Advice on shipping to Australia

[AlexanderJ]

Hello everybody,

I just sold a bundle of AC-130's on ebay and was asked by a buyer to ship to Australia. The box is fairly big, L: 28 W: 18 H: 11. How would I be able to ship it cost-effectively????

[Jennings]

www.usps.com

[Bigasshammm]

There is no cost effective way. But if they want it shipped there then it's their dollar to pay for it. To be safe you're going to want registered air mail which is not going to be cheap. It's the only way you get any form of tracking what soever. Otherwise I would inform them that you do not ship out of the US and they can either forfeit their bid or find another way to get it to them. Sometimes people will use a go between.

[Jay Chladek]

Technically, I've had no troubles shipping to Australia as my packages have always shown up there. If you go USPS, it IS going to have to go Priority Mail and that can be expensive. One way you might be able to ship cost effectively would be to see if there is a flat rate box that will fit these. In my experience, that typically isn't going to work as the flat rate boxes are usually more expensive than going by weight. You might be able to cut down the package size a little if you break down the boxes, but considering how big the package seems to be, I do not believe you'll be able to size it down enough to go First Class International (all dimensions no greater than 36" total and under four pounds in weight). So, it will be costly.

The international customs form does provide a form of tracking when you give them the number on it. But after it leaves US soil, the number isn't going to be updated usually until it arrives at the destination (and only if the mail deliverers scan it). But some countries are better about that than others. In my experience, I've had some packages arrive in Australia faster than other places (even places in the USA). This is vastly different from Canada's post which from time to time "blows dead bears" (I had to say it, I love that saying). ;)

[biscuit]

I would see if you can fit the kit into a smaller box, I sent some prints home from Seattle recently and it cost me about $42 u.s.....so it's not going to be cheap, i would explain this all to the buyer and see if he still wants to go ahead with the sale

mick

[DPD1]

At that size it would have to be the Global Express service, which is pretty expensive. You'd probably want the priority service. To do that, about the max size you can have would be 28 x 10 x 14. You can check it out on the USPS site. They have two max girth limits, and unfortunately Australia is the smaller one.

[TonyT]

We used to ship to Australia all the time....... And the States for that matter, though it tended to be just the Criminals we sent to Australia..

Edited May 20, 2012 by TonyT