[bruce511]

A combination of taxes, tariffs and an extra middleman.

If I buy an imported product here I pay local sales tax, import tariff (indirectly) and the overhead of a local importer/shop. If I buy on ebay, especially if its second hand, I pay little to none of that.

(actually, in practice, the govt here has figured it out and sales tax and tariff are usually collected on incoming shipments - stuff acquired in person overseas are more or less not paid. Depending on your country ymmv.)

But local importer & retail alone can add plenty to the overhead, and hence retail price.

Of course buying from the US this way is still very expensive, the real value is in buying direct from China.