No More Cheap Shipping for Chinese Sellers • Hacker News Board

Re: No More Cheap Shipping for Chinese Sellers

#171

Post by trickstra » Tue, Aug 27, 2019, 4:16 PM UTC

lumberingjack wrote: post #105

keiferski wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The shipping industry is responsible for a significant proportion of the global climate change problem. More than three percent of global carbon dioxide emissions can be attributed to ocean-going ships. This is an amount comparable to major carbon-emitting countries -- and the industry continues to grow rapidly. In fact, if global shipping were a country, it would be the sixth largest producer of greenhouse gas emiss…

4.5 million gallon tank 225 tons per day I can't believe people think their cars can even hold a candle to this type of fuel consumption.

There are much more cars, so yes, overall cars can definitely be consuming more fuel than ships.

Re: No More Cheap Shipping for Chinese Sellers

#172

Post by sct202 » Tue, Aug 27, 2019, 4:17 PM UTC

jrockway wrote: post #126

The impression I get from that thread is that the dream here is now Americans can do what they do best, sit in the middle of transactions and collect rent. Previously, you could go to a Chinese website and have the Chinese factory send you a widget directly to your door. Now that will be too expensive, but hey we have a solution! An American will order a bunch of widgets in bulk, ship them over in a cargo ship, come…

There are so many people hawking get rich schemes by selling on Amazon FBA. Judging by the array of meat claws on Amazon, there might not be a lot of opportunity left.

Re: No More Cheap Shipping for Chinese Sellers

#173

Post by j-c-hewitt » Tue, Aug 27, 2019, 4:17 PM UTC

wolco wrote: post #70

entropea wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nonsense, not everything from China is a knockoff and there are a lot of genuine non-copied products. How weird to think their economy is just "inferior knockoffs".

Resources aren't copied and value-added products like steel aren't either although techiques to produce or grow may be. Please cite some examples of geniune products. China is known for making existing products cheaper. The techology area is mostly copy-paste.

Almost any top brand you can think of manufactures extensively in China.

Re: No More Cheap Shipping for Chinese Sellers

#174

Post by ineedasername » Tue, Aug 27, 2019, 4:17 PM UTC

Scoundreller wrote: post #68

magduf wrote: post #5

This actually sounds like a good thing. It costs Chinese shippers almost nothing to send stuff directly from China, while it costs me quite a lot to send stuff within the US, largely because I'm subsidizing all the Chinese shippers. Moreover, for me to send any parcel (even very small ones, like 2 oz.) outside the US costs a small fortune these days, again because I'm subsidizing the Chinese shippers.

> Moreover, for me to send any parcel (even very small ones, like 2 oz.) outside the US costs a small fortune these days, again because I'm subsidizing the Chinese shippers. International shipping was expensive before China flooded the market b2c. If you sent a pkg to China, the US would only have to drop it off in China, the last mile delivery cost is mostly up to China. The actual air freight cost to USPS is about…

"using international shipping as a profit centre"

Canada is truly awful in this respect. In Canada, it might cost around $50 to send a small package to another country (excluding the US, which is a little cheaper). In the US, the same package might cost a little over $10.

I'm in the US and I occasionally have to ship small light packages to Canada and was always frustrated when it cost me $10, 3x as much to ship a few hundred miles to Canada compared to 2,000 miles within this country. Then I learned that shipping that same package within Canada would cost almost $20.

Re: No More Cheap Shipping for Chinese Sellers

#175

Post by chromaton » Tue, Aug 27, 2019, 4:18 PM UTC

I just got an email from eBay Main Street, which is eBay's mailing list for political issues which affect their sellers.

This email is tells me to call congress to NOT withdraw from the Universal Postal Union, under the logic that it will make it harder to ship stuff from the US to other countries.

Re: No More Cheap Shipping for Chinese Sellers

#176

Post by orthecreedence » Tue, Aug 27, 2019, 4:18 PM UTC

lordnacho wrote: post #141

x2f10 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not every person fits into a political bucket. Please do not bait politics here.

There's no baiting here. The guy says he's very leftie, but says something that sounds the opposite. I was curious.

Don't confuse "leftism" for "authoritarian" or "welfare capitalism." I advocate neither.

