Crazy China Prices

[...]

A few days ago, I ordered a soroban abacus with a reset button from Ebay.  I just chose one that looked fairly decent and that was reasonably priced.  When I received the confirmation email, I noticed that it was being shipped from Shenzhen, China.  I paid $14.95 + 3.95 shipping.  I looked around Ebay and found the exact same abacus, even using the same photos, that ship from several different suppliers in the U.S., but they were selling for two and sometimes three times more of the selling price and had the same, and sometimes higher, shipping price.

It blows my mind that I can buy a single China made product, directly from China, cheaper than I can buy that exact same product from a company in America that purchases them in bulk and that I can pay less in shipping from China, for that product, than I would having it shipped from Wisconsin or Pennsylvania.

[heartstrings]

   I order a lot of stuff from Shenzhen and other Chinese cities. And most of the time their service is impeccable. The last issue I had was a set of picatinny rails for an M4 carbine. When they arrived  they wouldn't match up to the handguard holes. They gave me a full refund and paid the return shipping with no hassle at all.