Oh, and one of them broke while driving it into the ground. Chinese quality control!

KV's resident cheapskate (crazy lady?) can offer a tip, if you like?

I keep a stash of scrap wood around for craft projects, so I hit the lumber departments at Home Depot and Lowe's where both generally have a cart of substandard wood available on which we can grab things for $1 or $2 (warped 8 ft mouldings, knotty 2x4s and slimmer such pieces, as well as plywood and pressed wood scrap, too). These are usually pieces we need to cut down to remove the warp or else trim off the "bad parts," but they're perfectly serviceable to create things like tomato stakes, if you have even a manual saw/miter box. As to tomato stakes, you'd certainly get more than one out of your $2 purchase.

Sometimes, they'll also have (in the vicinity of those wall-mounted power saws they use to cut customers' wood purchases) small stacks of this same low-quality material that they give away for free.

And finally, the slender shims used to package and ship whole pallets of their newly-arrived lumber (shims measuring maybe 1 in wide by 36 in long by 1/4 in thick) they just toss in trash cans (also in the vicinity of those wall-mounted power saws). I've scooped 'em up primarily to cut down for jewelry making projects, rather than buying high-priced balsa, but they have lots of applications beyond just jewelry making or occupying landfills.

(Yes, I do realize your topic is cheap imports, not insanely frugal lifestyles. I should probably exercise more self control...)

Well, I might as well throw in my tip as to how to tidily store your stash of scrap wood in the garage: Go to Habitat for Humanity's Restore and pick up a single wood drawer for $2, then place it next to your workbench to store pieces upended. Collects 'em all in one spot and keeps 'em from falling over when stored in an upended position.

I'll go away, now...

Not yet! I respect my power saws.

Speaking of green tomatoes, for dinner tonight we had meat loaf (modified James Beard recipe), mashed potatoes, homemade gravy, and fried green tomatoes two ways (fresh basil from the herb garden with balsamic reduction, and the Mrs.'s homemade dill aioli). Pretty darn good. But what a mess!

Just stay away from broccoli.