Top sellers in Australia sell items for only $5

[muna.sh]

Please Help.

How can top sellers in Australia sell items for only $5 including shipping with Australia (seller, item and buyer are in Australia) when the shipping for an item is more than that. I called AUS Post and they advised me that it costs $8-$9 Minimum (so for minimum weight) to ship an item anywhere in Australia.
FYI, the sellers would have 'Fast n Free' logo as well.
So how they sell it for $5, cover Ebay's commission, the shipping, the item cost and the profit when the min shipping is $8?! this is boggling.

Any help is VERY appreciated!

[imastawka]

Cos they're not in Australia, regardless of what they say

[kopenhagen5]

Many Chinese sellers with no scuples.

[davidc4430]

those sneaky chinese sellers, pretending to be dinky di aussies. someone should invent china fake detectors.

[twyngwyn]

give us an item number and we'll have a look....

[chameleon54]

Some Chinese sellers are believed to list their items as being in Australia and have Australian accounts when they are really based overseas. Other Australian sellers use drop shipping, which means while the seller IS based in Australia and they may claim the items are here, they actiually have an agent overseas who sends the item on the sellers behalf.

The Chinese government heavily subsidises its international postage costs to encourage exports. Once the items reach Australia, you and I subsidise their post costs under International mail agreements.

[pennyforum14]

I have items that sell for $5 with free post and wholly within Australia.  They are sent as large letters and after cost of goods (handmade), fees, postage and packing materials, I make $1.67 profit.  That's if they buy one at a time, however most people buy multiples, which raises the profit margin considerably.  If they buy two the profit is $6.03, with three it is $10.79. Of course I don't factor in my time in making the item and I don't expect every item I sell to make the same level of profit, I look at overall sales vs costs for my profit margin, so as long as there are more multiples than singles I am happy.

[lyndal1838]

Those items could be loss leaders to entice buyers to buy more expensive items with a higher profit margin.

[muna.sh]

Thank you all!

but how come the item gets to me fast.
This item is an example:

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/NEW-Premium-Leather-Stand-Wallet-Flip-Case-Cover-Samsung-Galaxy-Note-II-2...

I bought the above item.

I have seen also $5, $6 items within Australia

[muna.sh]

Thank you for your reply 🙂

so if you are selling your item for $5 and you make a profit of $1.67, I would assumen you are spending $2-$3 on the shipping?
correct?

How do you make shipping so cheap?