[throwaway-jim]

Slightly off topic: I frequently hear it mentioned in threads like this that Chinese companies are able to compete with native sellers even while shipping individual pieces to customers? How does it even work? international shipping is not cheap, especially when you're not shipping in volume. Is the shipping cost included in the product? If anyone can direct me to info on how this trade works I would be thankful.

[ganoushoreilly]

Here's an older article ePacket shipping / the Universal Postal Union. The last administration was pretty adamant about closing the one sided deal that we somehow got ourselves into. Regardless of political affiliations, I think we all agree that an American shouldn't pay more to ship in America than someone from outside of the country. The economic advantage hurts users and small businesses.

https://archive.ph/ojVUp

I've been pretty bummed with the Etsy changes to Reverb.com (they acquired a few years ago). It was great and I regularly shopped there, now it's hit or miss and feels more like ebay / wish.com

[Nican]

Planet Money did a podcast on the subject: https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/08/01/634737852/epis...

There is a fixed rate between postal offices to ship overseas, and it may make the shipping cheaper when coming from China.