Re: No More Cheap Shipping for Chinese Sellers

#177

Post by rhinoceraptor » Tue, Aug 27, 2019, 4:19 PM UTC

jrockway wrote: post #126

The impression I get from that thread is that the dream here is now Americans can do what they do best, sit in the middle of transactions and collect rent. Previously, you could go to a Chinese website and have the Chinese factory send you a widget directly to your door. Now that will be too expensive, but hey we have a solution! An American will order a bunch of widgets in bulk, ship them over in a cargo ship, come…

> sit in the middle of transactions and collect rent

This is already a cottage industry, drop shipping. You make a shopify store, put up some marketing of people in sunglasses in front of brick walls, and sell cheap crap like fashion watches. Then when someone buys one, you go on Aliexpress and order it directly to your customers' address.

If you're a real expert in arbitrage, you don't settle for making a couple dollars at a time. You charge people thousands of dollars to "teach" them how to make their own drop shipping stores.

Re: No More Cheap Shipping for Chinese Sellers

#178

Post by lumberingjack » Tue, Aug 27, 2019, 4:20 PM UTC

delfinom wrote: post #140

jrockway wrote: post #126

The impression I get from that thread is that the dream here is now Americans can do what they do best, sit in the middle of transactions and collect rent. Previously, you could go to a Chinese website and have the Chinese factory send you a widget directly to your door. Now that will be too expensive, but hey we have a solution! An American will order a bunch of widgets in bulk, ship them over in a cargo ship, come…

Pretty much. I absolutely fucking hate Amazon now. It's full of white label products. You can tell the seller does no real safety testing of any kind from their broad array of random shit. You can't even trust the kitchen equipment for chance they made the steel with lead or the silicone is mixed with something toxic, etc. Completely unregulated market place of stupid. And this is on top of Amazon's counterfeit probl…

I work in automotive parts (ASE Parts Specialist Cert.) and Amazon carries all the same substandard automotive goods Autozone and the other Mexican car parts stores have. Valuecarft line is dangerous Mexican made remans, duralast same crap. Most the time you go to one these Mexican car parts stores to get hard parts your getting something marked up 200% and searching it on amazon gets you same identical part. Your right it's amazing that even more people don't die from crap parts.

Re: No More Cheap Shipping for Chinese Sellers

#179

Post by akvadrako » Tue, Aug 27, 2019, 4:20 PM UTC

LeifCarrotson wrote: post #64

iNate2000 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aren't ocean vessels one of the most efficient forms of transportation in existence?

In terms of dollars per unit weight moved, yes. They are not only moving massive amounts of cargo with low drag, they're also relatively lightweight compared to the product being moved. Also, there's no maintenance cost to keeping a flat path across the Pacific like there is in keeping roads free of potholes. In terms of environmental damage, not at all. Container ships burn some of the nastiest, most sulphrous and d…

You are wrong. Even in terms of emissions ships are the most efficient way to transport goods, in terms of km-tonnes.

Re: No More Cheap Shipping for Chinese Sellers

#180

Post by anon_cow1111 » Tue, Aug 27, 2019, 4:21 PM UTC

Shivetya wrote: post #50

magduf wrote: post #5

This actually sounds like a good thing. It costs Chinese shippers almost nothing to send stuff directly from China, while it costs me quite a lot to send stuff within the US, largely because I'm subsidizing all the Chinese shippers. Moreover, for me to send any parcel (even very small ones, like 2 oz.) outside the US costs a small fortune these days, again because I'm subsidizing the Chinese shippers.

being a buyer off ebay what always surprised me is the next to nothing if not free shipping from China. It is good to see it changing as an article from 2014 [1] indicated how the USPS is getting soaked for the shipping on our side of the ocean. if this is fallout from the trade issues it honestly is the only good outcome of them [1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/storyline/wp/2014/09/12/...

Noticed this direct shipping years ago, the first time it took weeks for a small part to be delivered. I think the absurdly low cost reveals just how much you can jam into a shipping container for the current flat rate.

Weirder when you think about it from a fuel efficiency perspective; it probably takes a few drops of diesel to move a t-shirt 5000 miles.

Edit: NOTE- if you still buy stuff on ebay, be sure to check the feedback page on bulk "US based" sellers. Currently some of them actually ship from china even though their location is set to the US/canada.