How (and why) would you sell something so cheap?

[inhawaii]

I stumbled across a lazer pointer/keychain for 86 cents and free shipping to the US.

China seller.  I know it's going to be a piece of junk.

Let's say for the sake of discussion that the lazer pointer costs them a nickel. 

Let's say for the sake of discussion that the padded envelope costs them a nickel. 

I know (or at least i think i know) that you can't ship a lazer pointer from China to the US for 76 cents or less. 

So how on Earth do they make money?????

And we didn't even factor in ebay/paypal fees!

[turquoisetulips]

China seller.  I know it's going to be a piece of junk. in hawaii 

I know a lot is junk  but not always . I can only speak from my own experience as a buyer  but I can honestly say I have purchased some very nice good quality well made  items from China  for a fraction of the cost . Tulips 

[turquoisetulips]

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@vintagecraze50 wrote:

There's a lot of work involved in selling ultra cheap items with voluminous sales to make a profit. I respect them for that. Struggling there to feed their families and have a better life. Bless them all.

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I've never been been treated with anything less than respect and gratitude  from most of   the Chinese sellers  I've done business with . Honor is very important in their culture . tulips

[fuzzface50]

a few cents profit is good money for them.  You need to remember the wage differences between USA and china.  A months worth of wages in china is like working half a week in the USA.

Now you take a few cents profit and times it by how many they sell, now all of a sudden they are living like royalties, ok maybe not quite but they are starting to live better than some of their USA competitors after you do the currency exchange .

[equid0x]

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@turquoisetulips wrote:

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@reallynicestamps wrote:

Well here are the official China Post rates

https://www.chinapostaltracking.com/service/rate/

At the moment, the yuan is worth 15 cents US.

So something that weighs less than 20 grams can be sent for less than 83 cents.

However a 200 gram package sent Surface is $4.65 and sent Air is $7.20USD.

Given that, my suspicion is that the seller is selling vapourware. Which is very cheap to send. All he has to do is refund the few buyers who can figure out how to effectively demand a refund . If he refunds, eBay will not penalize him and he keeps the money from the buyers who forgot or didn't bother about an under a dollar purchase two months previously.

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The only thing I'm certain of  is I've won hundreds if not thousands  of small packaged  items from China  on auction  for 50 cents and even less with free shipping over the years .  Other than a few lost items or postal missaps they've never had a problem getting them to me .They must be making a profit somehow  because those same merchants are still in business . Tulips  

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China heavily subsidizes industry and energy production, among other things. 

[gwens*4saleitems*]

""" I stumbled across a lazer pointer/keychain for 86 cents and free shipping to the US. """

Last time I had a quantity of something that I just wanted to sell (rather than donate), I tried to list at $0.50 and the eBay bots wouldn't let me. Sale price had to be set at $0.99 or better. So how do they get to sell below $0.99 ??

[wpt05]

@gwens*4saleitems* 

$0.99 is the minimum for a buy it now, but it may be listed in Canadian currency.  At the time of this post, $0.99 Canadian is equal to $0.74 U.S..  

[goldenmeowie]

That is so true.  What would cost me $20 for a taxi ride in the US only costs 20 PESOS which is only which is like 40-50 CENTS!!  I could afford to take taxi rides every day!!  One time I even had a taxi wait for me all day by making a deal of paying him what he would make in a day of work which was about 300 pesos or $6.  He was happy since he could buy a whole bag of rice for his family AND without doing any real work. 🙂

[goldenmeowie]

Oops my memory gets foggy.  The 300 pesos was for a motorized tricycle ride, not a taxi.  I was in a harder place to get in & out of in rainy season so I used a tricycle ride that time.

Before understanding money fully, I tipped 100 pesos (which was only $2) to the grocery workers who helped me put my groceries in my taxi.  Well, they treated me like royalty after that!!  They don't make anywhere near that much in one day!!

[petercrowell_artgallery]

Here's my two cents: I have ordered at least 30 items from China in the past on eBay. Maybe Half of the less than 2 dollars orders are never delivered (or shipped for that matter)...and maybe half of the people that order these never complain for a refund..I do. So I get a refund after waiting 30 plus days for a non delivered item, the other people forget about the purchase, (or don't care) about getting the money back. That's how they make a profit.

[cs497kcpope]

Good question?

[reallynicestamps]

It's one way-- but half* of the transactions do go well, which we can put down to lower labour, packaging and postal costs.

And yes, currency exchange. One reason I can use Free Shipping is that I am usually buying in Canadian loonies and selling in US dollars.

*or more,because we remember problems better than things that go as expected.