International vendor - I wonder how it turns a profit

[Life_is_Good]

I gave my wife an ipod touch for Mother's Day. Well, she wanted a case so the screen wouldn't get scratched up - that sounded reasonable. We found some offerings on eBay that seemed good quality and offered the features she wanted. The price was $3.80 and free shipping. The company was in Hong Kong and would ship it to us internationally for free? Hmm. I had my doubts but since the risk was only $3.80, we decided to go for it.

The product arrived today (only a week after the order was placed). It seems to be made fairly well and lives up to all it's promises on the eBay ad. We're very pleasantly surprised!

It makes me wonder how this company can turn a profit on these products. It seems to always cost me at least $5 to send anything from Oregon to California! This came all the way from Hong Kong.

 

[REWahoo]

It makes me wonder how this company can turn a profit on these products.

Volume.

 

[braumeister]

I've bought a number of camera and radio related accessories this way. Incredible deals, but never a problem. Good quality and fast response.

My guess has always been that it's the same factories that make the normal branded goods for the OEM, and they just turn out extras during otherwise idle shifts. That makes cost of manufacture extremely low. I've been told that you can ship an entire container full of whatever you want across the Pacific for less than $500, and one of those containers will hold a lot.

 

[arebelspy]

Volume.

We're losing money on each customer, but we'll make it up in volume!

I've wondered the same thing. Dealextreme.com is the site I use to get my cheap foreign knockoff stuff, and they offer free shipping on every purchase. I've bought cheap earbuds for $1 from them, and had them shipped to me in the US free from hong kong. They have to literally cost pennies to make, if they can include free shipping to anywhere in the world from hong kong.