Shipping rates

[btjfitter]

I've been on ebay since 2004. I've been sending my items thru Ebay shipping or paypal so I take the discount on labels and send it as least expensive as i can but still have tracking. I cannot understand how sellers located in China can sell and ship cheaper combined from there and send their items into the states  than I can across two states. Seems I'm missing  something.

[soh.maryl]

What you may be missing is the fact that the Chinese government subsidizes shipping for Chinese sellers.  

[fm2000]

I can explain it. It is called the "e-packet", a result of a bad treaty signed with the Universal Postal Union that gives China access to cheap shipping to the USA (but does not give that same cheap shipping from the USA to China.) It is actually much cheaper to send a small package from Shanghai China to New York City than it is to send the exact same package from upstate NY to NY City.

The USPS is absolutely being fleeced because of this, they can't do anything to stop it, and to the best of my knowledge not one of our representatives in Congress is even talking about it, much less doing anything about it.

[penny_sioux]

i thought it was the US that was subsidizing shipping to 3rd world countries.  I don't know if China is still classified as one, but it was a decade ago when everyone complained about the same stuff.