** cheapest international shipping rates? **

[RBBrittain]

If you're wondering what the general shipping charges are for Spain to the U.S., Correos (the Spanish post office) has a website in English.

In reality, however, what websites assess for "shipping" varies wildly on many factors in addition to ordinary shipping costs (which can vary wildly by country and/or carrier):

• Carriers offer different discounts to various shippers.
• Websites, like mail order before them, usually build overhead into their "shipping" costs under terms like "handling", "processing", or (in the UK) "packing". Since that can include anything (even profit), that varies by retailer.
• Different websites use different shipping options. For example, while airmail is common from the UK to the States, Japanese e-tailers almost always use expedited shipping--either EMS (Express Mail) or FedEx, UPS, etc.--on all international orders.
• Location can matter even among different e-tailers in the same country. This is especially true in the UK, where for competitive reasons (see next item) many e-tailers are now based in the Channel Islands (Guernsey & Jersey) instead of the UK proper.
• In Europe, how the e-tailer handles value-added tax (VAT), their version of sales tax--which, unlike the U.S., is part of the advertised price--can impact shipping rates as well. (And for good reason; UK VAT is 17.5% of pre-tax price, much higher than most U.S. sales taxes.) For example, the reason many UK e-tailers moved to the Channel Islands is to avoid paying VAT on small-value items like CDs, DVDs, and in some cases BDs. They effectively use the VAT portion of the price to pay for free shipping to UK addresses; they may also use it to offset international shipping costs. (It's explicit with non-EU orders from Amazon's EU sites--they deduct VAT, then add shipping; some other sites do it implicitly.)

[Monroville]

Here is an example of what I am speaking about:

I recently won the ITV ESCAPE TO ATHENA blu-ray on eBay from a UK seller. He charged me L3.00 (pounds) for shipping (which roughly comes out to $4.70 US, per www.xe.com). When I received the package, the postage paid was L1.24 (pounds) per what was on the postage label (which comes out to roughly $1.94 US).



Thus, going by what just arrived yesterday, it costs roughly L1.24 to ship a 3 ounce blu-ray from the UK to the US (at least the eastern states, as I live in KY) by royal air mail, and I was overcharged $3.00.

The point of this thread is to help people get a general idea of what shipping costs TRULY are so they don't get ripped off on auction sites like eBay and the like by sellers who over-inflate their actual shipping costs.

EDIT FOR MODERATOR: why did you take off my second image posting? All address fields were marked out, and it was visual proof to back up what I was talking about. Please explain.

[seeweda]

Originally Posted by Monroville

Here is an example of what I am speaking about:

I recently won the ITV ESCAPE TO ATHENA blu-ray on eBay from a UK seller. He charged me L3.00 (pounds) for shipping (which roughly comes out to $4.70 US, per www.xe.com). When I received the package, the postage paid was L1.24 (pounds) per what was on the postage label (which comes out to roughly $1.94 US).

Thus, going by what just arrived yesterday, it costs roughly L1.24 to ship a 3 ounce blu-ray from the UK to the US (at least the eastern states, as I live in KY) by royal air mail.

The point of this thread is to help people get a general idea of what shipping costs TRULY are so they don't get ripped off on auction sites like eBay and the like by sellers who over-inflate their actual shipping costs.

What kind of package was it in? I know the US postal service charges $1 or $2 for the small boxes or media mailer packages at the store. If I were to sell something to someone online I would include all packing materials in the cost of shipping the item to them.

[Atreyu]

I find on Ebay, not internationally, that most sellers have the same price for shipping, which is usually around three bucks for a video. But before you go Ebay check Amazon and the Amazon international sites as I have found that Amazon plus shipping is usually cheaper than Ebay highest bid plus shipping. You just have to be savvy and do some price comparisons first.

