On 2017-09-23 06:52, wrote:
On Friday, September 22, 2017 at 7:03:35 PM UTC-7, John B. wrote:
On Fri, 22 Sep 2017 12:36:31 -0700, Joerg
wrote:

On 2017-09-19 19:44, sms wrote:
On 9/19/2017 6:52 PM, somebody wrote:

On 2017-09-19 07:06, wrote:

snip

Or the brake pads from China, $2/pair and free ship. As I
have always said the postage fees are grossly lopsided
between Asia and the US and that is one of the core reasosn
for our trade deficit. Except that most politicians (except
manybe one ...) do not understand that.

It's an international reciprocal postal treaty that no one
worried about when it was mainly U.S. residents of Chinese
descent sending packages to relatives in China.


More than a decade ago tyat has changed, big time. How long does
it take for politicians to turn on their brains? Or for some of
them, do they even have one?


... The origin country gets all the postage and the
destination country gets nothing with the assumption that the
volume will be roughly equal.

The small volume of direct-to-consumer low-value items from
China is not a core reason for the trade deficit.


It is rising, big time. I know people who buy just about anything
other than groceries on EBay. When they say "Oh, it always gets
here in three to five weeks" you know what's going on. Heck, I
even had stuff I bought on Amazon come via "China Post".


... These items would still come into the U.S. through other
channels, at higher prices, were it not so cheap to do
international shipping from China, you'd just have a
middleman.


Same reason. The stuff then comes in bulk but the shipping
charges are grossly lower than if a US vendor sent the same items
to Asia. It isn't just China. For example, when we needed name
tags for our therapy dogs' vests (for nursing home visits) we
ordered them via Amazon. A small package arrived from Manila,
Philippines. I couldn't believe it considering that we had paid
just a few Dollars. Looked at the postage, calculated - $0.60.
Airmail! It came from a seamstress who appears to specialize in
cloth name tags. The shipping cost discrepancy alone puts similar
seamstresses in the US out of business.

Given that the cost of living, and salaries, are as much as five
times cheaper in China than in the U.S. how is changing the mailing
costs going to effect sales?

My wife's older sister and her son, his wife, and the grand kids
visited Thailand about six months ago. The grandson, probably 19
years old, told me that he worked part time at "the dollar store"
unloading trucks for $10 an hour. The current minimum salary in
Thailand is 300 baht, about $9 a day. At today's exchange rate the
U.S. salary, for coolie labour, is ~9 times the Thai salary.

John, are you telling us that wrapping paper, cardboard boxes,
packing plastic bubble wrap and plastic tape are so cheap in Thailand
or China that they can wrap and send small parts worth a couple of
bucks to the US with free shipping and make a profit?


Most likely yes. In China definitely yes, and same for the Philippines.
In the early 90's I saw the complete cost run-down on a fax machine. The
whole enchilada, with labor, testing, printing the manual, the packaging
and all: Slightly over $6. Six bucks. In the Western world those
machines were then retailing under "they put your company name on there"
for several hundred Dollars.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/