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No More Cheap Shipping for Chinese Sellers

sellercentral.amazon.com

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Re: No More Cheap Shipping for Chinese Sellers

#411

Post by yardie »

leshow wrote: post #310
hbosch wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bought a A1 sized picture frame from a french seller for around $50 on Amazon. It was a total pain getting an affordable frame in A1 size, because the best we can get easily in America is a 24x36" which is just far enough off to be unusable. When it arrived, it had some damage to the acrylic and I wanted to return it. Amazon Support said they would reimburse me up to $20 for shipping it back, but when I took it to…

I find that price hard to believe. Has anybody else had an experience like this?

Bought some books in France and shipping to US was ~$10. It never arrived and contacted seller who sent another. A month later the 1st shipment arrives. So I contact the seller to let them know. They want it back and will cover the return shipping. So I go to USPS who informed me shipping to France was $90. At that rate it would be cheaper for me to fly with it, 2x25kg checked bags are a hell of a lot cheaper.

While I was living abroad my mom would send me care packages and I had no idea what it was costing her to ship it. I would send her aboriginal carvings or SE Asian cooking utensils all the time and it didn't cost nearly as much.

Re: No More Cheap Shipping for Chinese Sellers

#412

Post by unreal37 »

Pigo wrote: post #207
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.

Maybe it is anecdotal, but whenever I order anything from China on Amazon, it takes exponentially longer to receive my product. Once I got Christmas items that I ordered in November the following March. There was no recourse when it happened either. I know it's a long distance, but it's substantially longer than orders I've made from other parts of the world. So I avoid purchasing from there.

That's why you should choose "eParcel" at checkout. Get your items within 2 weeks, with a tracking number, for a very small fee.

Re: No More Cheap Shipping for Chinese Sellers

#413

Post by drchiu »

ryanackley wrote: post #247
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…

Yes and no. Essentially this is already happening, except they are drop-shipping you the product for next to nothing direct from China. In fact, there is a small industry that revolves around this business model. The barrier of entry has just risen dramatically with this news. https://www.shopify.com/guides/dropshipping There are thousands of small drop-shipping businesses based in North America that depend on cheap…

As a side note, Shopify acquired an app to help with this whole process of importing AliExpress products for drop shipping a few years ago for about $10-15 mil. Oberlo, it is called [1].

I would guess based on the acquisition price that there’s likely a significant enough number of accounts that depend on this whole drop shipping at minimal shipping expense model.

[1] https://www.crunchbase.com/acquisition/shopify-acquires-ober...

Re: No More Cheap Shipping for Chinese Sellers

#416

Post by fullshark »

dev_dull wrote: post #75

> This is great news for U.S. sellers, especially eBay sellers. Exactly the intended consequence. Why should US taxpayers subsidize shipping costs for products to come from China? It made no sense at all in today's economy unless the only thing you care about is paying less for your goods regardless of the consequences, which I don't think is a majority position of adults today.

>unless the only thing you care about is paying less for your goods regardless of the consequences, which I don't think is a majority position of adults today.

It may not be the stated position of adults today, but it's their revealed preference.

Re: No More Cheap Shipping for Chinese Sellers

#417

Post by holoduke »

tverbeure wrote: post #391
euph0ria wrote: post #375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just curious, what type of stuff do you buy? I find that the quality often is poor when buying from Aliexpress with artificial ratings boosted by the seller doing anything to get a high review. Banggood has been better with more accurate ratings.

Not OP, but I've used AliExpress to stock my home electronics lab with resistors, LEDs, Blue Pill microcontroller boards, connectors, etc. All dirt cheap, often in individual parcels, shipping cost close to zero.

yes same here. Connectors, crimping tools, wire, electronic components, props, electric motors, control boards, radio sender/receivers, antennas, batteries, tools etc. You need to find your way. The stores have a lot of crap, but once you get a grasp of everything you find out that there is actually quite decent quality stuff out there.

Re: No More Cheap Shipping for Chinese Sellers

#418

Post by nwatson »

Scoundreller wrote: post #377
rtkwe wrote: post #371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does that deal with customs and inspections?

Show the manifest, they go through it. Dunno how much they inspect. My guess is that the company just hires dual citizens to avoid visa issues. US lets you do personal imports up to US$800 per import without taxes/duties, so they limit it to that.

Kinda like the Mexico-Canada dual-citizen Mennonite drug-smuggler Mafia: https://www.cbc.ca/fifth/m/episodes/2016-2017/the-mennonite-...

Re: No More Cheap Shipping for Chinese Sellers

#419

Post by hedvig »

TrackerFF wrote: post #284
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…

We've experienced something similar here in Norway. The commerce unions have been lobbying hard to get rid of toll-free imports, which we have up until a certain limit. (Turns out that the majority of imported Chinese goods fall under that limit) So they've been fighting tooth and nail to get that limit removed, which means that every single item gets slapped with additional brokerage fees and what-not, essentially r…

Why didn't the fee get put on the vendor/shipper?

Re: No More Cheap Shipping for Chinese Sellers

#420

Post by craftyguy »

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.

> largely because I'm subsidizing all the Chinese shippers.

I wouldn't expect shipping charges in the US to magically be lower after this change.

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