Are we overcharging for shipping in the US?

I ordered a fly slapper on Amazon for $2.99 including shipping. That's dirt cheap.

How can Amazon afford that and make a buck out of it? I knew the fly slapper was "made in China".

But as it turned out, the order was fulfilled in China and shipped from China. It took 3 weeks to get to me though.

It's good for me as shipping alone in the US would have cost me twice as much as the product at least.

More and more online stores do that, they don't carry inventory, but have the manufacturer ship direct to customer.

When the manufacturer is in the US, it's fair game. But when the manufacturer is abroad, it's a different story.

How does that affect the economy? We truly live in a global economy, and the cheapest wins.