An acquaintance of mine who ran a small job shop found he could fill some of the shop's slack time by stamping out washers thanks to a temporary industry shortage. With no international business experience, he advertised for more such work in a publication that reached all of North and South America. Soon he had landed an order stamping out simple spacers and welch plug blanks for an obscure engineering firm in South America.
He couldn't understand why anyone would want specialized blanks when some were available off-the-shelf that might work at much lower cost. But it was a sizeable order, so he didn't say anything. The customer gave him detailed requirements for several specific types of blanks in terms of materials, thickness, weight, edge trim and so on. When he asked about the end-use application, the customer was evasive, as if protecting a proprietary technology.
It didn't take too long for the real story to come to light. He eventually figured out that several Latin American and European countries had coins and subway tokens that were suspiciously similar to the spacers he was stamping out for a fraction of a cent each. Inquiries turned up no records of the "engineering" company he was dealing with. Though he wasn't sure he was doing anything wrong, he politely declined any further orders.
Thom M., Roseville, Mich.,
