does anyone know what it costs to ship overseas? a flat box? a squishy? priority? slow boat to china?

i know the post office is the really cheapest of all, but how? please p.m.

Just check with the rules and regulations. Over here in Aus if the post office can make a cube out of your parcel it costs more than if it has round corners or is a weird shape.

To china, I have no clue, but it costs me about $40 to ship a Flat Rate to Spain, if that's any help to you. If you use any other box than the flat rate, it will cost a TON more.

Izy might be able to give you the exact price if she still has the box I sent to her.

I just did a search...go here http://ircalc.usps.gov/
You can calculate the price.

I use http://postcalc.usps.gov/ when shipping things I sold on Ebay. Just put in the country, weight of item, etc. Usually you can also purchase the label online.

I have bought 3.5yard of flannel from USA with priority mail international flat rate. It was USD12 to come to Japan. The man in the shop told it was all they could fit in the flat rate envelope.

Definetly use the Flat Rate envelopes or boxes. I ship to the UK for the International Round Robins...be very sure that you fill out the Customs Forms correctly...it could cost big on the "other" end for they to get the package if you don't. :cry:

sanpat, when you say 'flat rate box' do you mean the one that's about 3" - 4" high? does it matter where it goes, like australia or new zealand? and can you squeeze in as much as you can load?

With the flat rate box its doesn't go by weight , so you stuff the box supposedly. A little known fact is that if the box weighs less then 4 lbs you can ship it out as a letter which saves a ton even if it is a box. Also when we ship out international we have found that to ship out priority without regard to box size is cheaper then if we put a box size in our manifest. The company I work for ships worldwide and we have never had a box returned for more postage
Sharon

Here's the website for U.S. Post Office international flat rate information:

http://www.usps.com/international/pr...ernational.htm

I have not shipped internationally this way. I clicked on "rates" at this website and see that there are weight limitations on each size of box. If you click on "supplies" you will see what the different flat rate containers look like and what the dimensions are.

For flat rate shipping within the U.S., I do not think there are any weight limitations; it's just whatever you can stuff inside the envelope or box. The boxes are free; you can pick them up at the post office. You are not charged the flat rate until you bring the box to the post office to mail.

I think that the problem with shipping fabric from the U.S. to other countries is not so much in the price of the shipping, as that tends to be fairly reasonable, but more in the tax the receiving country charges. To ship internationally, you have to fill out a customs form. If you are shipping fabric to Canada or the U.K., for example, the person receiving the shipment may be required to pay fairly high taxes on it (VAT?). I have shipped a few packages abroad that were gifts, and don't think anyone was charged tax on them because they were labeled as gifts, but you have to be careful about the amount. The only thing I shipped that was worth more than $80 or so were family photos.

thanks. that is very helpful info. i have now bookmarked it. can you claim that fabric is a gift if it is? how do you prove that? by enclosing a gift card?
do they take your word for it? huh?

That's a good point, about the gift thing.

When I sent my star blocks over I had to fill out the customs form and just ticked "gift". Never realised that the reason was for tax purposes.

A friend of mine went to Australia last year and bought so much fabric that she had to post it home, it was cheaper than paying excess baggage. I don't think she got charged tax for it.

I used a smaller one for the IRR centers and it has a 4 lb. limit for international. The best source for information on this is the USPS web site. You can really figure out what is the best for your particular situation. I finally learned to google VAT and UK (since that is where my shipments were going) and learned the limits for the customs forms. I would suggest that you do a little research on that aspect prior to sending your package out.

I think they just take your word for it. Except for the photos, we wrapped our gifts in wrapping paper and ribbon. Might help? :D

However, I would do as sandpat recommends and Google VAT/country to find out what the legal limitations are for taxable value.

If I am remembering correctly, when I was overseas and shipped stuff I bought home to myself, there was either a value limit per box or a value limit per day I could send. It was quite generous. But, that was shipping to the U.S.; other countries may be much more interested in collecting tax on things coming into their territory.

I'm not sure about the envelops (flat rate), but I know that the boxes, you can send up to 20 pounds for the flat rate internationally at one price. I'm still trying to get 20 pounds into one. Have gotten up to I think 13 pounds at the most. lol

Customs forms can be a pain in the arse, but yes, make sure you read the fine print about them. The forms have changed too. It used to be this nice form where you could write in big letters, now it's smaller blocks (I don't like that).
And yes....I have to fill them out from here (Guam) going to the US even tho Guam is a territory of the US. Go figure.

I got curious about how much fabric weighs, so I pulled out my postal scale and some one-yard pieces of batik I bought the other day. Four yards of batik weighed about 1 lb.

