quote:

Originally posted by Scifi_Collector:

quote:

Originally posted by Chuck Bartowski:
I just had my first international shipping experience since the increase...I will no longer be shipping internationally because of it...it cost nearly $10 to ship 7 cards to Australia. That is insane. Not only that, but they now have to input everything into the computer when you ship. It now takes at least 10 minutes at the counter (not including waiting time) to ship one package internationally.

Chuck,
I ship all the time internationally and I haven't had a problem yet, Yes, even with this new increase.

I am hoping you already new that it would cost $10 to ship internationally. If you didn't you can calculate the costs of your shipping using the USPS website, And You don't need to wait for the postal worker to input the information, all you have to do is Print and Pay for the shipping label using ebay shipping and the payment comes out of your paypal account. That way the post office only has to scan the package in. Hope this helps.

This one wasn't on eBay, but I haven't seen anyway to ship internationally on eBay yet. I know some people have been invited to participate in their trial program for international shipping, but I wasn't one of those.

Either way, $10 for 1st class shipping is insane. I didn't know it would cost that much. I charged $6 shipping so I ate it for $4. Like I said I'm just not going to mess with it anymore.

I had 2 different International orders for just 1 card. I'm surprise about it.

quote:

Originally posted by Chuck Bartowski:

This one wasn't on eBay, but I haven't seen anyway to ship internationally on eBay yet. I know some people have been invited to participate in their trial program for international shipping, but I wasn't one of those.

Either way, $10 for 1st class shipping is insane. I didn't know it would cost that much. I charged $6 shipping so I ate it for $4. Like I said I'm just not going to mess with it anymore.

I gather you didn't know that you can also pay and print shipping labels directly from paypal, even though it is NOT an ebay transaction and it doesn't have to be a paypal transaction either. Paypal has the "Multi-order Shipping" you can create any shipping label.

Now, I only stand in line at USPS just to have the postal worker scan the items into the system.

I've pretty much stopped buying cards on eBay now. I just can't pay $7.55 postage for a $2.00 card. I just hope more Canadian card dealers buy more Marvel product.

quote:

Originally posted by Scifi_Collector:

quote:

Originally posted by Chuck Bartowski:

This one wasn't on eBay, but I haven't seen anyway to ship internationally on eBay yet. I know some people have been invited to participate in their trial program for international shipping, but I wasn't one of those.

Either way, $10 for 1st class shipping is insane. I didn't know it would cost that much. I charged $6 shipping so I ate it for $4. Like I said I'm just not going to mess with it anymore.

I gather you didn't know that you can also pay and print shipping labels directly from paypal, even though it is NOT an ebay transaction and it doesn't have to be a paypal transaction either. Paypal has the "Multi-order Shipping" you can create any shipping label.

Now, I only stand in line at USPS just to have the postal worker scan the items into the system.

I know you can, but I've never been able to figure it out. It's an easy process for US, but hasn't been for international shipping in the past....of course I haven't tried it in a year or so.

Sticker shock at the Post Office today.

It was $28.00 to ship a binder to the UK.

Now, considering most new binders are 25-30, we're talking about doubling the price and it's only worse if they get it with fees/taxes.

Business overseas has slowed to a crawl this year. Can't blame collectors either...

Ed

quote:

Originally posted by Scifi Cards:
Sticker shock at the Post Office today.

It was $28.00 to ship a binder to the UK.

Now, considering most new binders are 25-30, we're talking about doubling the price and it's only worse if they get it with fees/taxes.

Business overseas has slowed to a crawl this year. Can't blame collectors either...

Ed

A lot of U.S. sellers charged that kind of rate for shipping binders for years, who knows what they charge now?

When we in the U.K. see binders selling for $22 - $30 it looks cheap until as you say Ed we have shipping and Taxes on top of that. Another problem with the taxes is when this is charged it really delays receiving the package.

I've been waiting of a package with a couple of Master sets in for over a month even though the tracking indicated it was received in the U.K. a month ago.

Yeah, UK Customs take forever to sort through things. I've occasionally wondered and worried that things have got lost, only to have a card turn up 3-6 weeks later stating the charges I need to pay for Customs...£8 extra of which Royal Mail charge just for 'handling' it. It's probably more now. It really puts me off buying items over £15 from outside the EU now. Which is a shame because there are a lot of US card dealers with superb service whom I love to buy from; but it's the postal system and the Customs 'jokers' which are the problem and must be hurting several dealers.

People have worried for years about various things in the card world which could kill the hobby off and none of them have. How ironic it would be now if it was killed off by the postal service and the customs office and nothing to do with the cards themselves.

US Customs are no better when it comes to the time it can take to get past them. Over the past year, things I have sent to the States have taken anything from a couple of days to over three weeks to clear Customs. The worst part is that even when items are being tracked, they just disappear into the Customs Black Hole. Royal Mail Tracking will say the item has been handed over to the overseas postal service while USPS tracking just says they have been notified that the package is on the way. In reality, it is wending its merry way through Customs processing Stateside

Oh, and of course the latest round of Royal Mail price rises aren't going to help matters

I think one of the worst aspects is in the inconsistency of both local and foreign customs.

Clear example are 2 packages posted on the same day and sent to the same buyer in the USA. One would expect the packages to reach the buyer round about the same time.

Wrong ... One of the packages arrived over 2 weeks after the first package.

Both contained cards of pretty much the same value. And as Kevin said, Royal Mail's Tracking service just states that the item has been handed to the overseas postal service.

That is very helpful. International Signed For service was worth every penny ... not!!

quote:

Originally posted by Card Owner:
And as Kevin said, Royal Mail's Tracking service just states that the item has been handed to the overseas postal service.

That is very helpful. International Signed For service was worth every penny ... not!!

To be fair to the Royal Mail, that's the amount of tracking they say you get with International Signed For which is why I prefer to use Airsure where possible as the tracking continues once US Customs finally hand it over to the USPS. You can also track it on the USPS site for more details

I was very disparaged by the overseas and Canadian mail rate increases by the USPS in Feb. Canada really shot up, doubling for priority mail. And Europe is now $24 for a box of cards, NOT including tariffs, which are an extra hit! When the economy crashed, we changed our boxes from 36 to 24 pack to lower our retail costs $15 (from $60 to $45), and now this increase occurs, while the economy remains pretty flat. It's crazy. One thing we're doing to help offset it is we're now offering free promo sets (when available) for out of country orders so as to, in effect, cut deep into that $7 or so increase. But what I'd like most if to be able to lower prices more. Unfortunately, all the costs in making and shipping the product are going up on us.

quote:

People have worried for years about various things in the card world which could kill the hobby off and none of them have. How ironic it would be now if it was killed off by the postal service and the customs office and nothing to do with the cards themselves.

Agree. I have my hypothesis of how the hobby can be kill, but never expected it coming from the mail service not just in USA, but worldwide.

quote:

I was very disparaged by the overseas and Canadian mail rate increases by the USPS in Feb. Canada really shot up, doubling for priority mail. And Europe is now $24 for a box of cards, NOT including tariffs, which are an extra hit!

You were disparaged in February 2013. I was surprise and catatonic when I saw the propose in October 2012.