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No More Cheap Shipping for Chinese Sellers

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Re: No More Cheap Shipping for Chinese Sellers

#401

Post by Scoundreller »

fhood wrote: post #325
xster wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's still humans in postal sorting centers? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjdpz05u2DY omg...

Basically has to be right? Even if the shipping labels were completely standardized, you still have to deal with irregular package dimensions, composition, and label locations. The sort of stuff that robots aren't so good at.

It doesn’t help that a lot of Chinese packages come in poly bags, which are a lot harder to OCR than a flat box or envelope.

But intl shipping is based strictly on weight, so senders have every incentive to cut weight wherever possible.

Re: No More Cheap Shipping for Chinese Sellers

#402

Post by nwallin »

Taniwha wrote: post #334
Scoundreller wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

As I understand it (and even though I live in NZ I manufacture in China and ship all over the world from there) much of the airmail shipping from China is essentially founded on arbitrage of the empty space in air-mail shipping containers from Asia to the West - it's while it takes a while and sometimes your package goes out of Hong Kong, sometimes Singapore etc In essence those packets are cheap because some smart p…

That still doesn't explain why it's so cheap.

Planet money did a pod cast on it. Some guy selling some product could buy a Chinese knockoff of his product (including shipping) for cheaper than it costs him to ship his product from his local post office to his house in the same town. (excluding the cost of the product) Think about that. The product plus shipping across the world is cheaper than shipping across town.

https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/08/01/634737852/epis...

Re: No More Cheap Shipping for Chinese Sellers

#403

Post by baybal2 »

reaperducer wrote: post #134
ComputerGuru wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the issue was in mistaking China for a developing country for so long. It’s different from western countries, but not undeveloped. Its size, population, culture, heritage, and history all play a role in how the ethnocentric West misinterpreted it.

I'm not sure that "mistaking" is the right word. For years the United States has protested the cheap UPU rates that China gets. But the UPU still classifies it as a "developing" nation. China is the world's second-largest economy. It doesn't need or deserve the artificially cheap rates anymore. China shouldn't pay less to send packages overseas than countries in Africa. By leaving the UPU, the United States can set c…

> China is the world's second-largest economy. It doesn't need or deserve the artificially cheap rates anymore. China shouldn't pay less to send packages overseas than countries in Africa.

China is a undeveloped nation. There are still parts of China where people live on under $40 a day.

Developed nations have a moral obligation to help undeveloped nations

Re: No More Cheap Shipping for Chinese Sellers

#404

Post by tasty_freeze »

BurningFrog wrote: post #152
tasty_freeze wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The USPS does have a special relationship, but it isn't a one way street. First, it isn't a monopoly -- there are many other shippers competing in the profitable segments of the market. Second, USPS is obligated to service every location in the US, and at government-controlled prices. USPS will deliver, door to door, a letter from Nowhere, MT to Remote, GA for $0.55, even though they take a loss on it. Try to get Fed…

> First, it isn't a monopoly But it is. A simple googling gives many hits confirming this simple fact. This one seemed most informative: > The USPS actually has two legally enforced monopolies, as per Title 39 of the US Code. One is over the delivery of anything defined as a “letter,” which is within certain size and weight limits. The second is over the use of your mailbox. From https://www.econlib.org/rick-geddes-e…

That is defining monopoly in a very constrained way. You might as well be complaining that USPS having a monopoly over delivering watch fobs. FedEx isn't trying to capture the $0.55 letter delivery market.

Re: No More Cheap Shipping for Chinese Sellers

#405

Post by dang »

criley2 wrote: post #248
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…

Americans: Basically invent the modern internet including just about every major service and store. Non-Americans: AMERICANS ARE ONLY GOOD AT COLLECTING RENT, AMIRITE? Oof owie I forgot Silicon Valley was in Europe.

Whoa, this breaks a whole bunch of the site guidelines. Would you please review them and stick to the rules when posting here?

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Edit: we've had to ask you this a bunch of times before. If you continue ignoring these requests we will ban you. Also, I'm pretty sure jrockway is super American—not that it's relevant here, because you can't attack another user based on where they're from or where you imagine they're from.

