ebay fidings

Ricardo Reis · 3 July 2009, 02:13 PM

Me thinks Mr Obama should have a saying in this. This kind of surcharge of shipping is hurting the US because is hurting the exports and a striving industry of exporting goods abroad!

Varese2002 · 3 July 2009, 02:20 PM

Hi Riccardo, I don't think the president of the USA has anything to do with the US Mail, that's free enterprise. There should be some more competition to ship parcels (books) around the world, where perhaps the customer could have more choice and benefit from a better price. Quality from US Mail in the past has been admirable, everything bought has arrived and in good condition, no problem here.

I think the help of good friends in the USA is the best one can do from Europe.

Cheers

Kees

Ricardo Reis · 3 July 2009, 02:37 PM

eheh, I know Kees, just being provocative. And, think, the US gov. did break AT&T. I agree, lack of competition is the key. And they are bad americans also, hurting their export industry

dpolglaze · 3 July 2009, 08:04 PM

Believe it or not, the US Postal Service basically operates as a zero sum game. They are not supposed to either make or lose money. This is why the postal rates go up every year or so instead of in one big chunk.

I agree with Joe - First Class International mail is absolutely the way to go if you can, but it's really only for light items. I can send a single CD or two to most places for $2-4. However, when you're talking about books, weight is the key. The Robinson book is a fairly hefty book. It weighs at least a pound. First class international mail for a one pound large envelope is still $10.11

There are cheaper ways of shipping, but they involve bulk mailing. If you can gather together 50 pounds of material, it can be sent via International Surface Air Lift for cheaper rates. They depend on destination, but can be more reasonable. It's still more than the old surface mail.

Overseas shipping is one reason we had to raise international rates for Over the Front.

Dan

Varese2002 · 3 July 2009, 10:48 PM

Thanks Dan for the information. Interesting is the 'International Surface Air Lift' called by the US Postal Service 'Direct Sacks of Printed Matter to One Addressee (M–bags)' here. A direct sacks is defined as printed matter sent to a single foreign addressee at a single address, where there is an International Surface Air Lift (ISAL) M-bag.

Maximum weight of a sack: 66 pounds (including the tare weight of the sack).

Cost to the Europe - Netherlands (difficult see here).

Netherlands comes in price group 8. If you take ISAL M-bag Prices —

this is about the cost. So a good friend in the USA who collects your heavier books or loads of (old) magazines can ship via ISAL M-bag the whole lot in one go.

Thanks to the site of the US Mail Service and the hint of Dan about ISAL I have been able to figure this out, but it remains complex

Cheers

Kees

Ricardo Reis · 4 July 2009, 02:01 AM

I think that table just made my day

dpolglaze · 4 July 2009, 10:03 AM

Another nice thing about ISAL is that the 50 pounds don't have to all go to the same place. If you get 50 pounds of stuff to go anywhere overseas, you can have an ISAL shipment that includes even multiple countries. The prices are a little higher that way, but not too bad.

Some countries limit ISAL to other weights, but I think you'll always be able to get to about 44 pounds.

Dan

rainbase · 5 July 2009, 05:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Varese2002

In the last years shipping costs from the USA have risen so high, that I have stopped bidding on anything that is on Ebay USA. It is financial harakiri.

I've been selling books steadily on Ebay since early this year; making a go at being a WWI book dealer... eBay Seller: jandoko: Books items on eBay.com

The first couple of times I had to ship overseas I was flabbergasted by how high the rates had jumped (and I lost money each time by honoring my quotes). Since then, I list all my overseas postage with a safe measure of "padding". Prospective buyers will usually write me and inquire if there's a cheaper way to send; to which I reply that I will only charge the "actual" rate. While it's a little bit of an inconvienence to go get the actual rate at the Post Office, it sure beats getting stuck paying for the customer's postage.