"US to Australia Shipping... Cheaper Alternatives?" Topic

I posted a great haul of books to the marketplace, having planned on shipping them locally from my United States location to some other stateside location.

One of TMP's Australian members thoughtfully inquired about shipping 24 books and 2 boxed sets to his home, and I looked it up…

$230+ USD to get a 40 pound box there via US Postal Service… Is there a less expensive way to get this done?

I realize I'm asking someone to haul a big box of solid wood pulp to the other side of the planet, but when the shipping outvalues the product by so very much, it's hard to make it worthwhile.

The expense has kept me from shopping in the past, but I'm sure if there was a better option someone would have found it before now.

Probably not, for that amount of weight.

You could inquire with a courier service, but it will probably cost more.

USPS has dropped their ocean shipment option, but you might be able to get that through UPS, or another carrier.

Shipping is very expensive internationally, especially to Oz.

Post an ad in Craig's list and get someone to pay the excess baggage fee at your expense… The price you quote is not bad based on the weight. I don't think there is a cheaper option other than someone taking it privately. You would still have the issue of getting it to them in country once in Australia unless the gent lives near one of the major cities.

I'm assuming you asked for the USPS "book" rate? I think it's called media mail now, or something like that.

Shipping through Amazon from the US routinely costs me up to half the value of the shipment. It's gotten much more expensive in the last couple of years. Spare a thought for our Italian brethren – their postal service has just doubled the media shipping rate – I'll be letting my subscription to Dadi & Piombo go as a result.

In aswer to your question ..no nothing cheaper, a lot a lot more expensive,,most , if not all, Austrlians understand this..and have done so for years..our dollar at parity helps a lot..

There used to big a bulk book in a bag rate. It was the cheapest way i found to mail books to Australia.

Yep, Media Mail aka book rate -was- the best way to ship books, but you had to fight with the staff at the Post Office to get it as most of them were oblivious to its existance, at least according to an acquaintance who ran a book shop.

There were special mail bags for this, but the staff were never told what they were for – he had to call the manager down & quote the relevant parts of their manual to get the service & the staff were very happy to find a new way to actually help people instead of padding the P.O.'s bottom line.

Unfortunately I don't know if it still exists since the USPS dropped sea mail for regular consumers – sea mail still exists as they will send your goods surface if you don't plaster them all over with Air Mail stickers, even though you paid for the quicker service – Damhik. It also seems that large, preferred shippers can still get access to surface mail, just not you & me.