Re: No More Cheap Shipping for Chinese Sellers

#406

Post by Taniwha »

nwallin wrote: post #402
Taniwha wrote: post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I understand it (and even though I live in NZ I manufacture in China and ship all over the world from there) much of the airmail shipping from China is essentially founded on arbitrage of the empty space in air-mail shipping containers from Asia to the West - it's while it takes a while and sometimes your package goes out of Hong Kong, sometimes Singapore etc In essence those packets are cheap because some smart p…

That still doesn't explain why it's so cheap. Planet money did a pod cast on it. Some guy selling some product could buy a Chinese knockoff of his product (including shipping) for cheaper than it costs him to ship his product from his local post office to his house in the same town. (excluding the cost of the product) Think about that. The product plus shipping across the world is cheaper than shipping across town. h…

I think it's because they are buying space that otherwise would be empty, and maintain an elastic buffer of packages to fill those spaces as they become available - the outgoing mail containers on planes are likely booked and paid for months in advance so the people paying for them will happily take 20% of their normal rate to fill the rest of them at the last minute

Re: No More Cheap Shipping for Chinese Sellers

#407

Post by inferiorhuman »

magduf wrote: post #394
inferiorhuman wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With USPS it will depend largely on how you send it. Priority Mail will be expensive (and fairly quick). A first class package (if you're within the limits) can be much cheaper if you don't mind the lack of tracking. I mailed some 8x10s overseas in a rigid envelope and my friend swore up and down it would be too expensive ($30+). I think in the end it cost under $10 per envelope. Meanwhile international postcards fro…

>Meanwhile international postcards from Germany were like 2€. What are you talking about? I was just in Germany last year, and sent a bunch of international postcards for €0.90 each. That's the standard postcard rate for sending a postcard anywhere in the world. (It's €0.45 within Germany.)

Prices went up this year, and from my POV the German post was indecipherable. An international post card required two stamps. Deutsche Post is showing domestic postcards at 0.60€, but their postage calculator is showing international postcards at 0.95€. Fuck if I remember what I paid.

Re: No More Cheap Shipping for Chinese Sellers

#408

Post by Scoundreller »

Baeocystin wrote: post #356
leshow wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I participate in reddit gift exchanges, and frequently get recipients in the EU. What would cost me ~$10-15 to ship in the states or somewhere in asia routinely costs north of $50 for European destinations. And these are small things, nothing like the size of a picture frame. The $300+ cost for the frame doesn't surprise me at all.

Depending on the destination, if you have a “______town” for that ethnicity (or a nearby one that they’re not at war with), they’ll have some shops that can do far cheaper rates by consolidating.

A polish shop near me can send things to most of W. Europe for far less than the post office can.

The Ukrainian credit union near me can send cash to anyone in Ukraine pretty cheaply.

Re: No More Cheap Shipping for Chinese Sellers

#409

Post by pawelk »

axaxs wrote: post #169

I don't know why USPS doesn't just raise its rates across the board. I understand why, 50, 20, or even perhaps 15 years ago, it was important to keep mail ultra cheap. But today, I'd argue >95% of mail comes from businesses, and most of that are ads in some form or another. It's ridiculous to me that I can send a piece of mail to the other side of the USA in 2 days for less than $0.50. I don't want prices to go up, o…

> I'd argue >95% of mail comes from businesses, and most of that are ads in some form or another. It's ridiculous to me that I can send a piece of mail to the other side of the USA in 2 days for less than $0.50

Don't you think these two facts are somehow related? They have to go by your house every day anyway, carrying paid junk mail, and the marginal cost of delivering an actual letter is quite low. Maybe a bit analogous to newspapers/magazines, where the price you pay may not even cover the printing costs, but the difference is subsidized by the advertisers.

Re: No More Cheap Shipping for Chinese Sellers

#410

Post by compsciphd »

trhway wrote: post #231
lonelappde wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A long time ago, USPS signed an insane sweetheart deal for free shipping from China, thinking that it would help US companies ship to China. But for many reasons (labor laws, environmental laws, go subsidies) outsidee of shipping costs, US-China post package shipping (not heavy industry whatever), is absolutely massively imbalanced. Chinese shippers massive privilege over US domestic shippers (shipping to ISo custome…

>despite shipping from China being obviously more expensive in real world resources. 3 weeks container shipping on a super container ship vs. even cheapest truck shipping ?

container ship shipping from US to Middle East was cheaper for me than shipping my stuff from NYC to California (and similar shipment from east coast to middle east was less tha half the price of shipping from California). Boat is much cheaper than truck overall.
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