how does this work guys i been buying games off ebay for the last 3 years but i always wanted to know this i can buy games mostly ds games from the uk or other european countries or israel for less then 5nzd and lots for under $10nzd that is including shipping and most of them are complete and i can even find n64 ps1 ps2 gba gbc gb sega games ect carts or sometime complete for less then 10nzd including shipping how can they ship them so cheap because the shipping for a complete ds game over here would cost like $4nzd to $4.50nzd to ship so i never bother to buy games here in new zealand its always way cheaper to buy them off ebay how can this be done as they have to pay fees and shipping cost ect its like there making very little or no money off the game
It greatly depends on the country. For example, shipping within the EU from a EU country is always cheap. But I can't answer for any other country.
Bulk postage prices, most big sellers will have accounts with the local post office as they ship X amount of packages a quarter. like over here Auspost offer super low postage costs for people who send 100+ packages (and letters) a month (or year I can't remember) Plus it's charged as a bulk invoice every 30 days, so that will reduce individual postage costs. The cost to there business could even be worked out flat rate per item, because postage costs all get thrown in the same pot, so to speak (hope I'm making sence haha) basically, the sellers ship a lot of stuff (so the post office gives a discount).. some countries have the postage subsidised by the government, iirc china does that.
Not even the Post Office over here.... although yes, Royal Mail offer business services There are private services specifically geared up to businesses, like UKMail. You have to ship a ridiculous amount of items each time, though. China is the best for cheap international shipping on small items.
Good and complicated question, It depends on a lot of stuff. 1.The country of origin and destination There is a LOT of variance. Here in Canada for instance we have some of the most expensive shipping in the world. It is manageable to ship local and to the USA( To some degree ) but anywhere else is prohibitively expensive for many items. China however, I suspect their post is highly subsided and this is how they can afford to ship for free everywhere. 2.The type of shipping used Anyone selling on ebay can use paypal to print label. This gives some perks and discount on the price. Here I get 10% discount. Still, lots of low volume seller do not know that and still go to the post office. Some items can be shipped with lettermail, or small-packet-air or whatever cheap packaging formula is used in your country. If you can optimize all your shipping with the best method you can save. Lots of seller do not do that. 3.The way the seller purchases postage. From a dude warlking to the post office with a sharpie marked box to a business using an electronic postal meter to someone using bulk account with a private transporter, there can be a significant difference. 4.To what degree is the shipping cost used representative This is the biggest catch, seller often do no list the true cost. All those ''free shipping'' items obviously have the shipping cost hidden in the price. I do that myself to some degree, for exemple I am selling a N64 bundle on ebay right now and it is listed with 9.95$ for shipping in Canada. But I know the true cost will be between 13-20$ Depending on where In canada it will ship. So instead I boost my item price by 5$. I am in fact charging 15$ for shipping but the buyer does not know. Sellers do this so they never get accused of over charging shipping and they get good 5 star reviews for shipping. 5. And yet.... JJ games offers free shipping to canada on all his items and his prices are not even higher than the next guy charging 10$ to chip a cart. I have no idea how he manages it.
Sometimes ebay will arbitrarily put a max limit on what the shipping cost can be. For instance, if ebay thinks you are shipping a single CD/game (e.g.: b/c of the category or prefilled template you use to list), and you try to put in "standard post" and a high cost, it will deliberately not let you list an inform you that the max shipping amount for the item is $4 or something. there are ways around this, but if you're an unsophisticated ebay seller, you might just go with the flow and figure to eat whatever the difference might be from the price.
even other us sites are selling games as low as $2usd with free shipping you cant tell me they make money off this
Economies of scale. Sell games cheap with free shipping, and people will hopefully think - hmm, $2 games - I could buy 20 of these for the cost of one new game! If they do that, the shipping becomes a small fraction of the total. I assume they're not actually Buy It Now either, so you hope there'll be a lot of interest.
Indeed. I'm sure the Chinese government subsidizes a good portion of the mail, but it also has to do with economies of scale. Since China is the largest exporter in the world they have shipping containers leaving the country daily or even faster than daily. So adding one more item into a container is extremely cheap and cost effective. Especially if that container would just be sent out under-filled anyways.
