OT: Free/cheap Chinese shipping

I have been buying electronics from China direct lately since I found the identical products for sale for many times the cost and without free shipping. So I am wondering how all this stuff can be shipped free. In fact, I wonder how the stuff can be as cheap as it is, even if labor was free. Anyway, it must be the Chinese government subsidizing the shipping costs. Well, maybe not must but I don't see another way it could be done so cheaply unless someone is subsidizing it. Anyone here know? Thanks, Eric

Reply to
etpm
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The small electronics I've received from China came in minimally padded envelopes that showed no sign of damage. Maybe they use them as filler around larger lightweight, delicate objects.

Reply to
Jim Wilkins

I think all of the postal fee goes to the nation which ships the package by some agreement. So the cheap shipping is because the U.S. postal service delivers in the states for free.

Dan

Reply to
dcaster

Ive been led to beleive that this is the case ,the Chinese Govt subsidizses the postage.

Reply to
Bluey69

Most of what has been said is true. Another reason for the cheapness of these items is a way for mainland Chineese to get their money out of China. Do you know where your payment was deposited? They are willing to sell below their cost if it goes off shore. I recently bought an electric jack hammer on line. It was an exact copy of a major brand down to the metal case. The cost was appox. 15% of the major brand. When thier contract with the major is completed they just keep the line going. Product goed to cousin Lan somewhere, to cousin Sung some where else, then to cousin Lee in Socal. then on line here.

CP

Reply to
MOP CAP

I didn't know that Dan. Are you sure that the USPS charges nothing to deliver mail that arrives from other countries? If so then maybe the USPS rates on mail to other countries are structured to cover the costs of mail arriving from other countries. But wait, when I have bought stuff from England the shipping rates are much higher than the rates from China. And England is lots closer to us than China. Eric

Reply to
etpm

No, I am not sure. In fact I am wrong, I was remembering what it was like before 1969.

Try reading this.

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Dan

Reply to
dcaster

Yes, the Chinese gov't is subsidizing it. I get all sorts of things for between $0.01 and $1.00 with free shipping halfway around the world.

I wouldn't doubt that at all, either. Most of the bubble wrap I receive is all flattened and airless, but 80% never needed wrap anyway.

Reply to
Larry Jaques

The "Third Shift".

"The simplest and most dramatic form of the problem is something that Asia- based investigators jocularly refer to as the "third shift," the "midnight shift," or the "ghost shift." Say a U.S. company orders 20,000 dresses from an overseas factory. The contractor fills the order during its two day shi fts but then runs off 10,000 extra at night, possibly using inferior materi als. Those he sells out the back door, so to speak, trademark and all."

From

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ft_Fortune06.htm

Reply to
brian

a-based investigators jocularly refer to as the "third shift," the "midnigh t shift," or the "ghost shift." Say a U.S. company orders 20,000 dresses fr om an overseas factory. The contractor fills the order during its two day s hifts but then runs off 10,000 extra at night, possibly using inferior mate rials. Those he sells out the back door, so to speak, trademark and all."

hift_Fortune06.htm

I just read that entire article, thinking all along, "who the f*ck would do their manufacturing in China after reading this?" Apparently, New Balance, after having been burned so badly, continues to stick its corporate hand i n the flame.

If I could buy 100% US manufactured electronics (from components to compute rs) at double or triple the price of the Chinese stuff, I would. And I woul d pass the extra cost on to my customers. And they would pay it. But NOBODY MAKES THIS STUFF HERE ANYMORE. And THAT, I believe, is why the Chinese gov ernment subsidizes the shipping (and probably the manufacturing) of these c heap goods. How else could I buy a single Atmel chip on ebay for less than the 1000 piece price from Digikey?

One good takeaway from this article, though, is "...From 1966 to 1976... i ts [China's] remaining lawyers [were] sent to the countryside for reeducati on through labor."

Maybe we could try that here. Just sayin'.

Reply to
rangerssuck

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