Leupold rifle Scopes are known for their superb quality and craftsmanship. They’re also the leader in the optics industry, producing top quality optics. As Leupold popularity grows it’s no surprise why these premium optics are targeted by counterfeiters. Counterfeit leupold scopes have been popping up in the world market left and right. Here are some sure fire tips on how to spot a fake leupold scope.

Only buy from trusted web sites

When buying a new leupold scope make sure the web site you are buying it from is a trusted or authorized Leupold rifle scope dealer. Trusted websites will often go out of their way to prove they are an authorized Leupold dealer.

Trade web sites – Avoid big trade, OEM, or manufacturing websites that provide B2B services. Web sites like AliBaba.com, globalsources.com and tradekey.com are great for finding OEM manufacturers but will often list fake leupolds for sale.

What to expect from an authentic Leupold

Authentic Leupolds have a few distinctive markings that most fakes will not have.

Objective Ring – Authentic Leupold optics will have a thin objective ring with the company’s name etched on the ring itself. Counterfeits usually are missing this ring or will have the ring but not the etched writing.

Packaging – Often time counterfeit leupold scopes have similar packaging to the real thing but often lack one item, the warranty information. If you’ve purchased a Leupold you think could possibly be a fake, check for the warranty card information. If your missing it than you most likely have a fake leupold scope.

Leupold Serial Number – All of Leupold’s products come with a serial number. If the Leupold scope doesn’t contain a serial number then it’s a good chance the scope is a fake.

Always try to ask the seller for the serial number before you purchase the rifle scope. Once you have the serial number, call or email Leupold customer service to verify if the rifle scope is authentic.

Everybody sourcing products from overseas has heard of Alibaba, but for people looking for great deals on products directly from factories should check out this list. New websites have been hitting the scene, and some of them are really helpful for the larger businesses or the work at home eBay seller.

Niche Directories – These websites are focused on a particular industry and often provide better tools and filtering of information.

MFG – The best website for sourcing parts. Upload your projects, and get quotes from suppliers around the world. Also, the members have been active in leaving feedback on suppliers. You can now also source textiles using MFG. Jeff Beezos from Amazon.com is an owner of this company.

Panjiva – Great for sourcing garment manufacturers, their approach is different from other sites. They offer supplier ratings by reviewing the companies current shipments and customers. They offer information on shipment amount, and the type of customer and shipments.

Trade Intelligence – Ever wanted to know who your competitors have been buying from? US customs shipments reports are open to the public.

Zepol – The most searchable database for US customs reports allows the user to create their own custom filters. The system works within a web browser, and allows an unlimited number of searches.

Import Genius – Offers searches by customer name, product name, and supplier name.

Trade Mining – A lower cost system that allows a user to download trade intelligence reports one report at a time.

Piers – The largest trade intelligence company. Piers data is entered and analyzed, then put into their database. Reports are much better looking, but searches are more difficult and results may not have as much detail. They also offer trade intelligence on other countries.

Manufacturers and Wholesale Suppliers – Good websites for smaller orders and selling on eBay.

Doba – Sell goods on eBay without needing stock. Buying though Doba wholesale partners allows goods to shipped directly from the wholesale warehouse. The cost to the seller is 50% below retail, and the seller can select their own profit margin. Doba charges a monthly fee.

World Wide Brands – Allows you to search for suppliers, manufacturers, and wholesale companies. They charge a monthly fee.

B2X – Buy from China- Pain Free. B2X allows users to search manufacturers products online. No experience needed, B2X will ship the goods to you, and take care of all importing quality inspections. B2X charges an unstated fee that should be a great deal for smaller customers looking for good values.

DHGate – A platform for buying goods directly from manufacturers in Asia. Be careful of branded products, as there are lots of fakes being sold by companies who advertise on this site. But, there are great values ​​if you know how to use it, and the site allows feedback.

The Wholesale Forums – An online forum with 5000 active members discussing goods, suppliers, and products. Very good information for people looking to start buying and selling online.

Liquidation and GoWholesale – A family of web sites that offer off-price goods for retail and discounts for wholesale.

Simplx – Another large platform that allows users to sell goods directly from a drop shippers warehouse.

