How do sellers ship for so cheap in Australia ???

[99office]

How do so many Australian sellers ship for so cheap? They sell items that will not fit in a letter (thicker than 20mm) for way cheaper than the cheapest Australia post contract parcel rates.

For example, search ebay for "USB car charger", select "Australia Only" in location, and there are heaps of people selling chargers (including shipping) between $2.50 and $4.00. HOW DO THEY DO IT?? Do they just sent it in a letter, and hope no one checks it is thicker than 20mm? All those items are way thicker than 20mm

[lyndal1838]

You seem to make a habit of these very helpful posts.....pity we cannot read them.

[porcelain_dolls_by_me]

I understand that under the terms of the International Mail Agreement for the settlement of postal delivery costs, the receiving country is refunded by the sending country the cost of delivering such an item within the sending country.

For example, if a small package is sent from China to Australia then regardless of the domestic postal rates in Australia, AusPost is only reimbursed the cost of delivering the item within China.

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

I don't think Aust Post get any of the postage paid on the packages sent from China or any other country.

There is meant to be a meeting each year to help reconcile imbalances, but that doesn't come close to recompensing AP for the costs involved in delivering the packages once they land in Australia.

[ziongiteelliot]

Let's deal in some facts here, here is the answer to the original person.

1. Many people are sending by letter and putting small solid objects in them (even though Australia post doesn't suggest it). They are paying a small amount of money because of this.

I know this because I have bought many things off ebay inside Australia like flash drives etc and they just come in an envelope with a stamp or two on them.

Where as some other seller who doesn't know they can get away with that (the vast majority of the time) would be posting with a parcel and paying a lot more.

Fact 2. The people claiming dropshipping from China are mostly wrong (and may even be sellers that have an agenda to hide), that could only apply to listings that take long to deliver which would suggest that indeed it is from China (some Darwin listings).

But the vast majority of Australian listed stuff I have purchased has come within 3 days (sorry but that isn't physically possible for that to be shipped from China in that time frame). Many even have the sellers address.

Fact 3. When the radio box is checked for "Australia only", this means that the items are within Australia. Of course you can have things like those Darwin postings and it takes ebay a long time to catch onto things as they rely mostly on buyers complaining to figure out about things (just as youtube doesn't personally check each video etc, it would be impossible).

But the person in the thread suggesting that "Australia only" only means people who will post to Australia only but can be posting from overseas (that is wrong). Whenever you put in the "Australia only" all the results at least state a sending address from within Australia. No international seller (especially from China) would sell to Australia only (which only has 24 million people).

The default ebay for Australia is anything in the world which posts to Australia, when the Australia only box is ticked it only lists people selling within Australia.

At least personally I have never found a listing claim it's from Hong Kong or China when I have the Australia only box ticked.

The argument of the Darwin fake ones doens't count as an argument, that counts as a flaw in the system and I have seen those sellers myself and knew for a fact that they were from China as usually they list longer postage times and stock too many items totally identical to Chinese sellers, it's just obvious they are using the Darwin listing to attract some naive people into thinking it's from Australia (when these few cases really are dropshipped and you have to wait 14+ days until you get it).

Anyway that is the summary. You have to always use your brain when buying to know if something is legit.

The answer to the main post is that many Australian sellers just use envelopes and put stamps on them to post small objects (even though Australia post doesn't suggest this, yet obviously they don't have a high rate of checking and stopping this).

If you are a seller on ebay and you want to make money and you are within Australia you should probably post things in the same fashion. Because if you play it by the exact rules too much you won't get many sales and not a lot of profit even when you do get a sale.

[ziongiteelliot]

And additionally as a last note I would like to say the few people in the thread that were getting all defensive and suggesting how dare someone want to know how to send something cheap and how others are doing it. You are being ridiculous! Any person has any right to ask how something is done if it's a public service that they should be elidible for also.

Getting angry at someone for wanting to know how it's done is about as ridiculous as if someone on a youtube forum asked how exactly do uploaders earn money and then a few uploaders got angry and said they have no right to know (acting as if it's their intellectual property, when it's actually a service for everyone).

[lyndal1838]

You have just resurrected a nearly 5 year old thread to reply to a poster who has not been back to the boards since they posted the question.

Did you even look at the age of the thread before posting?

You are actually wrong about the Australia Only setting.   It does give you sellers who only post to Australia, not sellers who are located in Australia.  Many Chinese sellers list on all the ebay sites and post only to that country.  It is no different on the Au site.

This information has been posted and confirmed by several long term responders on the boards.

We are all well aware of the Chinese sellers who list the item location as Darwin.....it has been discussed at length on the boards.

As for your suggestion that sellers ignore the Australia Post rules for letter rate postage....that may well come back to haunt them...it is not worth the effort.  Unless you have another account that you use for selling and have some experience I suggest you don't recommend that sellers break the rules in any way.   Selling on ebay is fraught with problems without asking for any more problems.

[jparreno2]

drop shipping from china can be done at ease nowadays, especially for goods that are compact and ready to go via airmail from china.  the chinese government has a rebate system, often sellers dont make any money off of the buyer, but the chinese government gets to move the market, and make money, so sellers get a ''kick back'' later on. atleast that is how my friend said it worked.

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@99office wrote:
How do so many Australian sellers ship for so cheap? They sell items that will not fit in a letter (thicker than 20mm) for way cheaper than the cheapest Australia post contract parcel rates.

For example, search ebay for "USB car charger", select "Australia Only" in location, and there are heaps of people selling chargers (including shipping) between $2.50 and $4.00. HOW DO THEY DO IT?? Do they just sent it in a letter, and hope no one checks it is thicker than 20mm? All those items are way thicker than 20mm

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[richardkyle777]

Hi, after all these years did you ever get an answer to this question?

It amazes me how much I keep getting charged for posting things. In response to your question,

I just received from an Australian shipper a 200 gram product ( heavier than what I posted for a cost of $8.00 something ) he had it in a flat A4 envelope with stamps on it and he paid $2.07. 

I beleive exactly what you are saying and I do not understand...