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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

#501

Post by nwallin »

Taniwha wrote: post #406
nwallin wrote: post #402

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

No, that's not the problem.

Here is the problem. I make a widget. It costs me $10 US to manufacture. I go to the post office, and ship it to an address directly across the street. They charge $7.

I go on AliExpress. I buy a similar widget, and ship it to the same address. The total cost, the item plus shipping, is $6.

Let's break that down. Their cost of manufacturing is lower. Let's say it's free. Ok fine. Trans Pacific shipping is cheap. Let's say it's free. Ok fine. They still have to ship it via the post office from the port in Long Beach to the post office in New Jersey; again, let's say that's free. The post office then has to deliver out across the street.

The post office charges me $7 to walk it it across the street. Why should the Chinese shipper only pay $6 for the same service?

Re: No More Cheap Shipping for Chinese Sellers

#502

Post by burnte »

jrockway wrote: post #240
burnte wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I absolutely fucking hate Amazon now. It's full of white label products. So is Walmart and Dollar General. It's always been the customer's responsibility to buy the product they want, not the store's. Don't want counterfeit crap? Don't buy IFONE FROM APPEL in the listings. I don't know when the last time I got counterfeit crap from amazon is because I look at what I buy before I buy it.

White labelling and counterfeiting are two different things. White labelling is just rebranding; I go to Home Depot and buy some screws, print out a label that says "jrockway's miracle fasteners", slap it on top of Home Depot's label, and sell them to you, that's white labeling. Counterfeiting is when you inject seemingly-identical goods into the supply chain. You mix up some soap and blue dye in your bathtub, pour i…

1. The commenter I replied to was talking about white label, they didn't mention counterfeiting.

2. I doubt Amazon purposefully sells counterfeit goods.

Re: No More Cheap Shipping for Chinese Sellers

#503

Post by burnte »

FussyZeus wrote: post #259
burnte wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I absolutely fucking hate Amazon now. It's full of white label products. So is Walmart and Dollar General. It's always been the customer's responsibility to buy the product they want, not the store's. Don't want counterfeit crap? Don't buy IFONE FROM APPEL in the listings. I don't know when the last time I got counterfeit crap from amazon is because I look at what I buy before I buy it.

Caveat emptor has to have limits. If merchants can just write whatever on whatever package and sell it, how the hell are consumers supposed to function as informed or responsible? How long until every transaction turns into a sketchy used car buy, having to take my package of fucking toilet paper to a maid so she can use her expertise to make sure they didn't make the paper out of razorblades and carbon fiber? I'm al…

So blame the seller, not the store, unless you really think Amazon is trying to sell counterfeit goods.

Re: No More Cheap Shipping for Chinese Sellers

#504

Post by magduf »

Scoundreller wrote: post #401
fhood wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I don't see how poly bags offer any weight advantage over an envelope. The advantage they have is durability: paper envelopes get easily ripped open, whereas poly bags are nearly indestructible for about the same weight and size. I've also noticed that many shippers now print their mailing/customs label directly onto the poly bags, so that probably makes the shipping process faster and more automated.

Re: No More Cheap Shipping for Chinese Sellers

#505

Post by jjeaff »

droithomme wrote: post #364
tombrossman wrote: post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you contact Amazon or the seller, and what was the outcome? You received a defective item and your out of pocket costs should be nothing. You should dispute the return costs with both Amazon and the seller, and the seller may tell you to dispose of the damaged item and refund you the purchase price. You are better off finding a local framing shop to custom make something for you. They don't charge too much unless…

> You are better off finding a local framing shop to custom make something for you. Yes, local framing shops can make things in any size you want, it's what they do. And usually fairly reasonable, certainly less than the cost of international shipping.

I find them to be quite expensive. You can usually get a single 10 inch photo framed and matted for around $70 base around here.

I did a larger one (maybe 30" x 20") at Michael's with a nicer frame a few years ago and it ended up being almost $300.

Re: No More Cheap Shipping for Chinese Sellers

#506

Post by magduf »

SmartJerry wrote: post #469
baybal2 wrote: post #399

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The US doesn't manufacture those items because it's cheaper to have them shipped from China. Raise the cost of manufacturing them there and importing them, and the balance changes. The US doesn't manufacture those items because it has no capability to do so. There are no factories, no supply chain, no expertise and no known how. There are some things that are cheaper to manufacture in US, (surprise!) if you manufac…

Even in industries the U.S. does have manufacturing for the cost of manufacturing is insane. I shopped around to literally every apparel production company listed on any list in the U.S. 50% of the companies said they don't have bandwidth to take any more orders, they literally didn't want the business at any price. The other 49% didn't deal in 'small orders' basically anything under 5000. In the last 1% of U.S. comp…

Check out the articles about the cost of small screws in America.

https://www.kut.org/post/one-reason-apples-computers-are-mos...

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/28/technology/iphones-apple-...

Basically, the US simply does not have the infrastructure to manufacture complex items in mass quantities. We haven't invested in that infrastructure, whereas China has, so they have the ability to do this stuff, and we don't. So trying to build an iPhone in America is like trying to build an iPhone in Zimbabwe or Sudan or Armenia: the infrastructure simply doesn't exist and it isn't feasible to take on a project like that there.

America stopped being an industrial powerhouse decades ago, by choice, and you can't just bring that back overnight, especially when some other countries never gave that up and will easily out-compete you.

Re: No More Cheap Shipping for Chinese Sellers

#507

Post by beowulfey »

defertoreptar wrote: post #358
beowulfey wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not really a subsidy so much as an underpayment by the foreign goverments[1]. There is no tax money involved, and all the subsidizing comes from the increased revenue from raising domestic shipping costs. The UPU has been around for decades, but it's only been since 2010 that the USPS has formalized the process with the "ePacket" shipping. [1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/storyline/wp/2014/09/12/...

> There is no tax money involved, and all the subsidizing comes from the increased revenue from raising domestic shipping costs. If the USPS loses money, which it has been every year recently, who pays the difference?

We do, the domestic customers of the USPS. But not via tax money; rather via increased local rates.

Re: No More Cheap Shipping for Chinese Sellers

#508

Post by Pigo »

unreal37 wrote: post #412
Pigo wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Thanks, I will try that next time when i need to order from that part of the world.
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