Shipping from England to US

If they're shipping via a courier, they're all extortionately & ridiculously high from the UK and I'm not surprised. I dont ship via FedEx/UPS/Parcelforce for this reason, unless I'm over the Royal Mail's 2kg weight limit and so have no choice.

If they're using Royal Mail International Signed For, then even with insurance, they're padding the cost.

That is ridiculous, expedited air-mail should be around $25 and flat-rate service about $15. Sounds like they are trying to discourage international sales with that quote.

They are a small enough company that you could probably call and have them send it for a more reasonable cost. From their site it appears that Barneys in NYC carries Kilgour products - call and see if they have it in stock.

UK to US rates are much higher. Check out Royal Mail's website and enter a few weights and values and see.

Basically, for a max weight 2kg package with £500 insurance to the USA via Royal Mail International Signed For (the cheapest international service with a signature at the other end & insurance), you're looking at about £26 ($50-ish).

Courier rates are just insanely expensive from here (try going to Parcelforce's website as an example and entering a few weights & values).

I don't know why shipping from the UK is so pricey, but it is.

Still, as I said earlier, if using Royal Mail ISF, $75 is padding the price a fair bit.

Both UPS and Fed Ex make it easy for the shipper as they will pick the package up.

The shipper passes along the $75-100 shipping charge, and the carrier probably doesn't mention that they also charge $35 for their bogus customs clearing operation, and collect duty. So a $250 length of cloth can quickly become $400.

For lightweight packages Royal Mail is less than half the cost, and without a customs processing fee. However I believe the shipper has to take the package to a collection point, which is a pain.

Most of the high end UK sites are relatively new and with experience more will probably use Royal Mail.

I for one happily pay a fee for them to drop the package at the postal service.

I purchased a suit from the store and they shipped it to Ireland for free after the adjustments were made. Admittedly it was a much more expensive item, but their customer service was superb.

Let me know if you want the email address of the person I was dealing with.

Check out the proxy thread in the WTB section of the sales forum for UK members willing to proxy for you.