The $12.95 flat rate international priority box has a limit of 4 lbs on it. I'm not sure how much the box weighs, but theoretically it would be possible to ship about 15 yards of fabric that way. I'm just not sure that 15 yards of fabric would fit into the box.

If I think of it, next time I'm at the post office I'll see if I can pick up one of those boxes to see how much fabric will fit inside.

Edit: I just realized the same flat rate boxes are used for both domestic and international use, and I have one of the boxes here. I'm going to see how much yardage can be packed into it and post later!

when i shipped to france, i shipped a squishy - that is i took a heavyweight plastic bag and put it into another heavyweight plastic bag (the kind you get when you order clothes through a catalog) i thought it would weigh less that way. i stuffed just under 4 lbs in it and off it went. it cost around $20. so guess what wins. it's almost cheaper to send TWO flat rate boxes.

Realized the flat rate box I have here is the bigger one. I will stop at the post office on Monday and pick up a small one, though. Still want to find out if 15 yards of fabric will fit!

The box that Terri sent which is about 12" square [ish!!] by about 5" deep cost $41.95 to send to Spain. I have never had any issues of tax to pay :D

When you fill out the customs form, there is a box to check on it. I always check GIFT.

you are all being so helpful. there are issues that i never would have
thought to bring up at the post office.

on the flat rate boxes is there ANY limit on weight? can you stuff in whatever you can?

There is no limit on weight if the box is being shipped within the U.S. When used internationally, the small box has a limit of 4 lbs ($12.95 postage) and the bigger box has a limit of 20 lbs ($41.95 postage).

If you scroll back a little in this thread, you will find a link to the post office website with information about international mailings.

Another question that's kind of linked, do you guys use paypal?

Is it the easiest way to send and collect money around the world?

another, other question: how do you guys deal with international monetary rates? if you send a check (cheque :lol: ) and deposit it, does the bank automatically make the rate change or what?

i know you need to have a seller's acc't with ebay for any one to deposit money into it for you. and then they take a cut. :hunf: :hunf:

I have used PayPal for smaller amounts. I don't know about the eBay seller account. When I bought some CDs from Australia through eBay, I just sent the money in $ through PayPal to the seller's PayPal account. I'm not sure how many Australian $s the seller got; PayPal would have done the currency conversion.

It does seem as if PayPal would be the easiest way to transfer money internationally. Here is their page with currency conversion information:
https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/we...c_send-outside . (If this isn't clickable, just go to http://www.paypal.com and search for currency conversion.)

For large amounts of money, I have always used a bank wire transfer for safety. There are also services online you can use, which are supposed to give you better currency exchange rates, but the one time I tried I found it much more complicated than just taking all the information down to my bank.

If you deposit a check in foreign currency, I think the bank will convert it into dollars for you. However, bank currency exchange rates are usually less favorable than others, I think. (Although I found them okay for the last wire transfer I made.)

i have a paypal account that i use to purchase stuff (my last purchase was also australia). if you notice the small print in there, neither ebay nor paypal wants it's sellers to sell directly or for it's buyers to buy directly because - guess why - they are inter-related. that is, ebay OWNS paypal, and when a customer pays into a seller's account, ebay takes a bite as it's.....let's call it a commission. or a fee. which means that the seller has to raise his prices enough to cover that bit of overhead. which mens that even though it's cheap for you, the buyer, it could be cheaper still if ebay wasn't grabbing some of it. don't get me wrong ---i love ebay and i love paypal. but i don't think that's the best way for individuals to work with each other. i don't think there has to be a middle man who charges for services.

i called the post off office and they said

8 x 5 x 1.........12.95

11.5 x 8 x 4 ....41.94

14 x 12 x 3 .....41.95 (different shape, duh)

12 x 12 x 5 .....53.95

20 pound max on all sizes that you can stuff things in. 6 - 10 days.
flat rate priority box. no charge on the box. international.

did they change their rates or did i speak to a dodo?

which is the best shape do you think?

If you know the weight of your package, you can go to USPS.com and calculate postage. The same is true of UPS.com and FedEx.com

sharon, i called fedex and ups and they wanted over $100 for the same thing that our post office wanted $41.95 for. the difference is unbelievable. ups wanted three dollars less.


on that issue, i went back to the post office, and the girl i first spoke to was, indeed, a dodo! the real price was this: $12.95 for under 4 lbs, which someone here said. $41.95 for up to 20 lbs, which is so much yardage that you can't possibly reach that poundage. the box is about 12 x 8 x 4. you can't believe how much that holds! and it still didn't reach **10 lbs**. NOTHING IN BETWEEN. if you want something in between,you make your own package and you lose the flat rate. i filled the 20 lb box as a test and now i will measure out the yards.

my arms will fall off before i finish. i will let you all know how much.

i'm ba-a-ack!

