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Asian Selling Mystery
 

I'm trying to figure out how my Chinese competitor is able to sell a $10 product to my USA customers for $.30 w/ free shipping.

The shipping alone would be more than $10 coming from China.

Loss leader... thats all there is to it!

Its like the Fifty Shades of Grey book how can our supermarkets in the UK be selling for less than they can buy for... and I know that they only get a certain amount of discount. They were nearly losing £1 on each book sold, just to get customers into the store to buy £200 worth of shopping

When I was a kid I dreamt that I will be selling potatoes to people for one cent but then I realized that I would be at loss and that got very disappointed. I simply wanted to make people happy. But then I wondered, how can I make them happy when I can't make money to survive.

Your Chinese Competitor can sell for super low price because he/she is buying it for dirt cheap and probably is trying to get a lot of feedback so they can sell high end items, kinda like feedback makers. They are probably not making any cash or losing cash.

MM78 - yes but if Laritha is BUYING at $10, we all know with common sense even if the Chinese competitor has direct access to the factory he would never get it for less than or equal to $0.3 and to offer free shipping .... well your into minus figures..

The government is subsidizing these companies to flood the US market with cheap goods. China is well known for this

They are clearly losing money. Even if they got the item free, they are losing about $10 just on shipping. Paying $10 per positive feedback doesn't make sense

It does for Chinese sellers. Since it takes 2-3 weeks for the items to arrive, most people are willing to take the trade-off of waiting for items to the price.

Personally, I don't worry about Chinese vendors, I use them to my advantage.

Shipping from China isn't that expensive. Without knowing what the product is, I can't tell of course, but it costs about $3 to ship up to 250 grams from China to the United States, less even if it's below that weight. For 30 cents and free shipping, they're obviously losing money and just selling to get feedback. Check some of their other items listed, they're probably getting it back through there.

Could you please tell me if I am being ripped off by my Chinese friends. How much would it cost to send 21kg by DHL or UPS expedited?

Thank you.

Bringing in the Foo-Foo's eh stan? I would say about $170.

I noticed some of their positive feedback says "never received, but got refund". And yes they sell slightly expensive items, but the case is still the same.....shipping price alone exceeds profits

it is also a way to wash cash squeaky clean

I pay $166 for just over 20KG - DHL

sounds interesting. got a link for me t do some reading on this?

it is a VERY interesting topic that i am sure would go further than anything that is read. i would not be surprised to see americans making money off of this scheme. we are in a business world, china does not just mean chinese people anymore

US Treasury says China is not a currency manipulator, but yuan is 'significantly undervalued' | GlobalPost

China's Huawei and ZTE deny getting illegal subsidy | Reuters

WTO investigates allegations of illegal China subsidies - ABC News


This one is a short one that is almost a joke but has lots of truth:
China Accuses US Of Flooding Market With Cheap Products | MV Premium | Minyanville's Wall Street

Coming directly from the factory possibly. If you are the producer of the item, then you may be breaking even on that particular item, and making a killing on most everything else. I wouldnt mind selling 500 items a day of product A only to break even and have my feedback in the millions.

What if the seller already has over 3000 positive feedback? Still think they're only doing it for feedback?

Only foo foo! Because I swear I saw an account with over 15k feedbacks selling high quality foo foo sunglasses and so are literally hundreds of others. eBay would have not existed or became eBay if it wasn't for foo foo. Because people are looking for good deals. They want HALF price on everything, sometimes even 60%. I have learned my lesson. If you want to buy something genuine go straight to their online store or their official website and look for only authorized retailers they list on their website. It is the only way you can ever be sure that you are getting what you are paying for.

Two excellent points.

Absolutely. There are plenty of chinese sellers with 100,000+ feedback, and if you look at their items, they sell dozens of items that they break even on, but they sell thousands a week for feedback purposes. This will then allow them to sell expensive items and people wont hesitate to purchase since they are such a powerful seller. This way they can get 100 negs or so a month and it doesnt put a dent in their dsr's.

Can't argue with that.

So my guess is they are getting a bunch of feedback so they can sell foo foo and not get their accounts suspended when a bunch of customers complain when they realize they bought foo foo. Makes waaaay more sense now.

No to be honest I don't think this is the reason. From my experience when you sell foo foos it's all automated. 95% of limitations are not actually done by real people but by bots and only a small percentage is the outcome of your competitors. Also when you speak with reps on eBay they are just giving you the run around. Honestly they do not know anything or could care less about you. They are there to be like a fire wall in order to make it more difficult for you to get a hold of someone who is more important than just the rep. I think even when you get a hold of a supervisor they still don't have much power to do anything, unless they really want to help you. I can understand this from eBay's point of view. If I was to run such a big company there is no way in hell that I could provide full support for every seller because otherwise my company would lose money. Too many scammers and no I am not talking about those who sell foo foos. I am talking about real scammers who sell nothing and run away with your money. Or people who sell something but wont accept returns. These are the real criminals.

There was a huge article regarding the shipping from china to USA about a month ago and how cheap it is compared to when you ship within USA. Compared to what we pay these guys pay little pennies to ship stuff here via regular shipping. Takes forever to get here ( upwards of 4 weeks ) but it gets here cheap!

Lot of conspiracy theory here

Yeh shipping can be dirt cheap from over here as long as you have a Chinese PayP act. You can send an e-packet which has a tracking number that is also used by the USPS meaning you get total tracking from start to finish.

The shipping prices using that service are ridiculously cheap. I wish I had a Chinese PP act!

But you have to remember that it takes two to tango. The US set up the agreement to allow the closer co-operation between the Chinese and US postal services.

Before kicking off about conspiracies ask yourself why did your government choose to make it easier for Chinese sellers to sell in your market place than it is for you?

I wonder if Fedex and DHL also offer these cheap discounts to Chinese exporters.

Nope, they are still expensive.

Thanks for the insight. This explains a lot lol.

exactly! that is why i say buying from china has nothing to do with the chinese people. it's the people at the top that play the nationalism card, and democracy vs communism however it is simply them in bed together stealing money from just about everyone. in business there are no colors, there are no religions, just $$$

China's day of supreme reign is coming. Wise up.

as said in the movie 'the dictator' ... the U.S., built by the blacks and owned by the chinese

dafuq i just read?

also, dafuq is foo foo?

They do have subsidized rates on shipping. However, much of the .99 cent free shipping items are to pad their DSRs.

The title reminds of that Scooby Dooby Doo cartoon - mystery!