Large Manufacturer and Supplier Directories – If you want to work directly with factories, these are the best large websites. Please be aware if you are looking for a factory that many companies advertising on these sites are trading companies.

Alibaba – The largest online sourcing community has suppliers from almost every country in the world. Also included are forums where your sourcing and trading questions can be answered.

Global Sources – The most reputable sourcing website. Global Sources verifies suppliers and works more closely to ensure smoother sourcing for its users. Global Sources also operates many large trade shows in Asia and has many print publications for sourcing.

Made-In-China – The 3rd largest sourcing website in the world. They also work with SGS and supplier audit reports can be purchased online.

Global Market – A newer souring website offers a huge amount of suppliers and products. Also, you can email them projects, and they will send you back a list of qualified manufacturers.

India Mart – As the name implies, a huge directory of Indian suppliers and products.

Product Pilot – All types of suppliers and products are listed in the most visually appealing of the large sourcing websites. An arm of the Messe Frankfut tradeshow group in Germany, most of the suppliers listed have also exhibited at their events, but since these events are so world wide, the website gets a good assortment of manufacturers.

Leupold rifle Scopes are known for their superb quality and craftsmanship. They’re also the leader in the optics industry, producing top quality optics. As Leupold popularity grows it’s no surprise why these premium optics are targeted by counterfeiters. Counterfeit leupold scopes have been popping up in the world market left and right. Here are some sure fire tips on how to spot a fake leupold scope.

Only buy from trusted web sites

When buying a new leupold scope make sure the web site you are buying it from is a trusted or authorized Leupold rifle scope dealer. Trusted websites will often go out of their way to prove they are an authorized Leupold dealer.

Trade web sites – Avoid big trade, OEM, or manufacturing websites that provide B2B services. Web sites like AliBaba.com, globalsources.com and tradekey.com are great for finding OEM manufacturers but will often list fake leupolds for sale.

What to expect from an authentic Leupold

Authentic Leupolds have a few distinctive markings that most fakes will not have.

Objective Ring – Authentic Leupold optics will have a thin objective ring with the company’s name etched on the ring itself. Counterfeits usually are missing this ring or will have the ring but not the etched writing.

Packaging – Often time counterfeit leupold scopes have similar packaging to the real thing but often lack one item, the warranty information. If you’ve purchased a Leupold you think could possibly be a fake, check for the warranty card information. If your missing it than you most likely have a fake leupold scope.

Leupold Serial Number – All of Leupold’s products come with a serial number. If the Leupold scope doesn’t contain a serial number then it’s a good chance the scope is a fake.

Always try to ask the seller for the serial number before you purchase the rifle scope. Once you have the serial number, call or email Leupold customer service to verify if the rifle scope is authentic.

Are you looking to buy products for your store? You must have to buy from the genuine suppliers that give you best wholesale prices and are reliable to supply you products consistently else it is very difficult to compete with other companies. Before you buy wholesale there are few important things to decide: which products you are looking for your store (some of the high demanding products are clothing, jewelry, electronics), which manufacturers you are interested to work with (brand manufacturers or original equipment manufacturers), if interested to work with brand manufacturers which channel you are interested to buy from there products (authorized channel or independent channel) and which items you are interested to deal in (brand new & current, used or recycle or refurbished, liquidation items).

Where to Buy Wholesale: I found 10 places where you get best wholesale deals or suppliers of the products that you are looking for your store:

STOP! If you’re newbie or unable to buy large minimum quantity required by wholesalers check out my recommendation at bottom of the article.

1. China Due to there incredible low prices and unique product selection china is always being an attractive place for wholesale buying. Also sourcing products from china is a great opportunity for entrepreneurs who are looking to sell products under there own brand as you will find many original equipment manufacturers in china who will manufacture low priced high quality products for other brands at low minimum orders.

