nativetexan

remember the post offices have instutited an extra $9.00 charge for anything shipped overseas over one pound due to the people trying to send bad things via UPS and other companies. we pay for the extra security measures they must do now.

MTS

I lived in Israel for 7 years, and sent and received many packages.

Unlike here, EVERYTHING is checked. Is all goes through x-ray machines (and other stuff) before it gets near an Israeli airplane. As for stuff coming into the ports, same deal.

The problem with most US mail that people don't think about is that it travels, in those big containersl on passenger planes. Was the DHS directive a knee-jerk reaction? Maybe. But no one, least of all Americans, want to be inconvenienced by what TRUE screening would be.

In Israel, you enter any public building and you have to show your bags and the contents if asked. It's sort of 2nd nature. As I approached the entryway, I just automatically pull my tote bag open so the guard can feel or search it if he wants. And that's for a freaking supermarket. It's just a different mentality there (for obvious reasons).

MTS

The last intl package I mailed was to Romania right before Thanksgiving so I haven't been looking since.

I did hear that Australia post office had instituted a $9 fee that the seller must pay. But I hadn't heard anything else.

However, I just did a search and see serious chatter on all the selling sites (fabric, anime, collectibles) about this from more countries.

I can't see if this is the individual country's response to additional work, or if the US is instituting it. Maybe the USPS is responding to the DHS security requirements. So that means, effectively, that every countries post office is collecting $9 to forward to the US? That makes no sense.

I just called the post office, and they know nothing.

You can see all grumbling if you do a search on "$9 surcharge usps international"

But that still doesn't address OP's gripe (rightly) about why Hancock's raised their price so much.