How people sell for so little on amazon

jamesy81

Hi,

Anybody know how people sell things on Amazon for less than 2euro including P&P. Where is the profit?

Thanks

Alan

Bepolite

Are we talking aircraft carriers or a cable that costs 5c to make and 50c to ship?

jamesy81

I have seen people selling pet accessories for £2 from the U.K. I understand then can land the items from China for £1 or less. However they then need to pay for postage to the customer and these particular sellers offered free delivery. I don't see a profit considering a large envelope costs approx £2 and a package obviously more.

Bepolite

jamesy81 wrote: »

I have seen people selling pet accessories for £2 from the U.K. I understand then can land the items from China for £1 or less. However they then need to pay for postage to the customer and these particular sellers offered free delivery. I don't see a profit considering a large envelope costs approx £2 and a package obviously more.

It depends on the bulk deal done with the courier/post office. In many cases these folks won't ship to Ireland, or charge more for it. In some cases I don;t even think they're aware and ship at a loss.

jamesy81

Thanks Bepolite. I just got a similar answer from another forum. They said a large number of people don't realise the associated costs such as the fees Amazon charge and are just dumping the stock. Also larger sellers are using it as a loss leader to get people to view their sites.

my3cents

There are also some that don't ship from the UK and instead ship direct from china, sometimes you can only work that out from the feedback.

rubadub

my3cents wrote: »

There are also some that don't ship from the UK and instead ship direct from china, sometimes you can only work that out from the feedback.

+1, this is called dropshipping, dealextreme offer this service, its common to see loads of cheap DX stuff on ebay for a few cent more. They never touch the item.

If you are in a country with very low living costs you could probably make a decent living wage by doing this.

kneemos

I had a similar experience in a €2 shop when I asked for one of those 2c size flat batteries,she handed me a card with I think I counted 22 batteries in it.How the hell does anybody make money on these is the first thought I had,but as a previous poster mentioned maybe they're
dealing in pennies.

Still beyond me how they can manufacture,package and ship 22 batteries for €2 though.

foggy_lad

kneemos wrote: »

I had a similar experience in a €2 shop when I asked for one of those 2c size flat batteries,she handed me a card with I think I counted 22 batteries in it.How the hell does anybody make money on these is the first thought I had,but as a previous poster mentioned maybe they're
dealing in pennies.

Still beyond me how they can manufacture,package and ship 22 batteries for €2 though.

When those are packed into a shipping container every bit of space is packed with the items so there is no waste on transport costs, add to this the cheap production costs in some warehouse in backwater china that employs modern day slaves and you have the contents of your local €2 store.

Mick Murdock

I have items produced in China for anywhere between 10 and 50cent that would boggle the mind. It's actually ridiculous! They've now set up a base in Oxford where I can buy from directly at a small premium - about 10c extra per item in comparison to China. €10 delivery to Ireland for 5000+ items. :eek:

Clearly somebody is being f*cked over along the way.

A lot of factories sell on Amazon and Ebay.