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USPS loses millions each year on local delivery of mail from abroad (2014)

washingtonpost.com

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Re: USPS loses millions each year on local delivery of mail from abroad (2014)

#81

Post by TeMPOraL »

sixothree wrote: post #78
new299 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd agree intermediaries aren't really adding anything of value. The problem is however, even in cases when you can produce something as cheaply in the US as in China, a Chinese seller can still beat you on price because they pay less for shipping. And that seems dumb.

When I buy components from china it is often the case that the price plus shipping is less than the shipping alone from a US supplier.

Components are actually one of the three categories of things I order from China. The other two being cheap trinkets and casual clothes. China-ordered components come from the same factories anyway, trinkets are binary (they either work or don't, not much space for quality difference), and regular clothes are crappy throwaway items regardless of where you buy them.

Anything else I consider too risky. In particular, I never order consumer electronics from China (unless I explicitly go for a particular Chinese brand). The crap quality is not worth the price savings.

Re: USPS loses millions each year on local delivery of mail from abroad (2014)

#82

Post by JohnTHaller »

tyingq wrote: post #77
komali2 wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see how what you said couldn't equally apply to American sellers.

It could, yes, but it's not been my experience. I suspect part of it is that Amazon is a bit better about blocking US sellers that perform badly, blacklisting the tax id, address, bank accounts, etc, such that bad US sellers can't come back, or create a new entity shedding a history of bad reviews. I don't think they have that same ability for Chinese sellers.

Chinese sellers seem to pop up again with a new fake name overnight on Amazon. And they polute the Amazon inventory with fake goods. To make matters worse, Amazon blocks most reviews that point out receiving fake products.

Re: USPS loses millions each year on local delivery of mail from abroad (2014)

#83

Post by phkahler »

The US postal service has had an inaccurate price model forever. Bulk mail (junk mail) has always been way cheaper to send than first class. It's for the same reason - they act like delivery is almost no-cost. They assume the system is already in place, that someone will swing by your home daily to drop stuff off and pick stuff up. Then adding an item to the pile is really of little consequence. The reality though (for a time at least) became that the mail was largely junk being subsidized by the high price of a few first class pieces of mail.

They've needed to fix the pricing model for a very long time.

Re: USPS loses millions each year on local delivery of mail from abroad (2014)

#84

Post by TeMPOraL »

rtpg wrote: post #70
cujo wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Forgive my ignorance, but can't it go the other way also? A contrived example... A person has $X that they spend every week at the local town restaurant. They see they can buy a cool new widget from a Chinese vendor (from the article) for $Y. Over the course of the next few weeks, said person spends a little less at the restaurant so as to save up $Y, ultimately purchasing the widget once enough money is saved. In th…

for the local economy there's functionally no difference between giving the money to China or to a reseller at the other side of the country.

s/local economy/national economy/, and the point stands.

Though I don't see introducing/enforcing waste as a right way to ensure more money goes to the national economy.

Re: USPS loses millions each year on local delivery of mail from abroad (2014)

#85

Post by TeMPOraL »

kbutler wrote: post #29
devoply wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All middle men are destined to be automated out by the system, if they add no value then sooner rather than later. However, people selling stuff online in niche markets are still somehow surviving, but sooner or later someone will figure out where they are hiding and get them too. It's all a matter of time.

Middlemen provide a service, adding value. That service is generally helping buyers connect with sellers. The internet has allowed a new generation of middlemen to rise, providing the service at a lower cost. eBay and Amazon are middlemen.

When they add value, they thrive. When they stop adding value, that's when they get into problems.

Note that whether or not middlemen add value is not under their control. Local resellers add much less value than they used to now that global e-commerce works. Recording labels added value until the Internet came, and now they don't.