2. B2B Portals By using their trade board and suppliers directory you can get lots of wholesale offers of the products that you are looking for your store but remember most of the business-to-business portals uses automatic registration process by which any company can be registered with them which results in time wastage and fraud. Some of the largest b2b marketplaces are:

exporters(dot)sg

alibaba(dot)com

recycle(dot)net

3. Trade Shows I found most of the genuine suppliers regularly advertise in the trade shows of their industry as this way they get lots of serious bulk buyers for their products which is very difficult through search engines. Search online for the trade shows of your industry and make sure you carry some proof of your business such as business license, blank purchase orders while going to them as they are open to businesses only. Few of the biggest trade fairs are:

cebit(dot)de

cesweb(dot)org

gitex(dot)com

4. Manufacturers – Buying directly from the brand manufacturers or from there authorized distributors is a safe and easy way to get brand name products that you are looking for your store. You can contact the brand manufacturers directly for there dealership or ask them for the authorized distributors of there products in your area.

5. Wholesale Directories – There exists online many free wholesale directory where you can find lots of wholesale suppliers in various product categories from across the world. Beware while buying wholesale list or directory online as most of these are online marketing companies and revealed you suppliers which you can easily found across the search engines and the free directories available across the internet.

6. eBay – eBay has largest selection of wholesale offers which you can find under wholesale lots section of the product categories and is reliable, safe way to trade with other companies as you can check your sellers feedback, ask sellers a question, detailed item description and payment with PayPal which makes eBay marketplace an edge over other wholesale marketplaces.

7. Retailers – If you are struggling hard to find suppliers of the merchandise you are looking to resell its a good way to contact the genuine retailers or eBay PowerSellers of that products. Also its always been good to keep in touch with as many suppliers of the goods you deal in so to pick up the best wholesale deals and have the chance to get the items which are in high demand and are less available in the market.

8. Search Engines – Although there exists many middlemen and online marketing companies across the search engines which may take your precious time and money but you can get lots of genuine wholesalers from three major search engines Google, Yahoo, MSN by running a few good keywords like wholesale liquidators, buy below wholesale.

9. Warehouse Clubs – Warehouse Clubs like Costco, Sams Club, BJs Wholesale Club are attractive to small business owners as they keep there prices low due to no frills format & bulk selling of products. Also there cash & carry concept, offering wide assortment of goods, permanent availability of goods, long business hours makes wholesale buyers one stop shopping for there store products.

10. Wholesale Forums – You will find many suppliers being discussed in various auction, entrepreneur, wholesale forums online. If you are newbie in the reselling business go through various industry related forums online and you will gain lots of information regarding your business in general and if not get discussed with other people there of same industry.

There is a Bill Gates in Asia; he is Jack Ma. Jack Ma is the founder of Alibaba Group. Jack Ma at present is the richest person in China.

1. Our world is daily changing.

Jack Ma said, “Please tell your children that the world is changing every day and no one is going to wait for you in the past. When the lighter was invented, matches slowly disappeared. When the calculator was created, abacus faded away. When digital camera was designed, the market for negative films dwindled. When direct market selling/internet-based selling arose, traditional marketing declined. When Smartphone with 4G (wireless internet access) was introduced to the world, you no longer need to turn on your computer at home. When WeChat and WhatsApp (mobile text/voice/video messaging) were developed, traditional text messaging became less popular as before. Let’s not blame, ‘Who took over whose business.’ This happened only because people are more adjustable and adaptable to new ideas and changes in the world.”

The world keeps changing every day; I am inclined to believe that it is changing very fast in this generation that it did in the past. I looked up to the owner of a local buy and sell tabloid because he ingeniously conceived the idea of printing his tabloid and giving it away to any takers. He earns from the advertisements from companies and individuals who would like to get their products and services to the reading public.

Unfortunately, he did not respond to the threat of the internet. Instead of putting up a website to house the ads of his customers, he fought by discounting the cost of the advertisements. Soon, his business went into demise because people would rather go to the internet than read his paper. Enterprising businessmen reinvented his idea. Instead of a tabloid, they put up a website. This original buy and sell businessman could have survived the change if he transformed his idea and used a new platform. Instead of reacting and decreasing the cost of ad space, he could have transferred his business to the internet. He has already built the brand and has existing customers (advertisers and readers) while the new businessmen were just starting from scratch.

We must be sensitive to change and adapt to it very fast. Otherwise, we will find ourselves left out and our business will die.

2. Don’t just watch.

Someone asked Jack Ma, “What is your secret for success?” He said, “Really simple… I am doing (action) while you’re only watching.”Sometimes the best solution requires only a simple answer – do it; implement it.

