Shipping from USA
Sounds to me the extra costs are due to customs and fees at the receiving country. I used to ship my eBay sales to Europe and Asia via US Postal Service - "the post office." I used Priority Mail for boxes and First Class for smaller items that fit in envelopes. I also had tracking numbers for both. USPS service is integrated with eBay, but I can get the same tracking and a price discount from USPS.com.
Now eBay is requiring you to use their overseas shipping service, and I can only create labels to that address; they then forward it, and my customers get charged a big fee, so eBay and/or their shipping contractor are raking in the cash. Too bad.
OTOH, when I buy stuff from Canada - even on eBay - Canada Post demands your firstborn male child. And apparently Canadians are used to that blackmail. Personally, I think it's unconscionable when so much of their "international" mail is just coming next door to the U.S. But then Canada Post is government owned and operated. Just one more way to make Americans pay.
Because of the phrase in our Constitution, Congress still tries to meddle with the USPS, even to the extent of giving its competitors a cash advantage. There's a rule that lets bulk shippers, like mail order catalog companies get deep discounts for shipping lots of packages. That's normal business practice, and it makes good sense to protect a mutually beneficial relationship.
But the way it's worded, FedEx, UPS and other commercial shippers in direct competition with the USPS can use that discount. So for example with FedEx's SmartPost, they charge their customers a tiny bit less than their normal rates, but still a huge markup on their costs. Then they only deliver the package to the nearest post office, paying the really cheap bulk postage rate. It's then sorted and delivered with the regular mail to the customer's door. FedEx et al don't have to have the trucks or drivers to make the deliveries.
In practice, even though the USPS rate is cheaper for a single package, the shipper gets screwed by FedEx, and the customer has to wait forever for FedEx to dick with it before it gets handed over to the faster shipper, USPS.
I bought camera gear from an online store that shipped from Brooklyn NY. It took eight business days to come down I-95 to me in Virginia Beach VA. According to the tracking data, FedEx drove it to Pennsylvania, Eastern Maryland, Kentucky and Western Maryland before it wandered through Northern Virginia and finally to the central post office at 23452. I got it the next day. If USPS had handled it for the whole trip, it would have spent its first night in Brooklyn, the second night in Norfolk VA, took a short commute to VaBeach in the morning, and been at my door that afternoon - two days, and about a buck and a half cheaper.
I've never received an item via FedEx or UPS in less than four days, and First Class/Priority Mail always gets here in 2 or 3 days, - usually 2. I'd say OK, if the commercial shippers are cheaper it might be worth waiting twice as long, but it's always more expensive. Sometimes the eBay seller passes the cost to me, sometimes they absorb the shipping costs.
I buy a lot of stuff from manufacturers in China. The cost is very cheap because there is no markup from a U.S. distributor. It usually arrives within 30 days, but that's fine because jewelry and electronics aren't emergency requirements. It has always bothered me that some of the Chinese sellers - notably Hong Kong - mark the packages as gifts. That defrauds U.S. Customs. But the customs fees are small because the costs are small and I guess I can't blame them for not wanting to learn dozens of customs policies around the world. OTOH, if they marked the value on the customs form, then I could pay my legal obligation as a COD to my letter carrier. I suspect US customers who are used to cheating have persuaded those vendors to lie on the customs forms.
The VAT may seem like a big amount when it's added all at once on imports, but I'd prefer that to income taxes that penalize the money makers for growing the economy. That's why US sales prices are higher - the manufacturer, wholesaler and retailer all have to cover their income tax bills. The VAT adds the same markups for domestic products at each stage too; the only difference is that it's itemized on your bill. I'd like to see the XVI Amendment repealed. A flat national sales tax would be better.