£1 from China, how is it possible?

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This topic has 8 replies, 8 voices, and was last updated 3 years ago by dangeourbrain.

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£1 from China, how is it possible?
tagnut69
Free Member

How is it possible to buy something for £1 and have it sent from China when to send the same item in the UK would cost more in postage alone?

Posted 3 years ago

TheBrick
Free Member

There is some sort of international postage deal I think to keep postage prices proportional to local prices. There will be someone with real details along I am sure.

Posted 3 years ago

tomd
Free Member

Postage subsidies for developing countries

It’s a bit odd. Agreed that it’s bonkers that you can buy a widget cheaper from China than a seller in the next county.

Posted 3 years ago

FGF 701 The Hydrate Or Die Edition

jkomo
Full Member

Yes there’s some sort of international agreement to help developing countries.
We subsidise the cost, so China, one of the worlds economic super powers can flood the world with cheap tat.
Trump was trying to get this stopped I think.

Posted 3 years ago

reluctantjumper
Full Member

I always thought they came across in one container packed to the gills so that each item was pence to get to out shores (as in 1-2p!) then they were sent the cheapest rate from the port/warehouse to you. Even if they’re only making 5-10p per item the volume would make it viable. Interesting to see that we’ve signed up to an agreement like that one above, how does that square with ‘levelling up’ our country if it’s cheaper to buy stuff from China than the local shop!?

Posted 3 years ago

benpinnick
Full Member

The seller gets a rebate off the gov’t thats worth more than the cost to send it, so basically they’re being paid to post you crap. Yes you couldn’t make that up.

Posted 3 years ago

eddiebaby
Free Member

We used to bulk ship our overseas copies of the magazine to various Eastern European countries and post them worldwide from there. It worked with the 4000 copies we sold. It would have been as cheap as Royal Mail to send our subs copies to the UK from there but would have taken an extra 2 days.

I’m sure Surfer mag used to post all European copies from Bulgaria.

Posted 3 years ago

cheers_drive
Full Member

The seller gets a rebate off the gov’t thats worth more than the cost to send it, so basically they’re being paid to post you crap. Yes you couldn’t make that up.

Madness, isn’t it?!
Trump has recently added a surcharge for incoming international mail to counter this. Unfortunately it applies to all incoming so our postage costs have gone up to.
RM have also put up their prices so it’s now cheaper to send to many international markets using Deutsche Post which routes via Germany.

Posted 3 years ago

dangeourbrain
Free Member

Interesting to see that we’ve signed up to an agreement like that one above,

It all stems from the UPU which was first established in 1874.

See the section on terminal dues

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Postal_Union

Posted 3 years ago