Don’t just watch the successful people get more success; work to achieve your own success. As soon as you have figured out what needs to be done, implement it immediately. Otherwise, someone else will do it.

3. The most liked idea may not be a good idea.

I read that when Jack Ma does a brain storming session with his team, he does not get the idea that most of his team mates will vote on. He reasons that if most of the people want this idea then it is most likely that other businessmen are thinking of the same idea.

I hope these thoughts will help you as you evaluate your business and the challenges for 2016. Have a Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year.

Alibaba is often described as one of the biggest tech companies you have never heard of… or perhaps to put it another way, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos and… Jack Ma???

Alibaba describe themselves as ‘China Distributors & Exporters’ and have become one of the biggest companies in the world. With an upcoming listing on the New York Stock Exchange, the company has a projected value of $220 billion Dollars. Yes you heard correctly, that’s $220 beeeeeleon Dollars as Dr Evil would gleefully say… To give you a little context, Amazon is currently worth $165 billion Dollars and Facebook some $190 billion Dollars and these are both well established ‘house-hold’ names across the world.

So how did Alibaba, a company so out of the western public eye and consciousness, come to be such an Internet giant that now threatens the commercial interests of the likes of Amazon and eBay?

Humble beginnings

Founded in 1999 by Jack Ma, a Chinese English Teacher and a few friends, their ideology was simple, that they would provide a place to allow small business to trade fairly over the internet. Why the name? Well, Jack thought it would be instantly recognizable from the fairy-tale ‘Alibaba and the 40 Thieves’, not sure I would go for a company name associated with the criminal fraternity but who am I to argue…

Roll forward 15 years and Alibaba is THE place to do business with China… like a virtual shipping port, where all trade and export goes out to the world, Alibaba makes it simple for global B2B to do business with the industrial powerhouse that is China. Alibaba is reported to have 80% of China’s e-commerce market and reported $1.1 billion Dollars in operating income for the second quarter, 42% more than Amazon and eBay combined.

What model does Alibaba operate?

Alibaba is essentially a MarketPlace business like eBay, so unlike Amazon they don’t own the products or operate warehouses or the costly logistics of doing so, instead retailers use the service to sell to consumers and businesses directly.

Of course, outside of China, Amazon still reigns supreme in the global e-commerce stakes with well established relationships and global distribution. Amazon have themselves been in China for 10 years or so albeit with limited market share.

Alibaba are now moving into cross-border e-commerce and with no let up in China’s desire to own western goods, Alibaba seems to be in a good position to fulfill the need.

Your own Bank? Why not…

One advantage Alibaba has over Amazon is its e-payment arm called by the somewhat original name of AliPay. Compared to PayPal, AliPay processed $519 billion Dollars worth of digital payments in 2013 whereas PayPal processed a mere $180 billion Dollars.

AliPay is not just a payment transaction service they also offer Savings and Investments meaning that Alibaba is supported by it’s very own personal Bank something that Amazon cannot claim, I wonder if Jack opens his digital bank vaults to the immortal cry of ‘open sesame’? please say he does…

What next?

There has been much hype about the IPO for Alibaba and certainly the press coverage is doing no harm in educating people about Alibaba and will drive the success of the launch.

I am sure that Alibaba’s new US position will cause a great deal of nervousness for other e-commerce rivals, but that is no bad thing as competition ultimately drives down costs and prevents big companies from being complacent.

And finally, Alibaba have declared that they will be around for 102 years so I will be sure to follow up this article in 2101 and let you know how things went… in the meantime watch out for the IPO September 8th…

Following up on our previous article, which demonstrated how the exception to the rule can work out quite well, we will now get into more specific race horse blood lines. There are basically 4 types of horses that race in a para mutual setting. Thoroughbred, Standard Breds, Quarter Horses, and Arabs. Although now more and more tracks are also including Paints, and Appaloosa's. Since I am most knowledgeable about Arabian Bloodlines, we'll begin there.

The Arabian Horse is actually the foundation of all the Thoroughbred blood lines and the original 3 Arabian Stallions were actually the beginning of the entire Thoroughbred industry. The original 3 stallions were The Darley Arabian, The Godolphin Arabian Barb and The Bierly Turk. These Arabian Stallions were imported to England and all Thoroughbreds can be traced back to one of these three Stallions. But, more on that for a future article.

