The demand is still the same (approx 500k units per year), but now with China gets 90% of those sells, with them having the lower price, because of the subsidized shipping and currency advantages, how did ebay or USPS make more money?
They gained some China seller revenue on Carb jets, but lost the same amount from US sellers..... Not to mention the higher cost for USPS to ship for the epackets (surely shipping from SC to MI cost more to USPS than shipping from China to the US)... but they're charging less for the China to US.
And the lower fees received from ebay, because of the lower total costs that see fees.
It's a sellout regardless, but I just don't see how it's one with benefit to anyone, except China.
Well, here's how the theories work in the heads of the people involved...
eBay understands what you just said, but they believe (and are likely correct) that the Chinese are going to end up with 90% of that market anyhow. If shipping is an issue (and it was, both in terms of cost and tracking which eBay is in love with), the Chinese will ship Carb jets over here on container ships, to large parts sellers who don't sell on eBay. eBay will maintain a larger slice of that market if they can keep direct sales from the Chinese competitive. eBay doesn't care about other American busineses, U.S. based sellers, or any U.S. - China trade imbalance problems, eBay cares about routing the maximum amount of the market through their site.
The USPS has somewhat different motives. They are seeing mail volume decrease, and are losing market share to the ever expanding package services of FedEx, UPS, and others. Once the tub of ePacket parcels hits their sort center, they handle, scan, and deliver each parcel as a First Class Domestic package with tracking. They are not getting paid anywhere near what they get paid by a domestic U.S. seller sending a domestic FC parcel within the U.S. So relative to a FC parcel I send to Los Angeles from Phoenix, handling this Chinese mail is a big loser. But they don't care. They aren't really interested in stuff like "profit margins", their goal is to maintain the size of their empire. Added volume means they don't have to fire anyone, and can keep facilities they don't otherwise need open. This is the same reason they agree to deliver junk mail for next to nothing. This is why they are running huge losses, and the intent is to cover those losses by raising prices for you and me and all other Americans to keep them getting large paychecks and to fund their fat pensions.
As for the Chinese government and China Post, this all helps the Chinese economy, and being a bunch of communists, government there operates as a one big unit in conjunction with Chinese businesses, all to benefit China. There is none of this eBay screws American sellers to benefit eBay, the Post Office screws Americans in general to benefit the Post Office, etc., going on in China - the Chinese certainly are not going to agree to deliver U.S. goods to Chinese addresses with tracking for 75¢!
eBay looks out for eBay. USPS looks out for USPS. The U.S. government should be looking out for America, but they have screwed the pooch with some really bad trade policy and agreements involving China (who is loaning them large sums of money to fund their excess spending), they have their fingers involved in running the USPS and support the postal workers unions, and they are generally interested in punishing (instead of helping) American businesses these days anyhow. The Chinese exploit this political/economic dysfunctionality at every turn.
