Thread: Reasonable international shipping?

Originally Posted by Pete_S

Yeah, its insurance and tracking, prolly. If you know and trust a person who's getting what is being sent you can just mail first class international, which is about 4.00 for about 3.5 oz in the US now. You can't really blame sellers for covering thier a**es since paypal almost religiously sides with the buyer if there is a dispute.

Pete is 100 percent correct on this.
I once got a shipping quote for a item to
send to russia from the states with signed for and insurance.
They said it would be 128 us dollars.
I just sent it signed for in the small flat rate box.
and prayed he be honest. You cann't add insurance to
the flat rate boxes.

When I ship an item from the USA to anywhere in the world it goes global express USPS fully insured for actual value ..... or it doesn't go. For a single razor to Europe, Japan ..... wherever, runs about $40.00 USD. I am not going to eat it if it gets lost, broken or whatever. If the buyer wants the item they will pay the piper. I made an exception to a friend and member of this forum in Belgium. I gave him the choice. He went for the cheapest way with the understanding that if anything went awry he was out the $125 USD .... or whatever it was. I trusted him because he is a friend and all went well. For the most part though it has to be insured and tracking. Believe it or not for items that size global express is the best option.

Originally Posted by Suile

Pete is 100 percent correct on this.
I once got a shipping quote for a item to
send to russia from the states with signed for and insurance.
They said it would be 128 us dollars.
I just sent it signed for in the small flat rate box.
and prayed he be honest. You cann't add insurance to
the flat rate boxes.

I insure flat rate boxes every day.

The rent's too High! Oh well, as you send a package to a friend in UK, it costs them about 50 or more p to retrieve it! Even if you list as gift! The VATS tax and all! Silly!

A little off topic, but I'm kind of curious, has anyone here actually had something lost in the mail? I dont mean under suspicious circumstances. In my experience the mail seems very good at getting things delivered (knock on wood). The only time I've had things "not delivered" were when they were sent to some bunch of Gov't morons who would get to charge me money if they didnt get the paperwork I was sending.

Originally Posted by Pete_S

A little off topic, but I'm kind of curious, has anyone here actually had something lost in the mail? I dont mean under suspicious circumstances. In my experience the mail seems very good at getting things delivered (knock on wood). The only time I've had things "not delivered" were when they were sent to some bunch of Gov't morons who would get to charge me money if they didnt get the paperwork I was sending.

A few years back there was a guy in Turkey selling good vintage NOS razors on the bay at reasonable prices. I bought a NOS vintage Dorko from him and used paypal for the $80.00. I never got it. I waited until just before the limit of 45 days that I could file a claim and did. Paypal ruled in my favor even though he had proof that he had mailed it. So far that is the only incident I've had, knock on wood.

Originally Posted by Pete_S

A little off topic, but I'm kind of curious, has anyone here actually had something lost in the mail? I dont mean under suspicious circumstances. In my experience the mail seems very good at getting things delivered (knock on wood). The only time I've had things "not delivered" were when they were sent to some bunch of Gov't morons who would get to charge me money if they didnt get the paperwork I was sending.

I don't know about lost, but I've had several things "magically" disappear when being sent to Italy.

Originally Posted by Pete_S

Yeah, its insurance and tracking, prolly. If you know and trust a person who's getting what is being sent you can just mail first class international, which is about 4.00 for about 3.5 oz in the US now. You can't really blame sellers for covering thier a**es since paypal almost religiously sides with the buyer if there is a dispute.

+1. For razors in the 50 to 250$ range, I always ask 25$ to cover for registration and insurance.
For high value items, insurance is more.

Sure, I could mail it out for 5$ and hope it arrives.
But when it doesn't, you'd still want your money back. And I am not the one who is going to eat the risk just because you feel that regiration and insurance are not necessary. And as was already mentioned: with ebay you are at the mercy of ebay and paypal, both of which side with the buyer by default.

I've bought quite a few straights from France over the last few years. I've paid as little as 3 Euros and as much as 35 Euros for a single straight. Something that I noticed about the French though, is that a high percentage of them will send a single straight in quite a large box.

Originally Posted by jaswarb

There is no prohibition in by USPS for folding knives only switchblades and that is often ignore.

I just paid €16 for Martin De Candre shipped France to US.....large box very light weight no tracking.

Sorry, bit late with this.

I tried to find if there's English translation on prohibited items on the pages of Finnish mail but couldn't find.
Howevers, it says something like 'because of the US regulations, you cannot ship money, gold, silver, alcohol, drugs or medicines, aerosol, switch blades, folding knives, cotton seeds etc etc.
Then there are items that have restrictions like products made in Cuba or North Korea, feathers, bees etc.

I do not know if they xray them. I have never sent a razor to USA but i know few people who have with no problems.

Found a page about USPS restrictions. It says something about razors and knives. Guess i've broken those restrictions as i've sent several Finnish work knives to friends in USA