Currently, the leading Arabian Sire in the United States is "Burning Sands", and he has been the leading Stallion for six years in a row. Recently there has been a major influx of French Stallions to the US and they are producing quite well. These stallions include, Chandaka, Kaolino, Felina Des Fabries and Virgule Al Maury. The number one Stallion in the US for a decade or longer was "Wiking". Polish Stallions, Wiking included, were among the early predominant Stallions and they included such great stallions as Monarch AH, DA Adios, Czort, Sambor, Orzel, Mellon, Samtyr, and Kontiki. Some Russian Blood lines of note were the Stallions Patent, Novator, and RD Five Star. Representatives of Egyptian Stallions are Aswan, ZT Alibaba and MHF Eclipse. There are some winning Studs that reproduce them by producing many winners and then there are the studies that are considered "Mare" producers; meaning their daughters produce winners therefore skipping a generation.

You need to pick a good mare to match up with these stallions and there are dozens of great producing mares. Some of the current stand-outs are: Dixie Darlene, Queen Kong, Frynch, Novelynn, More Odora, Sasanka, Royal Athena, Sambors Colors, Heaven Kan Wait, Halianna, Lady Wiking, Sabellina, Adorable, and the list goes on. I can not stress to you the importance that the mare makes in the outcome of a successful racehorse. She is with the foal for the first 4 to 6 months of a foals life, not counting the 11 months of gestation she has and has a tremendous influence on the foal. So, in wrapping up this article, just remember NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF A FEMALE.

There are many places that you can go to research and find information about Arabian Racing.

As reported in New Scientist, in Toronto, and many other cities around the globe, ‘smart city’ projects are underway. The concept of infrastructure interlinked by software isn’t new. Having Artificial Intelligence (AI) use data to actively improve our everyday lives seems like a worthwhile endeavour.

This is not just some futuristic concept, as for the past 12 months, the city of Hangzhou in China has collaborated with Alibaba and Foxcom to build the “City Brain” project, where AI started to run the city. For the past year AI has been sucking up every drop of data it could get its virtual hands on. Virtually every resident is tracked; their activity on social networks, their purchases, their movements, their commutes – everything is uploaded to the AI’s databases, where real-time decisions are made.

The stated goal of the project is to improve life in Hangzhou by letting artificial intelligence track traffic, crime, commutes, purchases, interactions, general movements, and much more. Residents were tracked both generally and specifically, with City Brain even plugged into local social media – it even tracks their cell phones.

The project has been considered an enormous success, and Alibaba is now packaging the system to export to other cities in China – and ultimately, the rest of the world. After a year under the new system, rush hour traffic is down 10% as the system uses hundreds of thousands of cameras dotted through out the city, tracking the movement of almost every car on the roads. It can instantly detect accidents, blockages, and can predict traffic flow 10 minutes ahead of time, then adjusts traffic light patterns to even the flow. Illegal parking is tracked in real time and the system will even contact individual commuters to offer detours and weather advisories.

Here is one the police love. If someone breaks the law, they too can be tracked throughout the city before being picked up by the police. The reality is that a fully ‘smart’ city means that pretty much every aspect of your life is tracked – the privacy issues are huge.

Why does it seem to work so well in Hangzhou? As Alibaba’s project leader, Xian-Sheng Hua stated… “In China, people have less concern with privacy, which allows us to move faster.”

“It’s easy to identify when people are not following the ‘normal’ behaviour patterns. Having identified people who are not ‘normal’, they can of course then be tracked – and who they meet with, where they go and so forth can also be quickly identified,” says Paul Bernal at the University of East Anglia, UK. “As a way to control dissident movements or anything the authorities don’t like, it’s perfect.”

According to the Gartner Group, an estimated 2.3 billion connected things will be used in smart cities this year – a 43% increase over 2016. This rise of digital connectivity also exposes a host of vulnerabilities cybercriminals will be lining up to exploit.

In the video game Watch Dogs, you can play a hacker who takes over the central operating system of a futuristic, hyper-connected Chicago. Once you have control over the city’s security system, you can spy on residents using surveillance cameras, intercept phone calls, and cripple the city’s critical infrastructure, bringing the city to its knees.

