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No it has no bearing on China. It is the same policy with Switzerland. You get the international package to America we pay for the final delivery. Pay for a pac

No it has no bearing on China. It is the same policy with Switzerland. You get the international package to America we pay for the final delivery. Pay for a package to Switzerland and Switzerland pays for the final delivery. It was suppose to be a wash for both parties. China just got a much better deal. Cost me more to mail a package the next state away then for me to get a package delivered from China. Now you have to pay for Switzerland delivery and then the domestic cost. Wish and EBay from China is now bye bye.

nkurz 8y ago
EBay from China is now bye bye. Why would this change the be end of direct shipping from China? Currently (rounded off numbers) the cost of shipping a 2 lb (1 kg) package within the US is about $7, and the cost of shipping such a package from China to a US address is about $2. The obvious solution would be that the Chinese shipment ends up costing $9 (current Chinese rate of $2 to the US border, plus $7 standard US shipping). The Chinese shipping would thus end up $2 more than the US. Presumably there would be lots of cases where the $2 greater shipping is offset by lower price of the item?
- baldfat 8y ago
  I can order 8 recycling batteries for $2.99 and have them shipped to my house. That is a loss of $4. They are looking at an increase of $7 at least. BTW when I ship a small box 2 pound of cookies to my son from his mom it cost me around $10.
  - nkurz 8y ago
    Sure, certain things will no longer be feasible. My doubt was that these less-than-the-cost-of-shipping items were the bulk of the current direct-from-China Ebay orders, and even if they were, I was doubting that there was not a market for slightly more expensive items. For the US cost, a "Priority Mail Small Flat Rate Box" is $7.20 between any two US addresses, and a "Priority Mail Flat Rate Envelope" is $6.70. If you don't use one of these, the postage will likely will be slightly more.
- kbenson 8y ago
  Where are you getting those numbers from? My understanding is that there's a nominal fee for last-mile delivery the USPS charges mail from other countries, which is all (or the vast majority) that's being charged for Chinese shipments, as the Chinese side is subsidized completely (or almost so) for outgoing mail. I think the $2 you are quoting might be the treaty fee for delivering mail from other countries, which is not the true cost of delivery, but mostly works out as long as there's a fairly even flow of mail between two countries. What we have here is that China is subsidizing their side of the outgoing mail, so all that's being paid is the treaty set delivery fee for external mail (which again, isn't the true cost of last-mile delivery).
  - michaelt 8y ago
    the treaty fee [...] is not the true cost of delivery, but mostly works out as long as there's a fairly even flow of mail between two countries. Isn't the core problem here that there _isn't_ an even flow of mail between China and the US? Because there's far more ebay/aliexpress traffic coming out of China than going in.
    - kbenson 8y ago
      I think it's not just that, which would be problematic on it's own, it's that China is also subsidizing local delivery, so the only (or almost only) delivery fee for Chinese shippers is the portion they pay to USPS for local delivery, which is artificially very low. So not only are they taking advantage of the difference in trade flows, they are also encouraging it even more. I think this was covered in an Planet money podcast from NPR.[1] It's also possible I'm not remembering portions of it correctly, but I think they did an interesting treatment of the subject. 1: https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/08/01/634737852/episode-857-the-postal-illuminati https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/08/01/634737852/epis...
  - nkurz 8y ago
    Where are you getting those numbers from? The US rates are for small flat rate packages and envelopes on USPS.com. I didn't find an exact source for the China-to-US rate, so the $2 was the low end of a small number of articles about shipping rather than an exact quote. I may have misinterpreted, or converted using outdated exchange rates, or missed details about minimum quantities. As you say, there is subsidization involved, but I think this is about right for the amount charged to the shipper.
netsharc 8y ago
Actually Swiss Post has the same problem as the USPS: buying something from a Swiss online shop is usually expensive because of high Swiss wages, but you can buy stuff for "dirt cheap" from China, and the delivery isn't paid for by the customer but by Swiss Post. Things like S-ATA cables cost maybe at least 7 Francs in Switzerland, but 0.40 CHF from China, with free shipping!

nkurz 8y ago

EBay from China is now bye bye. Why would this change the be end of direct shipping from China? Currently (rounded off numbers) the cost of shipping a 2 lb (1 kg) package within the US is about $7, and the cost of shipping such a package from China to a US address is about $2. The obvious solution would be that the Chinese shipment ends up costing $9 (current Chinese rate of $2 to the US border, plus $7 standard US shipping). The Chinese shipping would thus end up $2 more than the US. Presumably there would be lots of cases where the $2 greater shipping is offset by lower price of the item?

baldfat 8y ago
I can order 8 recycling batteries for $2.99 and have them shipped to my house. That is a loss of $4. They are looking at an increase of $7 at least. BTW when I ship a small box 2 pound of cookies to my son from his mom it cost me around $10.
- nkurz 8y ago
  Sure, certain things will no longer be feasible. My doubt was that these less-than-the-cost-of-shipping items were the bulk of the current direct-from-China Ebay orders, and even if they were, I was doubting that there was not a market for slightly more expensive items. For the US cost, a "Priority Mail Small Flat Rate Box" is $7.20 between any two US addresses, and a "Priority Mail Flat Rate Envelope" is $6.70. If you don't use one of these, the postage will likely will be slightly more.
kbenson 8y ago
Where are you getting those numbers from? My understanding is that there's a nominal fee for last-mile delivery the USPS charges mail from other countries, which is all (or the vast majority) that's being charged for Chinese shipments, as the Chinese side is subsidized completely (or almost so) for outgoing mail. I think the $2 you are quoting might be the treaty fee for delivering mail from other countries, which is not the true cost of delivery, but mostly works out as long as there's a fairly even flow of mail between two countries. What we have here is that China is subsidizing their side of the outgoing mail, so all that's being paid is the treaty set delivery fee for external mail (which again, isn't the true cost of last-mile delivery).
- michaelt 8y ago
  the treaty fee [...] is not the true cost of delivery, but mostly works out as long as there's a fairly even flow of mail between two countries. Isn't the core problem here that there _isn't_ an even flow of mail between China and the US? Because there's far more ebay/aliexpress traffic coming out of China than going in.
  - kbenson 8y ago
    I think it's not just that, which would be problematic on it's own, it's that China is also subsidizing local delivery, so the only (or almost only) delivery fee for Chinese shippers is the portion they pay to USPS for local delivery, which is artificially very low. So not only are they taking advantage of the difference in trade flows, they are also encouraging it even more. I think this was covered in an Planet money podcast from NPR.[1] It's also possible I'm not remembering portions of it correctly, but I think they did an interesting treatment of the subject. 1: https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/08/01/634737852/episode-857-the-postal-illuminati https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/08/01/634737852/epis...
- nkurz 8y ago
  Where are you getting those numbers from? The US rates are for small flat rate packages and envelopes on USPS.com. I didn't find an exact source for the China-to-US rate, so the $2 was the low end of a small number of articles about shipping rather than an exact quote. I may have misinterpreted, or converted using outdated exchange rates, or missed details about minimum quantities. As you say, there is subsidization involved, but I think this is about right for the amount charged to the shipper.

netsharc 8y ago

Actually Swiss Post has the same problem as the USPS: buying something from a Swiss online shop is usually expensive because of high Swiss wages, but you can buy stuff for "dirt cheap" from China, and the delivery isn't paid for by the customer but by Swiss Post. Things like S-ATA cables cost maybe at least 7 Francs in Switzerland, but 0.40 CHF from China, with free shipping!