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Related to the aside: It has been this way for a while. Check out ebay listings for < $1 USD shipped. Pretty much anything you could buy in a dollar store and more can be shipped to your door for less than a dollar if you are willing to wait up to 30 days sometimes. That entire inter-country shipping system is broken. From what I understand, they hand off the package with no fees going to the USPS. I believe it is that way for most tiny packages.

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It's not that no fees go to the USPS, but the fees that go to the USPS are pre-negotiated by the Universal Postal Union (UPU), which is a multi-national organization within the UN that the USPS is a member of.

China is considered a Group III country by the UPU, which is a "mid level developing country". Other countries in that group include Brazil, Mexico, and Thailand. The US is a Group I "Industrialized" country. Shipments from a Group III to a Group I country equate to about $1 - $1.50 USD per pound (it's not a linear scale and per/lb rate fluctuates based on total weight).

That's really interesting; thanks for sharing.

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