Shipping a book from US to Europe

[suzanne]

It's been a long time since I've had to mail a package abroad, and I was wondering if anyone can advise me on a good service to use for shipping one book and some photocopies to Budapest. I don't need overnight mail -- 2-3 weeks would be OK. There are so many options out there.

Together this weighs about 4-5 lbs. Would anyone recommend UPS instead of the postal service? Or Priority mail over regular parcel post?

Thanks.

[hollister]

Suzanne,
The Postal Service is going to be cheaper than UPS or DHL.
We just sent 8 boxes (don't ask) to Romaina last weekend. The Post Office charged about $30 dollars per 70 box - UPS wanted $400! I am trying to remember how much it was to send a book at christmas time - I am thinking it was under $10.00. UPS would have almost $100.00.

[suzanne]

Wow, that's a huge price difference! I will just take it to the post office, then and see what their options are. Thanks.

[nancy]

Suzanne, perhaps by now you have checked with the Post Office. They offer several levels of service and as Chris said are much cheaper the UPS.

I was in the UPS store one day and a woman wanted to send a baseball cap to someone in Czech. They told her it would cost $121 to pack and ship. I thought she was going to faint!

[suzanne]

nancy said:

I was in the UPS store one day and a woman wanted to send a baseball cap to someone in Czech. They told her it would cost $121 to pack and ship. I thought she was going to faint!

OK, I will never even think of UPS for any international shipments again!

Actually, I did indeed check w/the Post office, and there apparently is flat-rate Global Priority Mail, for up to 4 pounds, and the rates are really good, so that's what I'll use.

[nancy]

Everything I have ever sent to Poland via USPS has arrived within the time frame specified. You should feel confident using USPS.

[suzanne]

Thanks, Nancy, good to know.

With the rates that UPS charges, I decided to not bother researching DHL or Fedex Ground! So USPS is all that's left.

[jimpres]

UPS is to expensive, however, I just shipped some original documents and wanted them hand carred and tracked.
Cost me $134 bucks for one pound. Post office was $99 but no guarantee they would be and hand carried.
But usually the US Post office is cheaper.
I shipped on Friday and they are in Cologne Germany today.

Jim

[nancy]

Jim,

That is not as big a difference as I have seen for other items. Sounds like you made a good choice.

[jimpres]

Nancy,

I think you and I are right I can't afford to lose original birth certificates.

Jim

[hussar]

I'm pretty sure the U.S.P.S offers a bit cheaper rate if you tell them it's a book you're sending.

[nancy]

Jim,

I saw your post on Poland-Roots about this UPS package - you should tell the story here ...

[Eric]

At the end of last summer I mailed something like 80 pounds of books (I have an enormous library) from Massachusetts to St Petersburg. I used only USPS. If you are sending only books or other printed material, you can use what is called an M-bag. For both air mail and surface mail, the M-bag will save you a lot of money, and it goes through customs much quicker, too.

[suzanne]

Hussar,
Yes, USPS does have a cheaper rate for books (Media Mail, also applies to bound, printed stuff and CDs/videos) but I believe it's only available within the US (and possibly to Canada). I discovered that USPS Global Priority Mail was the way to go. You can mail anything up to 4 lbs that fits in their envelope to most of Europe for just a little over $9 and it gets there in a week to 10 days.

Eric,
Yes, I've heard of this M-bag thing, from Nancy, and I'll use it if I ever have to make a big shipment. It sounds like a decent, reliable service.

[nancy]

I just shipped 21 books to forza using M-bag economy service. Cost $19.95 to ship 18 pounds. We will see how long it takes to get there - the post Office guy was very anxious to make sure that I understood it could be 4 weeks, or 12 weeks, or longer, depending on which ship the bag ended up on.