How DO they do it!!

[just_kits]

Good afternoon eBay peeps!!

So.. this is something I've been wondering a lot lately and I'm wondering if anyway may know the answer...

How on earth does china ship items for free when the item they are selling is only worth $1 ???

I saw a cute bow online for one dollar from china and they offered free shipping... I have no doubt the item would be rubbish but never the less.. how do they get such cheap shipping??

All comments welcome 😄

[the-kazbar]

because they can send a parcel via Singapore for 10c and then our over priced Australia Post parcel postage fees subsidise the $70 million a year that AP loses on International incoming parcels when they deliver them at this end 😞 (dont feel too bad for them though, AP still made $281 profit last financial year cause of all the gouging they do from Aussies)

[the-kazbar]

oops, $281 million

[arnl7178]

I'd love just one day of 10c shipping here. Just a day!  *sighs*

[the-kazbar]

Ahmed Fahour (AP CEO) is the highest paid Australian government employee.

He wouldn't risk a cent of his huge pay packet on giving Aussies an even playing field for even a minute, let alone a whole day.

He is an ex NAB bank exec and he only cares about the bottom line, not the economy, the country, hundreds of thousands of small businesses, or any of APs customers 😞

[jensmanchester-australia]

PJ - if you can please let me know how I can send a 3kg parcel to the UK for about $20.00 it would be appreciated.

Last time I sent a parcel airmail to the UK for that weight it cost me around $100.00 and that didn't include tracking.

[lane-ends]

I think PJ got from and to mixed up

[putney32]

3kg to UK with tracking is $93.05

even seamail with tracking is $49.55

[digital*ghost]

Good afternoon eBay peeps!!

So.. this is something I've been wondering a lot lately and I'm wondering if anyway may know the answer...

How on earth does china ship items for free when the item they are selling is only worth $1 ???

I saw a cute bow online for one dollar from china and they offered free shipping... I have no doubt the item would be rubbish but never the less.. how do they get such cheap shipping??

All comments welcome 😄

It's not just about shipping - the products themselves probably cost under $1 to make, but there would be little to no profit on those items even with paying only 10c for shipping. There are so many sellers in China selling the same thing, that $1 free-post items would have the same function as a loss leader does here, and ultimately, losing a few cents on one of those sales - even if that's x 1000's - would be made up in their other sales (if you look at the prices on some of their other items, you'll see that they'll have a few things that can be as much as 10 times the price of the cheapest seller, they mightn't sell many, but when someone is lured by a cheaper item and visits the store, it's not uncommon to pick up an extra thing or two).

A lot of the sellers I buy items from run 1c auctions with free post, and I have won quite a few for less than $1, but they also pool their resources. There's about 6 very high volume Chinese sellers that send their items together, i.e. if I buy a dozen items from 3 or 4 of them over a couple of days, I know they'll all come in one parcel. 

[happy_hens]

I read that the postage is pooled as larger packers/ have subsidies for postage and this is how they can send all over the world at such cheap prices

Whereas here in the UK our parcel prices have in many instances just doubled and it looks like you have also received a large price hike in Australia.

Ebay is a global selling platform but there is no global postage system ...:_| Perhaps we should be sending shipments via freight to china and posting from there!