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runaway shipping cost on fleaBay

Unknown_K said:
Silicon valley these days is just about mining people and data and not making ANYTHING (and quite a few of the workers even there are not locals).

Offshoring production is what made a few people billionaires and the rest of us broke.
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When I have pcb's made now I nearly always have them made here in AU. It supports the PCB business here and while it is a little more expensive than some PCB houses in Shenzhen, the quality of what my PCB maker makes is excellent, so I don't mind if it costs more than going overseas. Still I have to go overseas for certain goods & services I cannot do or get here.

So if you have the chance to buy from a company in your own country and it is quality, go for it. The wealth stays in the country this way and everybody in your country is better off.
 
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It depends on what you're buying. Model kits, for example, are almost all made in Japan, Korea, or China now. Revell & Monogram have become one company, and are considered bottom of the barrel these days.

Me, I'm on a budget, and I think those 1970s kits were pretty good, even if they have raised panel lines. (if you're not a modeler, that's a mortal sin these days; all the cool kits have recessed panel lines!)

That mirrors the local vs. online debate. It depends on what's around you. I would love to patronize a local book store, music store, or hobby store, but they just don't exist now. I have no choice but to order online.

It seems to be a thing for builders too. I've seen more & more "you can save money by ordering that on Ali Baba" comments lately.
 
Casey said:
I've seen more & more "you can save money by ordering that on Ali Baba" comments lately.
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US sellers, if they even have something I want, are generally 5 - 10x the price for the same item that they are just bringing in from China.

I wanted to buy some desoldering needles and even though I wanted to, I couldn't find a domestic supplier for the set of 10 w/o plastic
handles that were selling for $1 overseas with two week shipping.
 
I found an interesting anomaly on Ebay with the GSP.

I was wanting to buy a five IC's from a fellow in the USA. He had specified in his auction the shipping cost to AU as $18 for one IC and the ones after that free. But despite what he did at his end with the listing, if another IC was added, the shipping went to over $30 and kept adding with each extra IC ordered. He couldn't do anything about it and the software was telling him that it was not like this.

In the end the only way to fix it was, he had to list 5 IC's in the one auction.

I wonder if this sort of shipping price inflation trick is happening and a lot of sellers simply are not noticing it, the buyers are.
 
Shipping has gotten beyond ridiculous here is an example:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Compaq...100665?hash=item23c5f62e79:g:7BYAAOSwsUVdf9Ij

A set of just manuals only $9.99 until you look at shipping from California to Georgia:

US $64.70 United States Standard Shipping (UPS Ground) On or before Wed. Feb. 03 to 30067
US $87.90 United States Expedited Shipping (USPS Priority Mail®) Estimated between Tue. Feb. 2 and Thu. Feb. 4
US $174.07 United States Expedited Shipping (UPS 2nd Day Air®) On or before Tue. Feb. 02 to 30067
US $254.81 United States One-day Shipping (UPS Next Day Air®) Estimated by Wed. Jan. 27

Fudge that.

Or is paper known to the state of California to cause cancer and not sell cell phones, requiring special handling?
 
Cheap, yes - but don't do media mail for anything important - it takes FOREVER and often stuff goes missing. And unlike even first class, there's no insurance available - so when it's inevitably lost, you have zero recourse.
 
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