metal Wall Decorations

Hope you enjoy the new line and Happy New Year if we haven’t said that already.

Also, as a reminder, all of our prices are online but you first need to logon at: http://www.indonesiaexport.com/logon.php. If this is your first visit to Indonesia Export (hello & welcome), we’re a wholesale only company based in Bali — please take a moment to fill out our contact form and we’ll send you details for accessing our prices.

Map (via Google)

View Indonesia Export in a larger map

Simplified Map:

Bali Driftwood Lamp

I found out yesterday that our driftwood products category was broken in the catalogue and have now fixed the pictures and put everything back together.

Sorry to everyone who got annoyed about that but if you have missed the category or had a quick look and then threw your hands up in despair when you could only see thumbnails, you’re now welcome to return and check out the big pictures…

The original ‘new product’ article can be read here: Bali Driftwood Lamps

Or, if you prefer, you can go straight to the Driftwood Category in our catalogue.

Don’t forget that, as with most of our handicrafts, if you don’t see exactly what you’re looking for, please talk to us — nine times out of ten we can make what you need or find you a producer to make what you need.

Also, as a reminder, all of our prices are online but you first need to logon at: http://www.indonesiaexport.com/logon.php. If this is your first visit to Indonesia Export (hello & welcome), we’re a wholesale only company based in Bali — please take a moment to fill out our contact form and we’ll send you details for accessing our prices.

All of these  hooks are handmade and handpainted in Bali.

They are made from sheet iron, handcut, treated for rust prevention, painted and finished by hand.

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

Styles range from the whimsical, the cute to the plain silly — definitely a kid’s room type of product: cute and colorful.

You’ll see metal butterflies, owls, bats, cats, cactus (cacti?) and more.

Other products you may find interesting…

[Updated December 28th, 2009 ]

We’ve just added a range of Metal Wall Decorations to the catalogue — you can read that post here (loads in the same window) or go directly to the Metal Wall Decorations category in the catalogue by clicking here.

Wholesale Balinese Metal Art

A range of metal sculptures to
compliment modern living spaces.
Very popular at the moment — custom orders
and bespoke designs are welcome.
These can be produced in just
about any size for any use.

Painted Bali Metal Products

Handmade and handpainted metal signs.
Bright, modern — themes will suit
anything from a child’s bedroom to
a seasonal shop display.
Custom / Bespoke orders welcome.

We have nearly one thousand handmade Balinese metal products in our catalogue at this time — click here to see them all.

Hope you enjoy the new line and Happy New Year if we haven’t said that already.

Regards,

Sean

Also, as a reminder, all of our prices are online but you first need to logon at: http://www.indonesiaexport.com/logon.php. If this is your first visit to Indonesia Export (hello & welcome), we’re a wholesale only company based in Bali — please take a moment to fill out our contact form and we’ll send you details for accessing our prices.