Postal Arbitrage • Hacker News Board

Re: Postal Arbitrage

#141

Post by mjevans » Tue, Jan 13, 2026, 1:53 AM UTC

shagie wrote: post #53

cinnamonteal wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The distance from Shenzhen to Long Beach is some 300 times the distance from Long Beach to Pasadena, depending on where exactly in Pasadena and which route you take. The CO2 emissions factor for a truck is some 10-100x that of a container ship. The exact ratio depends on what kind of truck, and what scope of emissions are being included. The more one accounts for, the more it will favor the boat. But overall, the emi…

From the data at the end of https://climate.mit.edu/explainers/freight-transportation +----------+------------------------+---------------+----------+----------+ | Mode | Freight (bn tonne-km) | CO2 (Mt) | CO2/Frgt | Vs. Sea | +----------+------------------------+---------------+----------+----------+ | Air | 303 | 155 | 511 | 79 | | Rail | 10,842 | 170 | 15 | 2 | | Road | 26,807 | 2,230 | 83 | 12 | | Sea | 101,486 |…

Bulk rates and flatter surfaces win.

However at some point branching is required, and the bulk rates also add latency.

Re: Postal Arbitrage

#142

Post by pdonis » Tue, Jan 13, 2026, 2:08 AM UTC

wizzwizz4 wrote: post #114

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> then let them operate in a free market. I think you meant to say "operate in a market that is regulated in precisely the way they want it to be".

I said what I meant: most VC-backed startups could not survive in a real-world environment. Thank you for highlighting the distinction. Note that a free market isn't necessarily an unregulated market (see: Adam Smith). Personally, I don't believe that free markets are a sensible way to manage local affairs. They work well on a medium scale, where goods are fungible and efficiency matters: but for something like the l…

> for something like the local pizza place, customer behaviour doesn't match that of a market participant.

I'm not sure why you think that. "Market participant" doesn't mean "always takes the lowest priced deal". People are willing to pay higher prices for food from local restaurants, as opposed to chains, fast food, etc., because they feel that the extra value they are getting (better quality, knowing the people who make the food, the atmosphere of the restaurant, etc.) is worth it. That's a free market.

What is not a free market is large corporations who get all kinds of government favors to prop them up coming in and taking advantage of arbitrage opportunities that the locals don't have the time or the energy to protect against--still more if such opportunities involve "marketing" the locals' products in ways the locals didn't agree to, and would not agree to if they were given the opportunity to make a choice. I completely agree with you that such things should be shut down.

Re: Postal Arbitrage

#143

Post by cellular » Tue, Jan 13, 2026, 2:09 AM UTC

Imustaskforhelp wrote: post #106

pruetj wrote: post #90

Funny seeing this. I've been working on a site to allow people to send a letter as cheaply and conveniently as possible. I actually think letters (physical) are a great way to make an impression, often times much more so than an email. Had never considered sending an actual object lol. At current scale (which is very small), the cheapest I can get it down to without losing money is $1.55 per letter (postage, paper, p…

What if you also start providing the 0.25$ lime feature as well (by making use of the amazon prime itself as well?) xD?

"Include a note with this purchase" = Free postage for a letter!

Re: Postal Arbitrage

#144

Post by ics » Tue, Jan 13, 2026, 2:10 AM UTC

andy99 wrote: post #24

sambaumann wrote: post #11

Turns out, at least in my area, for the grocery items you need to buy at least $25 worth to qualify for the free shipping.

I canceled prime ~8 years ago because where I am, half the stuff I wanted was considered an “add on item” that could only be shipped free if you had > $35 of other stuff, which is a complete scam because you get that without prime. Maybe that was just for me (in a large Canadian city at the time) or maybe they don’t do that anymore? I haven’t considered getting prime since, it would be a lot more interesting if it ac…

It was like that in NYC at the time as well. I'm not sure when it stopped but have not seen add-on items in a long time and most things seem to ship immediately regardless of price (with Prime).

