I was recently pursuing my other passion the other day which is 1st edition hard back books. I ordered four books from the 'bay two from Great Britain and two from the U.S.

All four were offered to me at POSTAGE FREE!

Can someone please explain to me how a full sized hard back book can arrive in NZ from both countries completley postage free when a single trade card costs me $26.00 in postage alone?

The books were cheap (albeit brand new) and in three of the four cases were full sized books.
The shipping label (for one of them from the UK) says 0.52kgs (weight) and they were sent under the description of Books Printed Paper.

If they have a much cheaper rate shouldn't we sellers of cards look at investigating this??

At least from the US, they were probably sent via Media Mail, which is pretty much the cheapest rate there is. If I send a 1.1 package (~.52 kg) to my brother across the country via regular Ground delivery, it will cost me $11.52 USD. However, that same package sent Media Mail would cost just over $3.00. BUT, there are a lot of restrictions on what you can send media mail. Must be books, educational materials, etc. I know that comic books don't qualify, so I'm sure that trading cards wouldn't, either.

In the past, I've sent Secret Santa parcels with the postage costing more than the enclosed item. Fed up with single-handedly financing Royal Mail, I looked for alternatives. Sending a Monopoly board game to Australia from UK via Royal Mail was £63. Found Parcels2Go was charging £21. The anomaly? I still had to go to the post office to use the Royal Mail system albeit with the Parcels2Go price. I will be seriously looking at this next time I send cards.

quote:

Originally posted by Graham:
In the past, I've sent Secret Santa parcels with the postage costing more than the enclosed item. Fed up with single-handedly financing Royal Mail, I looked for alternatives. Sending a Monopoly board game to Australia from UK via Royal Mail was £63. Found Parcels2Go was charging £21. The anomaly? I still had to go to the post office to use the Royal Mail system albeit with the Parcels2Go price. I will be seriously looking at this next time I send cards.

Amazing that you have to go and use basically the same system for 40 quid less. Madness or sums up the rip off post office

I also collect books! The only place I get free postage from is The Book Depository. I don't know how they do it. And Amazon USA if the order is over $35.00.

I would like to know how they did it also. There is no media mail rate for international mail. The cheapest rate I'm aware of is First Class which starts at $13.50 for 1-8 oz then jumps to $22.50. They may have a discounted rate through UPS or FedEx.

There are ways around mail charges, but not for the general public. Media mail in the US was already mentioned. I use a mail order house for books and DVDs. No matter how much I may buy at one time the shipping is $3. These are generally for older titles, but you can't beat that mailing charge.

The biggest mystery to me is Target. Target started free shipping for all Target card holders at Christmas, no minimum, and then has kept it up all year round. Now I have ordered some big and heavy items from them and I pay nothing. Target has to be eating the money because it certainly costs to order these things from other retailers. Target does get more purchases from me because of this policy, so I guess they figure it evens out, but I don't see how.

Anyway, bulk users do have special channels and discounted rates. It does not help card collectors, who are probably paying extra to balance it out for somebody else's break.

Well none of the stick on bits on the parcels make mention of Media Mail and none of the books came from Amazon.

I have checked my local Post Office and was told that there is no special rates for anything. All postage is at a weight/size ratio irrespective of what's in them.

I reckon that if I told my seller that I want the parcel in a book sized box and sent to me as printed media I must end up with cards arriving at a very good price!

I gave up trying to claim cards as Media Mail ages ago.

At my PO here in Phoenix, I have twice had them open a legitimate media mail box to check contents.

Ed

You've had your local PO

quote:

"open a legitimate media mail box to check contents".

!!! My God, is that legal???

I can see it now, sellers getting a bunch of books and putting cards in the pages and shipping them out as media mail. It'd be kinda funny.
There's no international media mail, sadly. SO, it's not a real solid plan.
I am actually shocked they haven't done away with media mail.

quote:

Originally posted by btlfannz:
You've had your local PO

quote:

"open a legitimate media mail box to check contents".

!!! My God, is that legal???

I'm sure it is. Mail carriers or regular PO workers don't open mail, but if you posting packages you do have to answer questions regarding the contents. No liquids, batteries, etc. If the PO suspects that the contents is not what you are saying it is or they are concerned about possible fraud, authorized personnel can open it or have you repackage it. I would think it's handled pretty much the same way in New Zealand by whatever agency or company delivers the mail. No?

I also don't think that you can play around that much with media mail. If you get caught sending the wrong contents for reduced rates you would probably be hit with an enforcement action at the very least. It's not a good suggestion as an alternative, unless the stuff you are sending really falls under the category of media mail.

If people would post cards for what the postage actually costs then there would be no problem. You can put a pile of promo cards in an envelope and send it letter post by usps from america to the uk for about $3.

Put that up against the ebay sellers who refuse to send a $1 promo unless it is insured and tracked for some stupid amount it is easy to see where the problem lies.

