Whats the guide to international shipping I have a box that's roughly 18 and a half pounds that I need to ship to Italy from the eastern U.S. I haven't accepted the offer but I got an inquiry. UPS and USPS gave me a retail shipping price of $200 or so dollars... Do Yall have a set guide on this or what is your rule of thumb?
Posted Sep 17, 2020, 3:55 PM UTC
Set guide regarding shipping costs? I charge the retail shipping charge that the shipper charges.
Assuming this is an eBay sale, have you looked at eBay international standard delivery. I’ve used it several times lighter items. So....I can’t speak in terms of an 18 pound package, but I’ve found it to be affordable, easy, and relatively pain-free for both buyer and seller.
My bad this is a FB market sell. Which to do this day I still don’t understand how their shipping works.
I do shipping for a small company (basically figuring out as it goes type company).
If it's for an individual, hop to the USPS website and "calculate a price". Change destination country to Italy.
Where it says "What's the value of the item being mailed?" put the exact cost the seller paid. This will insure it for the cost and important to be accurate.
Shipping date and time doesn't really matter. It's all the same and you could just drop it off.
Once you enter all of that, click flat rate boxes (since it's 18 lbs, it can't ship evelope.) Go over the options and make sure the weight and size fits for the box you need. According to my quote, a medium flat rate box would work for you.
Maxium weight is 20 lbs and dimensions must be under 13-5/8" x 11-7/8" x 3-3/8" or 11" x 8-1/2" x 5-1/2". Cost is $75.35 for shipping to Italy from the US.
Charge a little more just in case so I would round up to $80.00 and just let them know. Shipping is always costly internationally. Other option is DHL but I don't deal with those unless they use DHL accounts. Hope that helps!
Thank you for your reply and infromation. I did this and came to $200 I will repeat and see where I was wrong.
You are getting bad advice.
The USPS website charges expensive retail rates. Use a commercial postage provider like Pirateship.com.
Unless the box is huge, something weighing 18.5 pounds ships USPS to Italy for $102.17.
I don't normally ship packages that big internationally, but I source quite a bit from Japan. This price seems about right to me, and if they're someone who normally buys international they should already expect to pay the BIG BUCKS for shipping. IIRC anything over 4lbs is going to force you into International Priority shipping so there's not going to be cheap option here. As a buyer who regularly gets shipments around that weight, I've found that FedEx International Express is usually a bit cheaper than using Japanese Post/USPS, but that may be a different case since the origin country isn't the US in my case.
If you're planning on shipping something to Italy, take a minute to look at what's prohibited. Ha! It would've been easier to write a list of what ISN'T prohibited.
https://pe.usps.com/IMM_Archive/HTML/IMM_Archive_20060108/imm/immicl/immiclhk_012.html
That link is an archived copy from 2006.
Here is the current one.
https://pe.usps.com/text/imm/il_008.htm
Thanks for the updated link! They still keeping it tight, I see.
Thank You!
Dang can't ship my nutmeg... haha no they are switches. So I think they are good.
Like electronic internet routers? Electronics are even more scrutinized and will result from a visit from the FBI if you attempt to export tech to some countries.
The hell... why?
Because people on the internet can say whatever they want without a citation and get away with it. No matter how extraordinarily stupid it is.
There are some things that aren’t for export from USA. As long as you make sure you’re complying with that, you’re ok. Enterprise gear has skus that are US only and skus that are international. Typically the biggest issue is the encryption capability on either