Re: Postal Arbitrage

#145

Post by koyote » Tue, Jan 13, 2026, 2:18 AM UTC

bombcar wrote: post #23

I've used something like this list to get "over the hump" for $35 to reach free shipping without prime. It's horribly annoying to have a product that is $34.99 and you want it, but it'll cost shipping unless you get the damn Volkswagen screw; and then Amazon ships them individually anyway.

I have done this specifically with the second item in the list in the OP.

Not only did I do it to get free shipping, I got it to get free international shipping.

For extra bonus CO2 points, the other item was coming from a different country. So I basically paid $0.42 to have a single packet of kool-aid shipped across the pacific ocean.

(I'd never had kool-aid before and I must say I was disappointed.)

Re: Postal Arbitrage

#146

Post by codebje » Tue, Jan 13, 2026, 2:23 AM UTC

shagie wrote: post #122

chrneu wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

oh okay then that consumption is totally fine. no worries here mate!

If the goal is reducing carbon emissions, making shipping emit half as much (650 Megatonne to 325 Mt) would be less of a gain than making trucking emit only 80% of its carbon (2,230 Mt to 1,830 Mt). The question is which is easier to do (ROI)... to cut the shipping fuel carbon footprint by half, or over the road trucking (that's about 1/4th of all the shipping) by 20%? For that matter, moving 25% of the over the road…

EV trucking is a growing thing and might get that 20% reduction in trucking carbon footprints.

Re: Postal Arbitrage

#147

Post by xoxxala » Tue, Jan 13, 2026, 2:24 AM UTC

alexfoo wrote: post #109

jackfranklyn wrote: post #107

[flagged]

The USPS have been on the receiving end of it themselves back in 1916 when someone mailed a building: https://postalmuseum.si.edu/object/npm_2022.2007.1 https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/bank-of-ver...

People used to mail their babies for a while, but the USPS put a kibosh on that.

https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/mailing-babies-postal-servi...

Mailing a building is impressive!

Re: Postal Arbitrage

#148

Post by horsawlarway » Tue, Jan 13, 2026, 2:27 AM UTC

mattmaroon wrote: post #139

wizzwizz4 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want to fight the VCs, you have to pull stunts like this. If they want to destroy local infrastructure because "free market", in an attempt to secure monopolies for themselves, then let them operate in a free market.

But why do you think they’re harming “local infrastructure”? The food delivery services didn’t hurt anything but their investors in the end. And they kept the restaurant industry alive during the pandemic, the fallout would have been so much worse. I work in the industry and know several bar/restaurant owners who will tell you DoorDash and competitors are the only reason they made it through 2020-21. Early on they st…

This has not been my experience.

From my side, as someone old enough to remember Domino's running the "there in thirty minutes or it's free" promotions... These delivery services absolutely tanked the quality of delivery.

Now you can basically only get slow delivery of over priced, cold food. Sure, you can get it from far more places, but it's a pyrrhic victory if I've ever seen one.

Used to be if a restaurant offered delivery, it was ok food for delivery, at ok prices, and their drivers had gear to keep it warm and presentable.

Now we basically only do pick up because these universal delivery companies suck at the one fucking thing they're supposed to do. But they've run all the local restaurants out of the delivery game.

Re: Postal Arbitrage

#149

Post by nunez » Tue, Jan 13, 2026, 2:37 AM UTC

johnfn wrote: post #45

Somewhat off-topic, but when I click on "Case-Mate - Case for 2009 LG Xenon - Marsala"[1], the "About this item" section simply states: About this item - Do - Not - Buy - This - Product What on earth is going on here? [1]: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09D51KNQM

It might be a placeholder product to hold the ASIN.

Some (many?) vendors on Amazon will recycle pages this way. Sell some item, change the item and description to dummy values when it stops selling, change to another item that will be sold, repeat.

This is usually done to keep the reviews, though I've also heard about this being used for money laundering.

Re: Postal Arbitrage

#150

Post by Dylan16807 » Tue, Jan 13, 2026, 2:46 AM UTC

supertrope wrote: post #43

wizzwizz4 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want to fight the VCs, you have to pull stunts like this. If they want to destroy local infrastructure because "free market", in an attempt to secure monopolies for themselves, then let them operate in a free market.

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