international shipping question

[HerMajesty]

From the UK I offer a surface option as well as an airmail option.

A 1Kg book would cost £13.26 to USA by airmail, and £8.15 to USA by surface.
£13.26 for 1Kg is a shade more than your $18 for 2lb.

Noone has ever selected surface mail yet, but I still offer it because I reckon that people are happier paying £13 when they know they could have it delivered for £8.

It's my understanding the USPS has quit offering a surface (slow boat) rate internationally.............

[Oldandintheway]

Unfortunately, we here in Oz have THE most expensive international postage on the planet IMO
I just listed a book weighing over 2Kgs & the air-mail shipping to the UK is AU$84+ and not much cheaper to the US & Canada.
Knowing that international buyers won't want to put a deposit on the plane - I don't expect to sell it O/S any time soon!
Agree with Dzambo - light objects are the way to go.

[emporiumdays]

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Unfortunately, we here in Oz have THE most expensive international postage on the planet IMO
I just listed a book weighing over 2Kgs & the air-mail shipping to the UK is AU$84+ and not much cheaper to the US & Canada.
Knowing that international buyers won't want to put a deposit on the plane - I don't expect to sell it O/S any time soon!
Agree with Dzambo - light objects are the way to go.

Ha Ha - Yes $84 does look more like a depost than a postal charge!

And yes Australia probably is the most expensive - (due to a spread out population which is also relatively small, so it's not at all efficient).
Not that this is any consolation for Patty.

And yes, (Oldandintheway & Dzambo), selling light weight objects seems the only way around this.

I'm selling trading cards at the moment cheaper than eBay prices, and a single 'envelope' costs me $2.35 to the U.K.
But I charge it at $1.35.
Yes I lose $1 to post there.
The reason?
I want the U.K. buyers to see a postal charge of under 1 pound on my listings so I don't frighten them off!

I'm also doing this to build up my feedback.
I've made 19 sales in the 7 months I've been with eBid, (10 cards were sold to a single customer though). So far I've been effectively 'buying' feedback.

[DZAMBO]

Like I say many times many sellers’s who selling various stuff and especially heavy stuff because of very high shipping will need to change what will sell in the future if the seller need to sell own stuff…and especially for International shipping….many buyers look this day’s charge for the shipping and eBay is not for nothing push many seller’s for higher fees who offer charge for shipping and try to push seller’s to offer free shipping because eBay track what people buying and how many buyers like to see free shipping…free shipping buyers buy more…eBay track all this down and one of big reason why now is going to charge fees for the shipping is because of that buyers buy more if is free shipping….I try to sell light items and a less if my price for selling item is couple times less of shipping charge I not charge any more extra shipping if the buyer buy 2 or more any my items in one day so a sample if the buyer buy from me a 1000 cards I will charge only $1.00 for the shipping not many can offer that and top of that still if buyer buy any other my items from my 6 stores I offer same deal NO MORE EXTRA CHARGE for any my item…and all this is because of prices for the shipping any company, the seller not have many choice and prices for the shipping will go up in the future too….Personally I think for the books and stuff which is small size but heavy this all stuff is going to die in the future and will die very quick and top of that ‘’kindle’’ is around and for regular books doesn’t matter what is selling price shipping will be always couple times higher from selling price and even the seller can’t offer much good deal if try to sell couple books in one time because shipping will go up more…and this is reality…many buyers know that and shipping price killing everybody is just no way to stay profitable in this business any more and if anybody has tons of personal money in this stuff my advice just try to rid of this stuff and start to selling light items…In the end for the future people will buy books but this stuff is just dying because of shipping prices and new generation don’t like to use whole room for the books instead like to buy kindle and top of that save ton of money from the shipping…real book is better no questions about that but really for the future and people own pocket will determine if I am right or not….AMEN…….....

[SacMacJetty]

I called the post office here in the U.S. and based on 2 pounds weight the cheapest I can send to the U.K. is $13.95 (if it will fit in their flat rate envelope) and the Cheapest I can send to Canada is $9.66.