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Internationally Shipping a Package

Discussion in 'Travel Forum' started by Benjamin, Mar 11, 2019.

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  1. Benjamin

    Benjamin Well-Known Member
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    I've never shipped a package out of the country before (or tried to buy direct from out of country) but I own a business selling physical therapy equipment and had an Occupational Therapist contact me from Australia and inquire if I would ship there. I told her I would look into the cost and if it seemed be feasible I'd be willing to arrange it.

    Kind of a shocker! Minimum of $600 for an 18x18x13 box weighing 18 lbs.

    There must be ways to get around these costs, think about all the marketers selling products from China, but I wouldn't know how they do it?

    I was offered 3 options from UPS:

    Ship From:
    SURPRISE, 85387 United States
    Ship To:
    Wentworth Point, 2127 Australia
    Number of Packages:
    1
    SERVICE
    SCHEDULE BY:
    PICKUP BY:
    DELIVERY DATE:
    ESTIMATED COST*

    UPS Worldwide Express
    5:00 PM Monday, Mar 11, 2019
    6:00 PM Monday, Mar 11, 2019
    12:00 PM Thursday, Mar 14, 2019
    668.85 USD

    UPS Worldwide Saver (Express)
    5:00 PM Monday, Mar 11, 2019
    6:00 PM Monday, Mar 11, 2019
    End of Day Thursday, Mar 14, 2019
    656.76 USD

    UPS Worldwide Expedited
    5:00 PM Monday, Mar 11, 2019
    6:00 PM Monday, Mar 11, 2019
    End of Day Wednesday, Mar 20, 2019
    600.88 USD
     
    #1 Benjamin, Mar 11, 2019
  2. rockytopva

    rockytopva Well-Known Member
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    I wonder how YouTube and amazon sellers get away with free shipping?
     
    #2 rockytopva, Mar 11, 2019
  3. InTheLight

    InTheLight Well-Known Member
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    Cheapest way to ship internationally when you are prepaying and adding shipping charges to invoice is USPS International Priority Mail.

    If the customer is a business they may have an account set up with a shipping company in the US to handle shipments for them. In this case you are shipping third party and billing recipient and won't see any shipping charges. Be sure to verify they actually have an account with the shipping service before sending anything.

    Oh, and have fun filling out all the customs forms.



    Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
     
    #3 InTheLight, Mar 11, 2019
  4. InTheLight

    InTheLight Well-Known Member
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    The cost of shipping is built into the overall price of the item. Most of these sellers with free shipping have products that weigh less than 1 lb. This allows them to ship via USPS First Class Package. The cost is for USPS First Class Package is around $4.00 (give or take) anywhere in the US. This stuff is almost always shipped in those padded envelopes.

    The cost of shipping is incredibly high and UPS and FedEx increase costs about 4% every January 1st. Also, UPS has a $3.95 surcharge for shipping to a residential address, and a $3.80 surcharge for shipping to most rural addresses. And a fuel surcharge of about 0.5% on every shipment (this was started about 12 years ago when gas prices spiked and persists even though gas prices have generally been below $3.00 a gallon for years.)

    So sending a 2 lb. package via UPS to a rural, residential address in a nearby state can cost about $14.00.

    The best way to send packages over 1 lb. is to use USPS flat rate boxes. But sizes are limited and rates keep going up.

    Because of all of this, the days of free shipping are numbered for packages weighing more than 1 lb.


    Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
     
    #4 InTheLight, Mar 11, 2019
    Last edited: Mar 11, 2019
    • Informative Informative x 1
  5. Salty

    Salty 20,000 Posts Club
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    These shoe boxes - for Grahams "Operation Christmas Blessing" they ask you to give $7 to ship a shoe box for an international Child. I checked with the Post office - if I as an individual, were to mail only one shoe box - it was in the 30-40 dollar range!
     
    #5 Salty, Mar 11, 2019
  6. InTheLight

    InTheLight Well-Known Member
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    Yes, shipping is incredibly expensive. People don't realize it and there is a reckoning coming. Graham's organization probably gets a volume discount. I'm certain that the $7.00 they ask for nowhere near covers the cost of shipping, even with their discount.

    My company gets a smallish discount off of UPS published rates. However, Amazon gets a stupendous volume discount on rates. It's about 55% off published rates.
     
    #6 InTheLight, Mar 11, 2019
  7. InTheLight

    InTheLight Well-Known Member
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    I just looked up a Japanese customer of mine. They had a freight company here to handle their shipments from the U.S. I don't know how they did it but they could ship several boxes totaling 50-60 lbs. air freight for $65-$75.
     
    #7 InTheLight, Mar 11, 2019
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