Yes I have wondered the same.
I don’t know the answer for sure but I guess it’s partly a decision they take to be competitive on eBay as many people will only search on “free” postage items. As long as most items they sell are more expensive than the 99p in this example then they will cover their costs and make a profit on the majority of their sales. If instead they charged postage they will cut out a large proportion of their market and lower their overall sales volume and profit.
I don’t know why they don’t set a minimum order value to qualify for free postage but again it might just be an attempt not to be filtered out of searches.
It might also be a cheap way of building targeted mailing lists and email addresses?
Finally there was a TV documentary a year or two back when they visited Chinese suppliers for stuff like this and when you are buying in by the container-load the unit prices were very low indeed. Just maybe resellers do turn a very small profit on the 99p connector type items, but only a few pence if that.
Last edited by: martin aston on Thu 14 Apr 22 at 23:08
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eBay free postage new
eBay free postage new
