How?

How can I buy something on ebay for 99 cents weighing 3 ounces and have it shipped from China for free when I can't mail a letter to China that cheap???

Read this Washington Post article for an explanation:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...-from-china/

That article was a pretty good explanation. I generally try to avoid cheap Chinese sellers mostly because I think it would be hard to resolve any problems, but this makes it easier.

Interesting article, thanks for sharing.

The 99c start or buy-it-now pricing could also come from a new seller starting into a new market, trying to get his ebay number up to achieve a discount ar some such, or to achieve a PayPal seller limit needed to progress to a certain level.

It seems though, even alllowing for the Chinese postal allowance from other countries for their emerging status (I think that was it) or some such, that the sellers must have a dirt cheap price or have to buy in volume or sell in volume.

I wonder if the return policy to China exists or PayPal or ebay guarantees?

The related - and larger - question is how / why so many booksellers on Amazon are able to sell books for 1 cent and Amazon's mandated basic (inadequate) shipping fees. I have a hundred books on Amazon but can't compete with these people. Who are they, and what's the game?