Alaska/Hawaii shipping

I hear you coxaddict. Even for me to order from the USA is sometimes pricy as well. I used to bash Canada post, but it almost seems they have been more reasonable. I only wish Canada Post would adopt the 'Flat Rate Boxes' the USPS has. But, to be fair for me, I do understand that businesses probably have a contract in which they use regardless of what they sell.

In the meantime Canada Post is less expensive to ship internationally than from the USA.

For instance a 500 gr package to the USA costs about US$ 8 (converted); whereas the same package from USA to Canada costs US$ 16, double.

Within Canada rates are low as long as the package is not over 20 mm thick (like $2 or less). But try explaining to our Canadian customers why we have to charge them $15 (and we sometimes lose money if the destination is more East than Ontario) to ship a $10 fuel tank when we can send the same tank to the USA for $8 and to anywhere else in the world for $10.

Once a package is over 20 mm thick we can't use Lettermail and have to use Expedited Parcel; whereas Canada Post has a less-expensive Small Packet rate to anywhere in the world but Canada.

A good way to ship domestic US is Priority Mail flat rate box, ships to all states, is tracked, insured and fast.
A small box is about 7$ to large box is about 18$. Max weight 70 lbs.

Yep. Nothing like shipping 70 lbs. of scuba diving weights in a flat rate box from Augusta, Maine to Honolulu, Hawaii.

crankbndr wrote:A good way to ship domestic US is Priority Mail flat rate box, ships to all states, is tracked, insured and fast.
A small box is about 7$ to large box is about 18$. Max weight 70 lbs.

That is one very good option in my opinion to have. I sure wish Canada Post would do similar.

As for what Bernie said about our domestic shipping is absolutely true. Cheaper to ship anywhere stateside!

coxaddict wrote:On a sidetrack, most things purchased from China on 'bay are shipped free.  Is that some kind of trade agreement with the United States?

No it is not. We get all that free shipping in Canada too. From my understanding, the overseas shipping is somehow funded by the government or such I recall reading. The following is copied from a website.

'The Chinese government subsidizes postage costs allowing exporters to mail very cheaply to overseas buyers.'

Same thing here in Finland. I read somewhere that the international mail works so that the Mail Service of each country gets to keep the all the payments of the packages that are sent and the Mail Service of the recipient's country just carries the package to the destination "for free". This sort of works as long as there are "about equal" amount of packages sent and delivered. China seriously skews the system, the current situation is not economically (nor environmentally but that's another story) sustainable. If you get a $3 gizmo built by children in some sweat shop in China with free shipping, you should realize that "something is rotten in China". Especially if a letter to the next town costs you $3 to send on top of the cost of the paper and envelope.

The Mail Service here in Finland is considering a delivery fee for Chinese packages, it would be good if it reduced the influx of the unnecessary and low-quality junk. Right now the lack of balance causes the quality of service to decrease and at the same times costs increase.

Much to my surprise I bought props from a Spanish ebayer with free shipping.....so it is not just China???

balogh wrote:Much to my surprise I bought props from a Spanish ebayer with free shipping.....so it is not just China???

Probably the seller had the shipping cost "worked in" the selling price. In my post I meant stuff that is "shipped free" and the total cost is cheaper than the postage for a postcard is for a tourist in China...

I just ordered a bunch of service parts for my son's Monkey-bike and the shipping was free, but the seller company (based in Finland) has set a minimum purchase (100€) after which they don't charge for shipping. With a couple of Heidenau summer tires, new drive chain and sprockets, main jet and a voltage regulator for the son's buddy, 100€ was easy to top

Just like lunches, there is no free shipping either. Someone always pays.

One has to consider currency valuations effect the cost of International shipping. It gets quite complex.
1US dollar= 6.28 Yuan
1US dollar =1.26 Canadian dollar
1US dollar= 1.27 Australian dollar
In theory a stronger US dollar would make goods shipped into US cheaper, in practice not so much.
I'll use Cox International as an example, a few years ago the Canadian and US dollar were on par with each other, almost even steven.
In late 2015 the Canadian dollar had weakened to about 1US dollar=1.45 Canadian. If CI keeps the price of their goods pegged to the US dollar they make more in Canadian, a windfall.
If CI pegs their price to the Canadian dollar US should get a discount.
Im no expert so if I've made a mistake in logic please point it out. I also like CI and am not trying to disparage them in any way, just used them as an example we all know.

crankbndr wrote:One has to consider currency valuations effect the cost of International shipping. It gets quite complex.
 1US dollar= 6.28 Yuan
 1US dollar =1.26 Canadian dollar
 1US dollar= 1.27 Australian dollar
In theory a stronger US dollar would make goods shipped into US cheaper, in practice not so much.
I'll use Cox International as an example, a few years ago the Canadian and US dollar were on par with each other, almost even steven.
In late 2015 the Canadian dollar had weakened to about 1US dollar=1.45 Canadian. If CI keeps the price of their goods pegged to the US dollar they make more in Canadian, a windfall.
If CI pegs their price to the Canadian dollar US should get a discount.
Im no expert so if I've made a mistake in logic please point it out. I also like CI and am not trying to disparage them in any way, just used them as an example we all know.

Yes and no lol.

We sell in US$ because only 5% of our sales are within Canada.

Virtually all our merchandise is purchased in USD, so it makes no difference there whatsoever.

However, as most of our operating costs are paid in CAD, there is an advantage with a higher US$ for those costs but it's not really a big advantage in the end.

No matter what Bernie, just keep selling your stuff the world over because we need them real bad...