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Expensive overseas shipping charges from american shops?
Ok so this is not strictly photographic equipment-related, but anyway: Why is it that shipping charges to Europe from many american equipment shops are so high? The latest example when I was trying to buy a Vivitar 285HV flash unit. I found (via Amazon.com) a store that sold it for $89,90, a nice enough price. However they wanted $70 for shipping and handling. Through eBay, I found a store in Hong Kong that sold the same brand-new unit also for $89,90, but the shipping was only $20. It arrived in a week, so clearly it wasn't even the worst possible shipping option. Many US stores seem to have some kind of fixation on using only the finest and greatest possible shipping option - for example KEH. The one they use is actually very very fast - a lens I bought was sent Friday and I had it by Monday, couldn't have been faster if I had it bought via mail-order from my own country. However buying smaller, cheaper items simply isn't an option if shipping is going to be 2/3 of the total cost. (The same applies to some UK shops as well, I was trying to buy just a couple of rolls of Ilford SFX 200 film. Shipping charges were anything from 15 to 70 GBP (!) and I ended up buying the rolls from some UK individual who charged only a couple of pounds for shipping.) |
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Expensive overseas shipping charges from american shops?
Toni Nikkanen wrote:
Why is it that shipping charges to Europe from many american equipment shops are so high? The latest example when I was trying to buy a Vivitar 285HV flash unit. I found (via Amazon.com) a store that sold it for $89,90, a nice enough price. However they wanted $70 for shipping and handling. Through eBay, I found a store in Hong Kong that sold the same brand-new unit also for $89,90, but the shipping was only $20. It arrived in a week, so clearly it wasn't even the worst possible shipping option. Look at the USPS web site. There used to be some cheap airmail package rates (under $6 for 4 pounds for example), but they all disapeared in the spring. The USPS figured out that the price point that people will pay without giving up or using the competition is about half of what the courier services charge. Now an airmail package from the U.S. is $20 for the first pound and $4 each extra pound, unless it fits in a special box, which is $32.50 for up to 20 pounds. The box is relatively small so you can stuff a lot of film or a camera or lens into it, but not an enlarging easel or a box of large size print paper. Geoff. -- Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel N3OWJ/4X1GM IL Voice: (07)-7424-1667 U.S. Voice: 1-215-821-1838 Visit my 'blog at http://geoffstechno.livejournal.com/ |
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