I've wondered this myself. I often buy fishing supplies off ebay from
China.  Literally pay $1-2 for say 200 hooks + free shipping from
China.  Just the cost of shipping that from here to there would cost
more than shipping + the item.

-Josh

On Mon, May 25, 2015 at 4:58 PM, Jason White
<whitewaterssoftwareinfo@gmail.com> wrote:
> I am located in the US and have always found it odd how cheaply
> packages can be shipped to the US (usually less than $3.00, sometimes
> less than $1.00) yet how expensive it is to send equivalent packages
> back overseas from the US. In theory, it should cost the same going
> both ways. But the amounts by which the US and Chinese mail are
> subsidized seem to differ greatly, because it certainly seems to cost
> more than either when shipping from other countries. Skimming The
> Chinese Post website [4] I see a page talking about "The Postal
> Savings Bank of China is a full-function commercial bank offering
> comprehensive and convenient financial services and 37,000 saving
> outlets." So perhaps the Chinese post's expenses are payed for in part
> by the loans made by the "The Postal Savings Bank of China"? Can
> anyone comment on this?
>
> I did a comparison between postal costs in China, the US, and Canada.
> I was surprised by the price difference for shipping inside of Canada.
> Ottawa to Vancouver is a similar distance compared to New York to Los
> Angeles, yet shipping with the Canada post is easily 4-5 times more
> expensive. In fact inside of Canada, for whatever reason, it is
> cheaper (2/3 of the cost) to send a package to China than it is to
> send it from Ottawa to Vancouver.
>
> It seems that is only marginally more expensive to send small packages
> halfway around the world (from China to the US) than it is to send
> packages within the United States. If one had to send lots of (small)
> packages to many different countries, it seems like China is *the*
> place to be.
>
> Prices in USD.
>
> United States Postal Office (First class international, or standard post)=
:
> * 100 gram Package, New York to Los Angeles. $2.50. [1]
> * 100 gram Package, to Canada from the US. $6.91
> * 100 gram Package, to China from the US. $8.88
>
> Canada Post (Air Mail, 6"x4"x1" Package):
>  * 100 gram Package, from Ottawa to Vancouver. $15.09. [2]
>  * 100 gram Package, from Ottawa to US. $8.13. [3]
>  * 100 gram Package, from Ottawa to China. $11.20
>
> China Post (Air-Mail):
> * 100 gram Packet to China/Neighboring countries from China. $2.26
> * 100 gram Packet to United States/Canada/etc. from China. $2.95
>
> [1]
> * New York Postal Code: 10001
> * Los Angeles Postal Code: 90001
>
> [2]
> * Ottawa Postal code: K0A 1B0
> * Vancouver Postal code: V5K 0A1
>
> [3] from Ottawa to New York or Los Angeles, both have the same price.
>
> [4] http://english.chinapost.com.cn/
>
> --
> Jason White
> --
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