While Watch Dogs is just a game, it illustrates a scenario that could happen in today’s increasingly smart cities. It was only recently that a major hack took place that targeted Internet infrastructure in the US with one of the largest DDoS attacks ever recorded. The root cause was tracked back to overlooked security vulnerabilities in hundreds of thousands of compromised connected video cameras. Similar Internet of Things (IoT) enabled cameras and sensors are driving forward the Smart City initiative that depends on these devices to manage the entire city’s infrastructure and assets. Essentially, this dependency suggests that even the smallest of security weak points within the Smart City infrastructure can escalate security exploitation to unimaginable and uncontrollable levels.

We are becoming a society that is more and more willing to have our every movement and conversation monitored for the perceived convenience of a ‘safer’ and more efficient city. We are giving up our individual rights and freedoms so that big government can better protect us.

It is a timely thought, as recently we had Remembrance Day in Canada, and Memorial Day in the US. On these days we honoured those who gave their lives to protect our rights and freedoms. The question going forward is, have we become too eager to give up those rights and freedoms that so many have died to preserve, simply to make our lives more convenient? A smart city is in reality, a surveillance city, where citizens’ privacy is the cost of the efficiency gains.

Stay tuned!

You must be on the same track as others. What I meant to say is that are you one of those guys who prefers to shop online rather than go hunting at every brick and mortar shop in the vicinity? If you just said yes, then this article is of your concern. This article talks about some facts and tips about online shopping for men’s clothing.

Facts About Online Shopping

1. Online shopping started in 1979 by Michael Aldrich.

2. Some of the largest online retailer stores are eBay, Amazon.com and Alibaba. They have almost everything you desire from clothing to house ware tools and more.

3. According to Wikipedia- Singles Day (11th November) is the largest shopping day with sales just in Alibaba’s sites at US$9.3 billion in 2014.

4. E-commerce B2C product sales totaled $142.5 billion, representing about 8% of retail product sales in the United States. The $26 billion worth of clothes sold online represented about 13% of the domestic market, and with 35% of men looking online for apparel, it has become one of the most popular cross-shopping categories.

These were some of the facts that you might have known or probably not. Let us look at the advantages of shopping online for men’s clothing.

Advantages of online shopping for men’s clothing

Price comparison: This is one of the biggest advantages that a person gets when he shops online. With numerous websites/stores that offer menswear, you have the opportunity to select from the styles that are very popular; from the most basic article that is men’s underwear to shirts, pants, jackets and more.

Availability of choices: From my personal experience, I generally don’t get such a huge variety at brick and mortar shops than the online stores. You get your desired colors, fabrics, cuts, styles and more according to your wish list. For example, if we talk about men’s underwear- you get everything from men’s brief underwear to men’s thongs or even men’s bikini underwear that match your personality.

Easy search options: The top stores make sure that customers easily find what they’re looking for. Hence, they create easy search filters such as size, color, style, price and more in order to get the best for the wearers.

Feedback options: Every product comes with a review page that helps you voice your opinion about the product you bought. This helps the brand and the store to provide better service the next time.

Timely delivery: One of the most loved aspects- timely deliveries by stores is what attracts most of the working class males. They need not waste their time in searching every store and can easily shop while on the run or even on weekends without going out. With faster delivery options, you are also benefited and it prevents the chances of you are not looking good at any event/occasion.

Lastly, there are some precautionary measures that you must pay heed to. They are:

Check size: This is the most important aspect that many people tend to forget and then they are left with no choices. A size smaller or bigger would not give the perfect fit. Hence, make sure you check, compare and measure your size properly before you end up buying the wrong size.

Read return policy: After you got the wrong size, if you’re not well aware about the return policies; you might end up wasting your money. So, it is always better to go through the return policies before you place an order. This helps you throughout the process of product delivery to getting the new one or the refund amount.

Fabric content: It is not important that what you see on the screen is what you get in hand. The fabric composition mentioned are many times different from what you pay for and what you get. So, be careful.

These are some of the essential aspects of online shopping for men’s clothes. Implement them whenever you shop at any online store.