I was llucky enough to get a couple of overseas swap partners recently. I was kind of worried about the cost, but it really was not that bad. I filled a large bubble lined envelope for each of them and it was under $20. One of them got there in less than a week. the other took nearly 2 weeks. I signed up for on line postage and found it to be much better than gioing to the PO. I had a package to ship last week, Mich to Oregon. Took it to the PO and they told me $36 to send it. I asked for the weight of the box, took it back with me and did the online postage and it was $24. The on line postage figures all the different ways to ship, the people behind the counter are sometimes just too lazy. I've found that it depends on who is working on any given day, what kind of service you will get. The problem with the on line postage is, the site I signed up for is $15.99 a month membership. I don't ship enough to warrant that. Does anyone know of a cheeper site? I thought I was at the USPS when I signed up, but the computer sometimes tricks you. Well, anyway, that is my 2 cents for what it is worth.