On Saturday, February 1, 2020 at 10:58:58 AM UTC-5, Ralph Mowery wrote:
In article ,
says...

Dunno but you are probably right. Shipping to Canada is silly
expensive.
Somehow almost twice as expensive as shipping it south to the states.
I could likely buy a crate of it from china,including shipping, for
what it would cost to send a sixpack of it from buffalo or detroit.



The shipping cost is something I just do not seem to get. Canada/US is
very expensive, however getting items off Ebay from China and some other
countries is almost nothing. One would think that just going across the
border from Canada to US would hardly matter. I mean the distance from
the east side of Canada to Florida is about like California to Florida.

I can get a forever stamp to send a first class letter over seas for
about $ 1.25. I just got in some small plastic pieces from China for
less than $ 1 that included the parts and shipping. I bought something
from India and the express shipping from DHL was not very much.

I share your issue and I've brought it up here before. It's complicated
and I've never seen a good explanation. What we need is something that
explains what it costs a vendor in China for postage to get these items
here and what the US winds up actually receiving. The basic concept is
that a treaty was signed in the 1800s whereby the sending country keeps
the postage. How the rates are set, IDK, but today it has something to
do with countries being classified in tiers. The sending company keeping
all the postage works OK if it's about balanced. But problems in the last
century, where mailing was very imbalanced, lead to terminal dues. That
is where a country that sends more mail to another country, based on
weight, has to hand over a fee to the receiving company.

Like I said, how this all works, IDK, but it's not fair. If you or I
see something on Ebay, it's about $3 to send a small, one ounce packet
within the USA. I'm sure volume commercial businesses have lower rates,
but they still must be paying $1 or more. Yet Chinese vendors are
selling the item with shipping for $1! A guy here in NJ, decades ago
started a campaign about this. He had invented and patented a drinking
cup to use in your car. I forget the exact numbers, but he was selling
it for like $8 plus shipping. Soon it was knocked off by the Chinese
and they were selling it here for $7 including shipping. Despite all
the complaining, this never got fixed.

I know last Fall the Trump administration was threatening to withdraw
from the intl postal treaty, with this being a core issue. That's a
good thing, something Trump was doing that was right. It got resolved
and we're still in the treaty. So, the remaining question is if whatever
is changed is still coming and we haven't seen it or it did not fix
the above and we lost again.