Re: USPS loses millions each year on local delivery of mail from abroad (2014)

#86

Post by TeMPOraL »

sokoloff wrote: post #59
Markoff wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

good luck with warranty on stuff bought directly from China, their warranty period is also only one year instead of two in EU

The way I look at it is that I self-insure. Much of what I buy direct from China (small electronics modules, connectors, electronics supplies, PCBs, etc) is less than half the price of what local sellers are charging, often way less. My experience is that way over 95% of items are as described, arrive safely, and perfectly functional. The odd item that is broken in transit (or never arrives) I simply choose not to ca…

You're ordering one of the few things you can safely order from China, though. There's no way for them to screw up electronic components, because they're basically the single stop between you and the same factories which supply everyone else on the market.

I wouldn't try that with consumer electronics though. Anything that's actually assembled to be sold cheap will likely be close to unusable. I can name plenty of examples of crap electronics I ordered from China or saw personally on Chinese markets when I was in Shenzhen. I stick to big western brands in this market simply to avoid completely useless crap.

Re: USPS loses millions each year on local delivery of mail from abroad (2014)

#87

Post by [deleted] »

sokoloff wrote: post #59
Markoff wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

good luck with warranty on stuff bought directly from China, their warranty period is also only one year instead of two in EU

The way I look at it is that I self-insure. Much of what I buy direct from China (small electronics modules, connectors, electronics supplies, PCBs, etc) is less than half the price of what local sellers are charging, often way less. My experience is that way over 95% of items are as described, arrive safely, and perfectly functional. The odd item that is broken in transit (or never arrives) I simply choose not to ca…

[deleted]

Re: USPS loses millions each year on local delivery of mail from abroad (2014)

#88

Post by rlpb »

dnautics wrote: post #65
hkmurakami wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also the seller's claim that direct doesn't add anything to the economy is false. That surplus will be directed elsewhere, hopefully to something more productive than what has become an unnecessary intermediary.

"Will" is a bit strong but it is a glaring, bright red case of classical broken windows fallacy.

I don't think so. Others are subsidizing the inefficiency of sending something over from the other side of the world instead of using a local seller. That's the opposite of the broken window fallacy. Like breaking windows, subsidizing the international postal service is the economic harm.

Take that subsidy away. If the intermediate seller can still survive, then he is still providing some economic benefit.

Re: USPS loses millions each year on local delivery of mail from abroad (2014)

#89

Post by sokoloff »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #86
sokoloff wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The way I look at it is that I self-insure. Much of what I buy direct from China (small electronics modules, connectors, electronics supplies, PCBs, etc) is less than half the price of what local sellers are charging, often way less. My experience is that way over 95% of items are as described, arrive safely, and perfectly functional. The odd item that is broken in transit (or never arrives) I simply choose not to ca…

You're ordering one of the few things you can safely order from China, though. There's no way for them to screw up electronic components, because they're basically the single stop between you and the same factories which supply everyone else on the market. I wouldn't try that with consumer electronics though. Anything that's actually assembled to be sold cheap will likely be close to unusable. I can name plenty of ex…

I've also had good luck with small bluetooth speakers, with LED/PIR closet lights, with landscape lighting, with RGB LED light bulbs, LED lighting kits, charging cables, and a bunch of other things, even including a network tracing/mapping tool (that one I was sweating a little bit as it was expensive).

It's literally better than 95% (probably more like 99%) good stuff and I'm willing to eat the small amount of slippage/breakage/fraud/poor design.

Re: USPS loses millions each year on local delivery of mail from abroad (2014)

#90

Post by Tepix »

chrinic726 wrote: post #43
dis-sys wrote: post #33

Now this is boring. People keep complaining about the fact that China's cheap stuff is flooding the US market. How about exporting some expensive US made stuff to China to close the gap of trading? Oh, you can't. Chinese living in China are not even allowed to buy Intel Xeon Phi cards, export license is required to safeguard your nation. Maybe make the US short term visa more accessible to Chinese tourists so they ca…

The job of the US government is to vehemently scrutinize and analyze Chinese (and non US) nationals when they enter the country. The job of the US government is to protect US citizens. If a Chinese citizen is inconvenienced by these policies, well, too bad. They can visit a different country. But in the end, they will still visit New York.

I haven't visited the US since 2000. Guess why? And indeed, there are plenty of other nice countries to visit.
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