International Shipping Recommendations

[Setsunawolf]

A buddy of mine sells Nintendo games online. he said the same thing. Much of his business comes from overseas, and he’s noticed a decline because of high shipping.

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Sun Dragon Koi #3

[Tara]

I found the ups brokerage fee list here

The brokerage fees charged by Canada post is a flat $5. That’s just the processing fee not the customs. On top of the brokerage fee regardless of method shipped you get charged the taxes you would of payed if you had bought it here(or atleast that’s all I’ve ever been charged).

[Zloy720]

I got the following response from UPS Customer Service when I inquired about the brokerage and custom fees:

“Thank you for your inquiry. All products shipped across international borders may be subject to additional brokerage fees, as well as any duties or taxes assessed by the importing country. These fees are generally based on the value of merchandise, description of merchandise, where item was manufactured and where they were shipped.

UPS does not have control over the import fees assessed by the importing countries. For details, please contact the UPS International Customer Service Center toll free within the U.S. at 1-800-782-7892, 24 hours a day.”

So, if USPS has raised their costs enough to equal UPS or even FedEx shipping plus the brokerage fees, which depending on the USPS service it looks like they are certainly very close, especially for the lower value items, but at the higher values >~$40 it looks like the brokerage fees still make UPS quite a bit more per the UPS table of fees…so I guess each item people ship may need to be assessed based on value and destination to truly figure out which method may overall be cheapest. However, as a shipper for a PYO swap though, or even as a buyer for a trade or whatnot, I really don’t like having the fees go to my swapee in any amount, or knowing I may need to be home when the item arrives just so that I can pay more before they will release my already paid for item to me (that feeling of them holding the item hostage that I already paid for would really peeve me to say the least). So knowing I’m paying the full cost of everything up front with USPS is still a big draw for me personally…

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