It takes 2.5 weeks minimum to get the product from Taobao in the USA. The extra money is for getting it in 2 days. Also, remember that most of that "markup" is

It takes 2.5 weeks minimum to get the product from Taobao in the USA. The extra money is for getting it in 2 days. Also, remember that most of that "markup" is for shipping, Amazon fees, and taxes. You can't ship those items for less than $2 even with Amazon FBA (remember, with Prime its the seller whos paying for shipping, not magic Amazon elves). The Taobao guy paid $0.18 to ship the same from China (there's a long story about how that happened too). After paying all that, the guy selling that stuff for $6 probably made $0.40 on the deal. A steal indeed.