[rdodolak]

Originally Posted by Monroville

Here is an example of what I am speaking about:

I recently won the ITV ESCAPE TO ATHENA blu-ray on eBay from a UK seller. He charged me L3.00 (pounds) for shipping (which roughly comes out to $4.70 US, per www.xe.com). When I received the package, the postage paid was L1.24 (pounds) per what was on the postage label (which comes out to roughly $1.94 US).

The colorful package and artisitic capability of the seller must account for something, right?



j/k

Most sellers transferred their ebay fees (listing and selling) to the buyer by adding them into the shipping price long ago.

[jw]

Originally Posted by Monroville

Here is an example of what I am speaking about:

I recently won the ITV ESCAPE TO ATHENA blu-ray on eBay from a UK seller. He charged me L3.00 (pounds) for shipping (which roughly comes out to $4.70 US, per www.xe.com). When I received the package, the postage paid was L1.24 (pounds) per what was on the postage label (which comes out to roughly $1.94 US).



Thus, going by what just arrived yesterday, it costs roughly L1.24 to ship a 3 ounce blu-ray from the UK to the US (at least the eastern states, as I live in KY) by royal air mail, and I was overcharged $3.00.

The point of this thread is to help people get a general idea of what shipping costs TRULY are so they don't get ripped off on auction sites like eBay and the like by sellers who over-inflate their actual shipping costs.

I am sure that ebay seller doesnt want his personal information displayed without his/her consent? It doesnt matter what the seller charges, as a ebay buyer you agreed to that sellers terms as soon as you submitted a bid. If you dont agree with terms, dont bid. I look at overall cost of item with shipping when I purchase from ebay, I generally find Amazon to be about the same price if not less

[Monroville]

(sigh)

This is not to difficult to figure out.

The point of this thread is to get a general idea from people around the world as to the ACTUAL costs for postage. It is an information post. Yes, if I place a bid and agree to pay what the seller states is the shipping price, then yes I pay. It is still a little irking when you agree to pay $5.00 or more for shipping because that is what the seller says it will cost (and since you want the item, you trust that "that" is indeed what the shipping charge actually is) and then see that the seller paid $2.00.

If someone tells you something is going to cost $10 and you agree to pay because you trust them, and then find out it should have cost you $2 to $3, just because you agreed to the former price doesn't mean you aren't still going to feel like you've been ripped off/ taken advantage of.

Actually, Amazon.co.uk charges a bit more than the usual UK seller on eBay: L5.00 for the first item, and L1.00 per extra item after that. Not too bad, but can add up when you get 6 items or more (you would think that they would have a media mail/ bulk rate for larger orders). Amazon.de and amazon.fr generally at E15.00 for the first 3 to 5 dvds/blu-rays. http://Www.dvdgo.com starts shipping at around E15.00 for the first 2 dvds/blu-rays as well.

So:
If there are forum members in: the UK, France, Spain, Germany, Japan, Australia

If you could please post what it would cost to send a 3 to 6 ounce package (or lightweight envelope as seen above) to the USA, that would be greatly appreciated, as it would give a general idea as to what the actual cost to ship from Europe/Asia to the USA actually costs.

[rdodolak]

Originally Posted by Monroville

Actually, Amazon.co.uk charges a bit more than the usual UK seller on eBay: L5.00 for the first item, and L1.00 per extra item after that. Not too bad, but can add up when you get 6 items or more (you would think that they would have a media mail/ bulk rate for larger orders).

Maybe I misunderstood your post but I've always been charged £2.09 per delivery plus £0.99 for each item shipped via airmail to the States.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/cust...odeId=11072991

and BlahDVD has charged £1.00 per item.

EDIT: Info on Deutsch Post

Link to Germany's Postal Service:
http://www.deutschepost.de/dpag?tab=...mlFile=1016715

Link to International Shipping rates for packages sent from Germany:
http://www.dhl.de/en/paket/privatkun...paeckchen.html

[Monroville]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/cust...odeId=11072991

-- this link does not work (you may want to post the entire link, as the 'cust...odeID" part is what I think is messing the link up)