okay....one box 12 x 8 x 4 (approximate) from the post office, is allowed to take 20 pounds. if you stuff, stuff, stuff as much fabric as you can, you can get 33 yards and 21 inches. that's with a LOT of stuffing. does anyone know what that amount looks like? to me it looks like mt. mckinley.

flat rate overseas priority 6 - 10 delivery days, $41.95.

you're allowed 20 pounds. this much weighs less than half that. oh, plus the weight of the box.

that makes this $1.23 per pound to ship overseas. more or less. my math has never been that great.

if you're being paid in other than usd, wire transfers as well as bank checks cost $10 +/- conversion fees. those connivers.

for the price that fedex wanted, i could have flown, standby, to europe myself and delivered. of course, i couldn't get home. anyway, i am thinking australia or thereabouts.

go to the www.usps.com web site and enter the country, weight, etc to get a shipping quote by each shipping service. you can also fill out the duty forms for customs. Be sure to designate the item as a gift or the recipient will be hit for customs duty.

you could also try fedex.com but for international I've found the USPS to be the cheapest. They have a flat rate international box you can pickup at the post office, but check you own packaging and choose the cheapest. The first $100 insurance is included in some shipping options, so before buying additional insurance be sure to read the details

thanks for posting on this. i have going craaaaazy doing my homework. please read my last post. aaaaargh!!!!!

I JUST SHIPED A BOX TO CANANDA. UPS WAS CHEAPEST. JUST MAKE SURE U SAY ITS A GIFT OR THEY HAVE TO PAY CUSTOMS . WHICH IS EXPENSIVE FOR THEM. I THINK FLAT RATE IS JUST FOR STATES.

the guy told me it was for all over and he gave me the customs forms to fill out and went over them with me. it's really ALL you can smush in there for a flat rate. they don't care what you put in there as long as it's not over 20 pounds. it would have to be lead to weigh that much. think of potatoes!

go to www.usps.com for any mailing information in the states or international it's the post office website

I never got to the post office to pick up the smaller box. However, I got the dimensions of the two boxes off the USPS site and, based on the information you provided about the large box, made the following calculations for the small box:

The small box would hold (theoretically, at least) 4.5 yards of fabric, which would be just a little over one lb. The weight limit on this box is 4 lbs, so there's no way you could overstuff it with fabric.

International postage for the small box is $12.95, so shipping cost per yard is $2.87. Although the shipping cost per yard is higher than for the large box, I'm thinking that customs is more likely to believe a gift of 4 yards of fabric over a gift of 33 yards of fabric. That much fabric, especially since it costs so much in the receiving country, would look more like a commercial venture.

I am wondering if we can set up some kind of buddy system for our quilters overseas who have difficulty finding reasonably priced fabric. I'm about an hour's drive away from a cut-your-own fabric warehouse. Most of the batiks there are Timeless Treasures, which has a slightly thinner hand than Bali/Hoffman/etc., but there must be a couple of hundred different ones and they are *gorgeous*. I bought 10 yards for myself last time I was there, and it would be fun to shop for someone else. The hardest part, I think, would be trying to specify colors and print types. I could cut off pieces of my yardage to send in an envelope for samples, but I couldn't send 200 samples!

i am near a fabric clearance center where you don't cut your own. but 2x a year they sell their stuff for $2.00 a yard. usually it's $.400. the way i figure it, the big box costs about $1.23 per yard to ship to new zealand (that's where i would be shipping). that includes the weight of the box. plus of course the cost of the fabric.

they have a lot of timeless treasures as well as the occasional red rooster, rj fabrics, etc. at the quilt show today, saturday, i saw cutesy fabric of half-naked construction workers for $9.95 that i saw two weeks ago for $4.00 reduced to $2.00. no ladies, i did not buy any. sorry.

so there is a big selection.

33 yards counts as a gift to a country where fabric is expensive. they don't know if this your sil, after all. how can they know what's a gift?

I have sent other merchandise to Canada via fedex and if I did not specify gift and the recipient did not pay the duty I was invoiced by fedex for the duty - which made the deal very not profitable.

fedex and ups are the most expensive way to sent internationally. they laughed at me in the post office. the package that you can send for $41.95 via usps costs $111.23 by fedex and $114.29 via ups. do you believe that? i couldn't either. also, canada is not overseas. once it crosses an ocean, forget it. :shock: :shock:

That's a lot better than the fabric warehouse here where it's normally $6.99 a yard. Sometimes they have a 20% off sale, but I can't always get out there during those sales. Sometimes the place is so packed during sales that it's not as much fun to shop too.

there's no free lunch, of course. when my place has it's semi-annual, the place is like a sardine can and you have to pick through. but patience is rewarded, and most of the sewers are not quilters, so they don't choose the same fabrics.