eBay merch from China?

[pdq]

From time to time, I order cables and such electronic stuff from China via eBay. How they manage to ship stuff across the Pacific and still have it be half the price of sellers on this side of the Big Pond is beyond me.

Anyway, my last two orders, from different sellers, never made it. The sellers, when notified, made prompt full refunds. But it’s irritating since the usual delivery time is a month or two, and so you don’t know until then that it’s not coming and you need to get these items somewhere else.

I don’t know if it has to do with our current trade spat w China, but was wondering if anyone else had seen this?

[cbelt3]

China Post is an incredible scam perpetrated by the Chinese on the US Postal system. Because that 10 cent postage involves cramming a shipping container full of little packages that are then vomited into the US Postal service, which is required by international treaty to deliver them. For free. Delivery inside china is much more expensive.

[MrNoBody]

1874 Treaty of Bern established the Universal Postal Union

Forbes.com - wrote:
Rates set by the Universal Postal Union, an arm of the United Nations described by Planet Money as a “postal illuminati,”
allow merchants to ship packages under 4.4 pounds to U.S. customers more
cheaply from China than from U.S. warehouses, officials said. A 1-pound package
that costs the USPS about $10 to deliver can be mailed from China for just $2.50,
per White House numbers.

https://fortune.com/2018/10/18/universal...trade-war/

Every small parcel I've recd. has been marked "Gift" or "Sample". Apparently, CBP is
too busy to be concerned with confirming that status for duties exemption.

[pdq]

MrNoBody wrote:

Every small parcel I've recd. has been marked "Gift" or "Sample".

I’ve heard about that, but never seen it. But maybe I need to look closer.

[Carm]

pdq wrote:
[quote=MrNoBody]

Every small parcel I've recd. has been marked "Gift" or "Sample".

I’ve heard about that, but never seen it. But maybe I need to look closer. Most of mine were being shipped like that, I get a lot more with the actual description and cost.
I get 2 - 3 packages a month. Cheap non essential stuff under $5

[Dennis S]

I heard the Chinese subsidy or whatever it's called is probably going away.