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Cheapest way to ship books to Europe?

Posted: Mon Jan 22, 2024 12:07 pm
by bort2.0
I was just looking for a price quote to ship about 5 pounds of books to a country in Europe -- the absolute cheapest price quote that I found was about $85 via USPS.

That CAN'T be right, can it? It's not a huge box, and it's not heavy, and the US and this country are good friends on good terms. :teeth:

I've GOT to be missing something... help?

Re: Cheapest way to ship books to Europe?

Posted: Mon Jan 22, 2024 12:42 pm
by BramJ
I hope there is a cheaper option, 85 is insane

Re: Cheapest way to ship books to Europe?

Posted: Mon Jan 22, 2024 12:47 pm
by kingrob76
Shipping moderate sized items has gotten very expensive - I’ll bet that same box is $40 to ship to Florida, for example.

Re: Cheapest way to ship books to Europe?

Posted: Mon Jan 22, 2024 1:03 pm
by bort2.0
kingrob76 wrote: Mon Jan 22, 2024 12:47 pm Shipping moderate sized items has gotten very expensive - I’ll bet that same box is $40 to ship to Florida, for example.
Priority, maybe.

Media mail -- about $7.

Re: Cheapest way to ship books to Europe?

Posted: Mon Jan 22, 2024 5:16 pm
by Three Valves
Burn the books here and buy them again in Europe?

Make sure you burn them conspicuously in front of a library just to piss them off! :smilie2:

Re: Cheapest way to ship books to Europe?

Posted: Tue Jan 23, 2024 1:46 pm
by WC8KCY
I did some poking around on my shipping apps, and $85 is indeed the best rate.

Using Germany as a sample destination, Canada Post would only charge CAD$80, which works out to about USD$60.

Something ain't right here...

Re: Cheapest way to ship books to Europe?

Posted: Tue Jan 23, 2024 4:57 pm
by bort2.0
The weight seems to be the biggest factor

Roughly speaking, for this size of box:
If it's 2 pounds or under, it's $33 or so.
Between 2 and 5 pounds, it's $50-something
Between 5 and __?__ pounds it's $85

This reminds me of international flights from JFK in New York. People flying back to their home countries with enormous suitcases, heavy as lead and filled beyond capacity. Which of course fail the x-ray scan, and then they had to be opened and checked... :facepalm2:

Re: Cheapest way to ship books to Europe?

Posted: Tue Jan 23, 2024 5:06 pm
by bone-a-phone
I shipped a box of books to Canada (from Virginia) a couple of years ago, and it was $80. It's cheaper to buy them through Amazon and have Amazon deliver. Media Mail should give you the best rate if you're not using that yet.

Re: Cheapest way to ship books to Europe?

Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2024 1:59 am
by Tubeast
At that rate, it may be more beneficial to travel there yourself and transport the books in your luggage...

Re: Cheapest way to ship books to Europe?

Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2024 6:49 am
by davidgilbreath
USPS only offers Media Mail for domestic shipments.

Re: Cheapest way to ship books to Europe?

Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2024 4:48 pm
by bloke
ok...enough INFORMATIONAL replies above to start cracking jokes...

===========================

I'd wager that shipping books to Europe is a whole lot cheaper than booking ships to Europe.

Re: Cheapest way to ship books to Europe?

Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2024 8:12 pm
by bort2.0
In the end... They got sent to Wisconsin :tuba:

Re: Cheapest way to ship books to Europe?

Posted: Fri Jan 26, 2024 12:24 am
by peterbas
.

Re: Cheapest way to ship books to Europe?

Posted: Fri Jan 26, 2024 8:56 am
by bloke
I can't figure out a way to fit "to" into "On Wisconsin"...(??)