need a favour from someone in the US

[razorsharp192]

i'm after a couple of the star wars lightsaber laser pointers (a maul and a vader) but i cant get them in the uk, i've found them on ebay but they want £20 shipping! i'm sure 2 in a padded envelope wouldnt cost anywhere near that to ship.

can someone get me them and ship them over? of course i'll pay all the costs



thanks in advance

 

[exoray]

i'm after a couple of the star wars lightsaber laser pointers (a maul and a vader) but i cant get them in the uk, i've found them on ebay but they want £20 shipping! i'm sure 2 in a padded envelope wouldnt cost anywhere near that to ship.

If you want insurance and tracking, Priority Mail STARTS at $27 (£16.50) to the UK, unless they will fit in a small flat rate box then you can get it for about $15 (£9) but no insurance or tracking... You can also get it shipped for give or take about $15 (£9) airmail but again no insurance or tracking option...

So in the end when you pay the first shipping to the US party and they forward it to you are still looking at about £20 or more in total if, I really doubt you will save any money and if you do it will be pennies in the end...

I ship stuff International all the time it's stupidly costly (and we have no control over that cost) unless you skip tracking and insurance, and most people and certainly most businesses don't want to do that... USP and FedEX minimum international charge is around $65, so you certainly can't save that way...

And last but not least most US laser pointers (Class IIIa) are technically illegal in the UK so you risk then not getting them past customs... Just an FYI, I don't know how strict they are at enforcing that law....

 

[Serenity]

Continuing with what Exoray said, the small USPS Priority Mail flat rate box is $12.95 USD international. I've recently shipped a few things internationally with it and I think it's always that price. There is no true tracking, but if you type in the Customs form number at the USPS site, then you can often do a rough track of it. It'll usually show it as accepted and then, depending on circumstances, they might scan it at later locations and eventually it'll say "left country of origin" or something similar.

 

[exoray]

Continuing with what Exoray said, the small USPS Priority Mail flat rate box is $12.95 USD international. I've recently shipped a few things internationally with it and I think it's always that price. There is no true tracking, but if you type in the Customs form number at the USPS site, then you can often do a rough track of it. It'll usually show it as accepted and then, depending on circumstances, they might scan it at later locations and eventually it'll say "left country of origin" or something similar.

Yep, and you also forgo insurance when using the small flat rate box, and as you said the tracking is minimal at best with the customs form it never actually shows delivery just that it entered the country in most cases...

The way I look at it even going that route it's probably $10? to ship to the US address and then an additional $13 to ship to the UK, total $23 seems like a lot of trouble for a few bucks...

 

[Rebelscum]

Having read all this, I'd just like to state that I ship international packages of collectibles and display stuff every day, monday - friday, using first class mail and cheap insurance. I never use priority unless it's too heavy or it happens to work out in a flat rate box (which is rare). The customs number tracking, while really basic, does indicate to the buyer that at least the package was mailed, which is generally the end of the seller's responsiblity, so that's actually never a problem for me.

Out of hundreds and hundreds of packages shipped, I have only lost 2 ever. I find it quite reliable and inexpensive.

I'm not saying even this make the math work on the pointers, but I think there's no reason to worry about tracking and priority and having any expectation that makes it more reliable. Faster, yes, but not much faster than most first class packages.