International Shipping

I'm sure some of you guys are more experienced than me at this and I really need your help. It's driving me insane to find cheap rates to send a pair of headphone pads internationally... it seems that anywhere besides USPS costs up to $70-80 to ship one of those large envelopes (UPS, FedEx, DHL). Am I doing something wrong?

What shipping services have you guys had the best luck with? I heard I should stay away from USPS, but it seems like the cheapest option ($25, which I consider fair).

FYI, shipping from USA to Singapore.

Thanks.

 

I received headphones from @thegunner100 before, they arrived quick and without incident. Same route: USA-to-Singapore.
(Though I can't recall what shipping method he used...?)

 

I two am interested in shipping methods and rates to Eastern Europe (Latvia).
When last I looked it was like $300+ one way via UPS or Fedex, which is crazy money.

Anyone have any alternatives that you have used that work?

JJ

 

I think it was most likely USPS, as that was the most reliable method for me at the time.

 

I find USPS works best going to Canada. UPS and Fedex sometimes charge stupid amounts to go across the border, whereas USPS will get converted to Canada Post, which charges a flat $9.99 customs processing fee. (This is only charged if the taxes amount to over $10 as well... so anything less than $200 coming to Alberta usually does not incur any fees. Our tax rate is 5%).

Not sure about internationally; I've received tubes from many countries and most people just use their countries national post. Sending more expensive items, it's often worthwhile to check with UPS/Fedex with regards to insured items. I always insure items worth more than say $100... if the mail gets lost, it would really suck to have to refund the cash to the buyer.

 

Well, don't ever use USPS first class to other countries. It's cheap, and comes with a number which looks to be the tracking. However, I've learnt that it's not after they lost my w4r.

In fact I used the number to track some of my previous packages to Europe and Canada before and it did work. But after they lost my package, they told me it's not a "tracking number" and they are not responsible for any first class lost. If it sucks that much, why call it "first class"?? The worst customer services I've ever experienced. And this doesn't take into account the recent one when they crashed my P1U and declined my insurance case. They are one fire for creating bad experiences.

 

And what a fine method it proved!

@Pyruvate: maybe this is another angle to approach the problem--Schiit provides FedEx as an option, and it's only a tad more expensive than USPS while being faster, tracked, and insured.

 

For small packages, USPS is fine.

But for big expensive packages,USPS is only fine if you insure it, ie no under declaring. My seller lost a Yggdrasil and Raggy using USPS. In addition, USPS tracking can be a damn nightmare, so not the best solution for say a Studio that you want to keep track of its journey.

If you want to under-declare, use FedEx, UPS or DHL.

 

You're from Singapore too? Think I'm going to go with USPS, as much as I don't want to. Spending $50 (FedEx) to ship something that's worth $150 is ridiculous.

 

^ Yessir I am. Yeah I think USPS is reasonable at that item price.

 

From USA to Europe (Estonia) and vice-versa, i have used local post and USPS only. Since other options are extremely expensive. Like i want to pay twice? No thanks!
Since there are some ass-holes, who look for expensive insured packages to steal. I usually set item's to low value and don't ship very expensive stuff.
Why? Once i needed to transport expensive stuff, i did insurance and put fragile labels on it. Later the package was wrecked and item was damaged. It was 3rd party courier company. Not known in USA.

Also for me, biggest problem is that most of the second-hand stuff comes from USA and people sell CONUS only, even i offer them more.

 

EMS (express Mail Service) is an option - its trackable. You can run into issues like I do here in South Africa where it gets issued a new, internal number by the Postal Service and if it gets 'lost' - ie: never gets this internal number, that originating number ain't going to help. But I;ve had good luck using EMS in a really shitty mail service country. USPS provides EMS service in the U.S.

 

I've had nothing but positive experiences with EMS as well. Used them several times for audio, and other Internet purchases.

 

I've sold several items on ebay US and enabled the Global shipping option. I do that pretty much on everything I sell on ebay and so far two folks took advantage of this method and both were delivered without incident. It works like this, you either do free freight, fixed freight or variable all to US destinations. The buyer pays whatever that is plus the additional amount to get it to their country and ebay handles the rest. Both times I shipped to KY and then one item went to Canada and another to Australia.

not sure about the prices but a few searches on ebay should help you find some stuff to get an idea. Then if you find a person on a forum that has something, just have them list it on ebay with a buy it now and global shipping, bingo done deal. Not too sure about the insurance part but I am sure ebay has that in their Ts and Cs for the program.

EDIT: And I did not have to mess with customs forms, tariff codes etc.

 

Since he started this thread the OP has now become an expert at shipping to Singapore, so this thread is probably done

 

Thanks for that 'trick'.
I will definitely keep that in mind when I can use that technique.

Unfortunately in my case I'm shipping something to Latvia for them to apply their services upon something (my headphones).
IOW I'm purchasing their services, but I need to ship my 800's to them and they are not setup to handle this in any other way.
More's the pity…

Thanks for the technique…

JJ