As someone with a little experience as a HK eBay seller I thought I'd share a bit of inside knowledge with you guys:
All destinations are not equal when it comes to shipping out of Hong Kong.
HK Post has a joint agreement for discounted postage with US/UK/Canada/Oz and NZ.
Some HK sellers (myself included - you must be registered to access discounted shipping rates) can use this shipping method that works out cheaper than standard airmail for parcels under 2kg. A parcel of just over 1kg works out costing around AU$20 to ship tracked with a 7 to 20 day delivery time (excluding packaging materials/fees based on todays exchange rate) to Australia.
Just as an example of how crazy it is: It is cheaper for me to ship something 200 gm in weight to Sydney or Auckland than to Singapore/Philippines by over US$5 - go figure!
I just looked up mainland China and it is more expensive than shipping to Sydney - AU$26-$27 to ship a 1 kg package there using HK Post.
So worth keeping this in mind if looking to redirect your shipping...
HK addresses however ARE significantly cheaper to ship to (AU$6.50 for 1 kg).

I have the same gripe about overcharging postage with Robotkingdom who charge me US international shipping when my home is only 10 km away from their warehouse as they aren't geared up to deal with local sales and won't budge on that stance (for me anyways).

Quote Originally Posted by Jetfire in the sky View Post
I have been very interested in a number of items out of Honk Kong lately, I have family that live in Guangzhou (Mainland China) and HK. The family in GZ are more flexible when it comes to onforwarding items to me in Oz. So I first ask the HK seller what the price for shipping is to GZ, if it comes back to the price they are sending to the rest of the World then I am a little sceptical so then I send a follow up e-mail asking for either local pick up in HK or postage to HK address. When it still comes up as same price as Rest of the World it sounds more scammy than usual.
I had this happen a few months ago for multiple items that I bought from a HK seller, so we had an e-mail discussion that ended quite amicably. Pretty much ended with: "If you are locked into these postage prices for a HK address I will report you to e-bay" he replied, "How about we just cancel the transactions." Thanks mate :-)
Having had enough of this BS I have recently reported someone for pulling the same sheizer, lets see how it pans out.