Yeah I agree, a card and hard plastic can be sent for the price of one first class stamp, but what happens when the buyer claims not to get the envelope? eBay in particular has rules that hamstring sellers because of the buyer protection. Sellers get burnt by a couple of bad buyers that file claims of non-receipt and they don't want to chance eating even small amounts anymore. On international sales I don't think sellers have much choice how to send anything for eBay purchases.

If you really want to avoid all the rules and are comfortable enough with a dealer to not worry about the risk, buy directly from that dealer and see if he/she can ship it cheap. Without insurance you won't have any recourse should the package get lost, but that is the chance you take. If they are really inexpensive cards anyway, it hardly matters. Expensive stuff should be insured, but again, if nothing happens it is a waste of money. It only becomes a huge issue when it doesn't arrive and someone gets stuck. I can't blame professional sellers for wanting to protect themselves.

Regarding tracking numbers at least here in the US, I have found them to be useless and don't care if I get them or not. The tracking system sounds great, but when something is actually delayed, they still can't find it.

This has happened to me twice and all they can tell you is the last point that it was scanned in, not where it is. I had one package that somehow was sent back to the retailer and one that they swore was delivered, but wound up as being held at the PO. A tracking number does not keep it from going missing and does not guarantee it will be located.

quote:

Originally posted by wolfie:
If people would post cards for what the postage actually costs then there would be no problem. You can put a pile of promo cards in an envelope and send it letter post by usps from america to the uk for about $3.

Put that up against the ebay sellers who refuse to send a $1 promo unless it is insured and tracked for some stupid amount it is easy to see where the problem lies.

Setting aside insurance issues, do you want even your $1 promo cards to arrive damaged? If it does, will you expect another? I am assigned the task of making sure the cards arrive pristine. I expect my $1 cards to be as pristine as my $100 card. So, tossing cards into an envelope and sending them through a machine that potentially can make a 90 degree turn just doesn't sit right. I hate that shipping even a single card overseas costs $13. But, I want cards sent with some kind of protection.

Lynne i do understand what you are saying and if anyone wants to pay $14 for a $1 they are free to do so but that person will not be me. I see loads of cards every day on ebay that i would purchase but one look at the postage and that is the end of that idea. This is no good for me and it is no good for the dealer who is trying to sell it.

quote:

Originally posted by wolfie:
If people would post cards for what the postage actually costs then there would be no problem.

If you are selling stuff on eBay, then it is impossible to send stuff for what it actually costs since eBay take 10% of whatever you choose to charge/ask for postage. Not forgetting that postage also has to include the cost of the envelope/jiffy bag/whatever. Believe or not, they actually cost money too An awful lot of buyers certainly don't realise this and mark you down on shipping costs if you ask one penny more than the price of the stamp

Also, I'm like STCardGeek in that I want any cards I send to arrive in good condition. So I pack them accordingly. Minimum I can/will send anything is Large Letter whether it is a high value card or a promo.

As I am on a test group for both the Royal Mail and a European postal service, I know exactly what can happen to things sent in regular envelopes as I have to report the damage incurred on items I receive. As a result, I will never send anything in a simple envelope in a toploader.

I have both bought and sold on Ebay but it's been a while since I've sold. I recall being able to send 100 cards for $8 to Europe or Australia but know those days are gone.

Yes, i know the unconsidered charges. Even before I sold, I looked for cheap yet sturdy boxes for mailing small items (fossils, cards) and found that those small boxes baseball card collectors use for storage were excellent. I have never had one get destroyed and they were 60 cents a piece.

Sometimes, I had to buy pieces of cardboard, but usually, I did okay saving cardboard from cards sent to me or the from buying calendars or whatever.

In any case the cost of packaging and shipping is tax deductible if you do enough of it. I don't remember how much I sold but it was at least $600 for a couple of years so I kept track of everything and declared it on my income taxes. I think you still get back 50% of that total cost.

I have seen sellers who want way more than what would be considered a reasonable amount for postage. One seller in the US wanted $6-7 to send six cards within the US. At that point I had to think about whether the price of the six cards was good enough to put up with the shipping charge.

quote:

Originally posted by Kevin F:

quote:

Originally posted by wolfie:
If people would post cards for what the postage actually costs then there would be no problem.

If you are selling stuff on eBay, then it is impossible to send stuff for what it actually costs since eBay take 10% of whatever you choose to charge/ask for postage. Not forgetting that postage also has to include the cost of the envelope/jiffy bag/whatever. Believe or not, they actually cost money too An awful lot of buyers certainly don't realise this and mark you down on shipping costs if you ask one penny more than the price of the stamp

Also, I'm like STCardGeek in that I want any cards I send to arrive in good condition. So I pack them accordingly. Minimum I can/will send anything is Large Letter whether it is a high value card or a promo.

As I am on a test group for both the Royal Mail and a European postal service, I know exactly what can happen to things sent in regular envelopes as I have to report the damage incurred on items I receive. As a result, I will never send anything in a simple envelope in a toploader.