An excellent article. Something I have myself been trying to figure out ever since I got a $0.4 iPhone 4S case shipped for free to India.
A free shipping mystery
151–160 of 202 posts
Re: A free shipping mystery
#152Looking at the same single 13mm button on AliExpress from New Zealand, I also get the free shipping offer, 15-34 days via China Post Air Mail (I can also choose the DHL Express 3-6 day shipping for a mere $157.45 USD!)
I've noticed how common free shipping on AliExpress is and wondered the same thing as OP. Typically shipping to New Zealand is very costly due to remoteness. We do have a free trade agreement with China, not sure that would make a difference.
Re: A free shipping mystery
#153I have often bought stuff from deal-extreme, miniinthebox, lightinthebox, banggood, etc. They always ship for free to the Netherlands. It does often take more than a month to arrive though. I always assumed they just throw everything in a big container that goes out on a ship and that the whole operation is sponsored by the Chinese Government.
Edit: Pro-tip: Don't buy phone chargers, naively I left a Raspberry Pi running on a small chinese one and found it the next day burned black on the inside with the cable blown out.
By the way, the discuss on HN link at the bottom of the article links here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10331114
Re: A free shipping mystery
#154[deleted]
Re: A free shipping mystery
#155Looking at the same single 13mm button on AliExpress from New Zealand, I also get the free shipping offer, 15-34 days via China Post Air Mail (I can also choose the DHL Express 3-6 day shipping for a mere $157.45 USD!) I've noticed how common free shipping on AliExpress is and wondered the same thing as OP. Typically shipping to New Zealand is very costly due to remoteness. We do have a free trade agreement with Chin…
AliExpress is basically eBay-for-China so it's not quite the same comparison as to Amazon. It's up to the seller, but yes pretty much all products I've bought have free shipping.
Re: A free shipping mystery
#156I am 90% certain that a majority of international dealing Chinese vendors simply use counterfeit postage.
I was under the impression that there is a yearly accounting process that occurs between countries that accept mail from each other. So, while the counterfeit postage would allow the mail to be delivered, questions would eventually be asked.
There is no yearly accounting. The treaty is that countries deliver first-class postage letters and packages for free, for each other.
The idea was that there is an equal amount of packages shipped each way, so the post office makes up the difference in packages sent. That used to be true, and now isn't, but the treaty stayed.
Re: A free shipping mystery
#157It's a combination of subsidies in China [2] and really low Universal Postal Union rates for terminal delivery from China to the US.[1] Terminal delivery in the US is about $1/Kg. Market rate from Shentzen to Long Beach to ship a container is about $1200 right now. [1] http://fortune.com/2015/03/11/united-nations-subsidy-chinese... [2] http://cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/download/cp396.pdf
Sending something from China to Australia is far cheaper than sending stuff a few suburbs across. Wouldn't surprised me if Australia started refusing to deliver to the door as well. Our local parcels are subsidizing the Chinese imports.
Dell's Australian courier 'Startrak Express' practically does this already - they only knock once, if you miss it then you have to pick the parcel up at the warehouse.
One time they knocked zero times.
Re: A free shipping mystery
#158The postal service is a networked delivery service, just like the Internet. The difference is that the data packets are physical envelopes. Now, the cost of running the postal service is the cost of supporting the whole network of delivery vans, sorting offices, collections and so on, including all the staff. The cost of supporting the network is the same whether it carries a very large number of packets or zero pack…
That only gets you so far though. > assuming it takes the mailman as little as 10 seconds to deliver the package, and given he is paid the minimal legal wage here, that would already cost… 3 cents already! The marginal cost for delivering that button (even assuming the button itself was free) was more than 3 cents.
Even the envelope and the time to pack the button would completely destroy any profit. Even in China.
Re: A free shipping mystery
#159It's a combination of subsidies in China [2] and really low Universal Postal Union rates for terminal delivery from China to the US.[1] Terminal delivery in the US is about $1/Kg. Market rate from Shentzen to Long Beach to ship a container is about $1200 right now. [1] http://fortune.com/2015/03/11/united-nations-subsidy-chinese... [2] http://cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/download/cp396.pdf
The author is from France. Is terminal delivery as cheap in Europe?
Same here in Israel.. Also a mystery for me
Re: A free shipping mystery
#160Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's what I'm figuring. AliExpres's bread and butter is dirt cheap computer components and wholesale chargers and stuff for gas stations and the like. Their margin on that $100 android tablet is big enough to cover the shipping loss on hundreds of $0.03 buttons.
Aliexpress won't loss money, but vendors do.
Then why would they sell the 3-cent buttons?