Five diodes from China for $1.60

Chinese Government has to be either partially or fully subsidizing local manufacturing with postage, and what's more, the overall plan is working well for them too!

Cheers Don...

I think it's the US Post Office that is subsidizing those Chinese shipments.

USPS is doing so poorly they're underbidding (and probably taxpayers covering) to the point that Amazon drop ships to our local PO and the mailman does the local distribution. ...Jim Thompson

Sorry John and Jim, I have to disagree. Why?

Because I am in Australia, which has one of the highest local and international postage rates in the world, and I don't see the Australian Govt. subsidizing Chinese postage.

I buy many items at around $1 from China with the postage included. Have done so for many years now.

In Australia, it costs me a minimum $7 to send a small package a mile up the road.

Cheers Don...

I can ship a padded envelope to China, up to 4 pounds, via the US Post Office, for $46.50. I can buy something from China, on ebay, around 4 pounds, for a lot less than that, with free shipping.

Clearly the USPS is doing most of the work; I don't think that they collect any revenue from the work that they do, delivering that Chinese stuff.

The UPU established that:

There should be a uniform flat rate to mail a letter anywhere in the world Postal authorities should give equal treatment to foreign and domestic mail Each country should retain all money it has collected for international postage.

check same here, I'm sure lots of stuff end in a dumpster because selling it or giving it away isn't worth postage

afaiu the way internation post works;

Sending country takes all the money from the stamps, but they then have to pay the delivering country to deliver it. The rates are agreed in the United Postal Union under the UN.

afaict the USPS gets ~$1/kg for mail from china

-Lasse

See

If I recall/understand correctly, the standard agreements between countries for international postal delivery exchange have a number of relevant terms:

- Each country agrees to perform the final delivery for incoming mail addressed to its addresses, when the mail was posted from another signatory country.

- It isn't necessary for the sender of mail (letter or package) to buy a stamp for the *destination* country - only the country of origin.

- The country in which mail originated, sets its postage charges and collects and keeps *all* of the postage.

What this means, is that a country such as China does not have to pay the U.S. or Australia anything at all for the delivery of mailed packages from China to U.S. or Australian addresses. China (the originating country) gets to set its postage rates however it wishes. The U.S. (or Australia) must pay the cost of the in-country delivery out of its own postal budget.

Similarly, if somebody in the U.S. or Australia mails something to China, they pay whatever postage the U.S. or Australian postal authorities have decided upon... and China gets none of this money and must deliver the package at its own expense.

This works out well/fairly if each country charges its customers an amount of postage which accurately reflects the total cost of delivery, and if there's a reasonably equal "balance of mail" between the countries. Each country ends up collecting an amount of money which is a fairly good match to its actual costs (shipping mail out of country, and delivering mail coming in from other countries).

However, if there's an imbalance in the amount of mail being sent, then one country (e.g. the U.S.) can easily spend more delivering inbound mail, than it collects sending outbound mail. In this regard, the U.S. ends up "subsidizing" the cost of mail sent from China.

The situation gets even more complex if China directly or indirectly subsidizes the postage fees paid by Chinese senders... this gives these mailers a further economic advantage. The money for this would (I think) end up coming out of the Chinese government's budget, *not* from the U.S. government or the buyers... it's more of an in-country cost shifting by the Chinese rather than an international issue. It could, of course, still have a big effect on international competitiveness... it could be a tool for driving non-Chinese competitors out of business in the short run, to give Chinese companies a bigger slice of the market in the longer run.

Den torsdag den 18. december 2014 02.34.10 UTC+1 skrev Dave Platt:

ote:

ational postage rates in the world, and I don't

done so for many years now.

the road.

afaict tell that system was changed a long time ago

..

In 1969, the UPU introduced a new system of payment where fees were payable between countries according to the difference in the total weight of mail between them. These fees were called terminal dues. Ultimately, this new sy stem was fairer when traffic was heavier in one direction than the other. A s a matter of example, in 2012, terminal dues for transit from China to the USA was 0.635 SDR/kg, or about 1 USD/kg. ..

-Lasse

Thanks! Good to know... I hadn't been aware of the rules change.

That transit rate of $1/kg does help even things out... but I suspect that it's still probably below the actual cost of delivery here. It's certainly much less than the USPS charges for either letters or packages, for purely-domestic delivery.

..."drop ships" meaning those mini "helicopters"?

Work-around....mail to China for their dollar and have the Chinese mail back to that mile-away location.

Read first "requirement". That would mean anyone could mail a package up to 4 pounds like previously mentioned; avoid high local one-mile rate by round-trip to China.

Den torsdag den 18. december 2014 03.08.17 UTC+1 skrev Dave Platt:

Hard to tell, I'm sure there is s difference in cost when you have mail in containers delivered at some hub ready to be sorted. compared to having run around emptying mail boxes and post offices

-Lasse

On a sunny day (Wed, 17 Dec 2014 23:57:12 +0000 (UTC)) it happened John Doe wrote in :

Hey, I wanted to point my red laser pointer modulated (sort of in-between project). Did not want to break open the plastic (seems welded. So looked for a red laser diode on ebay, actually only have 5 V available .

Its on the way!

It's less than the retail price. but it should be because it's in large wholesale quantities, USPS doesn't need to sell postage, inspect the foreign mail for payment, or collect the mail.

It's doing about 1/3 of the work it needs to do on domestic deliveries.

Here in Yankee land, it's called the Pony Express, I imagine down there it's called the Kangaroo express!

Jamie

What I would have given to have had all this great cheap stuff when I was a kid...

John Devereux wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@devereux.me.uk:

Doe

with

from

between project).

available .

Only until they pull the plug...

kinda relates to the EEVblog rant, with cheap part easily available, professionally made multilayer PCB for few dollars, every datasheet/appnote/etc. available at you finger tip, the whole world to help not having to know someone nearby, kids could be making extremely advanced stuff at home

-Lasse