International shipping is black magic and voodoo.
I live in the US and own two cars from the other side of the Atlantic
that were not sold new in the US. Because of this, I buy a lot of parts
from international vendors, mostly from three in the UK. If I get stuff
from them, it usually arrives in 48 hours and shipping costs are less
that two day shipping from US vendors (aside from Amazon). A full
exhaust system in a box taller than me arrived 40 hours after I ordered
it and the shipping was $150.
But from other vendors and individual sellers, shipping is expensive.
And, between shipping and import duties, it is uneconomical for me to
sell stuff to the UK. Some people aren't even willing to pay shipping
only. I gave a VME SMD disk controller to someone in Scotland and the
lowest price that I found to ship it was $90 (but they needed the
controller so ...).
alan
P.S. A note for those within the US who need to ship something big or
awkward west - I will be transporting a truck full of rally car parts
from (barely) upstate NY to the Seattle area, probably via I-80, I-90,
I-94, then back on I-90 at the end of August. I can make room if you
have something to some vintage hardware to move.
On 7/2/24 4:35 AM, Adrian Godwin via cctalk wrote:
Brexit made a big difference to postage costs from EU to UK but I don't
think affected US costs much. However eBay's US all-inclusive postage
seemed very expensive compared with USPS, and many sellers using
independent methods have now got very expensive too. I'm not sure if prices
have risen to match or if there's some other influence.
Chinese to UK shipments are still relatively cheap but have also risen
somewhat with more sellers charging for postage. I think eBay and
Aliexpress are managing (surcharging) the increased import costs that UK
and other governments are imposing.
I recall getting a huge 16500B from the US a few years ago for a fairly
reasonable shipping cost but now just the plug-in cards have shipping
prices of $100 - often more than the card.
I'd be glad to find a way to access US sales at reasonable cost. Postage
costs are a major factor at the moment and I rarely need things fast.
On Tue, Jul 2, 2024 at 5:42 AM Ethan Dicks via cctalk <cctalk@classiccmp.org>
wrote:
On Mon, Jul 1, 2024 at 8:28 PM ben via cctalk <cctalk@classiccmp.org>
wrote:
On 2024-07-01 6:04 p.m., Mike Stein via cctalk wrote:
Hey, I sent you a motherboard from Toronto all the way to the South
Pole, remember? Well, OK, via San Francisco, but It wasn't too bad
then.
Mike, I do remember. I still have that motherboard on the shelf over
my work area at home. I never did get a stable composite adapter made
down there (I had to work with the parts I had on hand). The board
was fine but the output was shaky because of my adapter.
The postage was just Toronto to SFO because it went via APO box.
Hey there must be lots of vintage stuff at the south pole
nobody ships stuff back. :)
Because of the Antarctic Conservation Act of 1978, everything that
goes down has to go back. There's millions of pounds of sorted waste
that goes North on the cargo vessel every year, including the category
"Electronic Scrap".
-ethan
