Shipping Internationally, never done it before, HELP PLEASE!

archygirl

Member
Dec 7, 2006
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I just had a bidder win an auction that lives in Germany. I have never shipped outside the US before, can someone tell me the best way to do it? I have not sent invoice yet, want to calculate all of the charges first. I do know I am sending it USPS priority international, with insurance and signature confirmation. Is there anything else I need charge for?
Thanks in advance!
 
usps only allow you to insure up to 650, so if it's above that value, I'd go w/DHL or UPS, definitely NOT fedex! I send out a bag, thinking it will arrive @ UK 5 days later, and it turned out it never leave my city, found out b/c I track the package myself....
 
If you ship by USPS, you can calculate shipping charges on their website. I wouldn't ship by UPS, as they tend to charge way more than USPS (I once had a seller quote me $109 to send a pair of shoes through UPS, asked her to send them by USPS and they arrived 10 days later, the shipping charge was $13.95 or something like that :flowers: ) I didn't know that you can only insure up to $650 with USPS, though, so that might be a factor you should consider as well. If I were you, I'd either get one of those priority boxes for overseas shipping and fill out the customs form that comes with it, or I'd package the item myself and just slap one of the green customs forms stickers on it. There really is nothing to it, in my experience :flowers:
 
Sorry if I'm a little late. You should send it via Express Mail because sometimes Priority don't record the whole tracking. You can print directly from PayPal, remember to add insurance and declare the full amount of it. when you have the labels (like 3 pages) keep them in hand until you arrive at the post office where they'll give you a self adhesive international envelope "form 2973E". Good Luck! You can also try usps.com
 
Sorry if I'm a little late. You should send it via Express Mail because sometimes Priority don't record the whole tracking. You can print directly from PayPal, remember to add insurance and declare the full amount of it. when you have the labels (like 3 pages) keep them in hand until you arrive at the post office where they'll give you a self adhesive international envelope "form 2973E". Good Luck! You can also try usps.com

Express Mail International is the way to go!! I'm in Australia and buy mostly from the US, always have the pricey items sent EMS, you can track it all the way and get a guaranteed delivery date, my parcels get here so quickly, sometimes in 3 days...

Good luck!:smile:
 
Ok, so here is the thing now...buyer is saying that the cost of shipping is too much, that he has paid less for shoes to be shipped from US to Germany. I went directly to USPS web page, put in weight, for international shipping via priority and express to Germany, and gave him option which to choose. He has not paid yet, and is questioning the cost. I am not trying to scam him, as I weighed what the box is and calculated it based on Priority Mail, in package, with insurance. What do I do? Do you think he is trying to get me to discount the shipping? He also insinuated that insurance will make it more expensive.
 
Well if it's an expensive item you have to send with tracking and insurance so it will cost more. Normally about $40 for EMS (with insurance it will be more). How much did you calculated for?
 
Well if it's an expensive item you have to send with tracking and insurance so it will cost more. Normally about $40 for EMS (with insurance it will be more). How much did you calculated for?

$37.10 for Priority, and I think it was about $10 more for Express. My concern is that I was completely honest about the fact that I don't normally ever ship outside US, so I went to USPS webpage, plugged in weight and package, and that is what came up. Now the buyer is saying it is too much, that he has paid less before...maybe he wants to get discount even more? I would rather not ship them that ship them and eat cost...not fair when I already sold the shoes for a reasonable price...I only charge buyers 2.00 for packaging and that covers my cost for the bubble wrap and tissue I use to package the items so that they are not damaged in shipping. Don't know what to do if he insists on my giving him a discount on shipping...
 
It's up to you whether you want to eat some of the shipping costs or not. No matter what you do, make sure you do send it Express, because as others have said it's the only way you can get tracking through USPS.
 
It's buyer's responsibility to agree w/all terms, including s&h before placing a bid. I have people question why my s&h is high, but when i invite them to do a quote w/measurements, they understand I'm not charging a penny more. If buyer argues he has paid less, keep in mind postage has been raised, and will be raised again this May, also sending w/shoe box & w/o shoe box makes a difference too.
 
international shipping where i'm from with insurance costs about $40ish too but it really does turn off buyers so for the last package i shipped internationally, i only charged $28 and covered the rest of the cost myself.