OT: Post Office subsidizes mail from China, Hong Kong

[Hobie]

I just received a small part that I ordered through Ebay and Priority mail shipping from China was $.30. Yup, 30 cents including a tracking number.

Turns out the USPS has cooked up a deal with Ebay and is offering discount shipping from China and Hong Kong for small packages at less that you and I can mail a first class letter.

Interesting policy decision. Me thinks that it keeps their total mail piece count up to prop up and justify our current postal staffing levels.

http://www.ecommercebytes.com/cab/abn/y11/m08/i31/s02

[Coronita]

Yup…

Take a look at these 20 plastic rivets I just ordered. How else do you think someone from china can sell something on ebay for $8, ship it here and still make money?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/20-Mercedes-Benz-Fender-Liner-Rivet-Push-Type-Clip-Retainer-W124-W164-W204-W207-/251161135311

The equivalent distributor in the U.S. is selling the same thing made in the same place, for $14 in the U.S. not including the $4 tax and shipping…

Oh yeah, and Mercedes Benz of San Diego wanted $2.50 for EACH rivet. Now before any of you patriotic folks jump on the bandwagon and say, buy american and/or german and don’t support that China economic war machine… I would….Except the same damn plastic rivets from Mercedes Benz of SD was also Made in China… Lose/Lose in my book.

Interesting huh?

[Coronita]

I’ll telling you folks. Pretty soon, the only thing we can compete selling is software/apps…Because relatively speaking it’s a level playing field…Unless politicians figure out a way to sales tax those things too.

[ltsddd]

I don’t see a problem with that, but may be that’s because I don’t know how the postal service systems handle transactions and revenues. For the scenario pointed out by the OP, let’s just say that these Chinese sellers will instead shipping their products using the regular first class mail – would the USPS then be able to collect/extract any revenue from it? Another way of looking at it is when I send a letter to a foreign country using the USPS first-class mail, is that foreign country be able to collect any $$ for the cost of processing and delivering the mail? I think if anything, it’s very clever for the USPS to figure out a way to tap into a potentially lucrative stream of revenue.

[no_such_reality]

This is a year and a half old.

http://about.usps.com/news/national-releases/2011/pr11_037.htm

[The-Shoveler]

[quote=flu]I’ll telling you folks. Pretty soon, the only thing we can compete selling is software/apps…Because relatively speaking it’s a level playing field…Unless politicians figure out a way to sales tax those things too.[/quote]

FOOD !!
Soy Beans are our number one crop export to china,
They have not quite got the China Corporate industrial large scale farming going quite yet.
A few guys and some water buffalo really don’t have a chance.
I kind of feel for them actually, factory Automation is going to put the more industrial nations on a much more level playing field over the next 10-15 years.

Fear the Robot, he will be after your job next…

Just kidding sort of,

[Coronita]

[quote=no_such_reality]This is a year and a half old.

http://about.usps.com/news/national-releases/2011/pr11_037.htm%5B/quote%5D

The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses, and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.

[Coronita]

BTW: it’s not just ebay..

Amazon has similar things..

You can get a USB car charger for 90 cents includes free shipping… Lol…..

[CA renter]

[quote=no_such_reality]This is a year and a half old.

http://about.usps.com/news/national-releases/2011/pr11_037.htm%5B/quote%5D

Since there doesn’t seem to be much competition at these rates, I wonder why the USPS doesn’t bump prices up by about 50% (still very cheap, and well below competitors’ prices from what I can tell). Then, they can stop whining about how they have to cut back here in the U.S.

[Hatfield]

[quote=flu]You can get a USB car charger for 90 cents includes free shipping… Lol…..[/quote]

Yeah, it makes no sense. Somebody in China puts this in an envelope, it gets put on an airplane with a bunch of other stuff, gets flown across the Pacific, clears customs, gets sent to a USPS distribution center, then gets sent to the local post office, where it eventually gets “cased” by the letter carrier and delivered to your door. Forget about the cost of the item itself, I don’t see how it’s possible to do all that for 90 cents. The incremental cost of fuel alone probably cost more than 90 cents.

I don’t get it.

[Author]

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