Shipping costs from UK?

[j]

I'm looking at a pair of ankle boots on Ebay and the seller quoted me 40GBP to ship them here. Is that realistic? That's 80 bucks!

I'm looking around ebay.co.uk on the boots and people are quoting anywhere from free (?!) to 25-ish GBP. 20-25 seems to be normal for stores like Pediwear.

If I want to appear to have done my homework, what shipping service should I tell the seller to use? And which one is going to hit me with the least customs/duties/whatever other hassles?

Thanks.

 

[Sator]

If you have a seller who is using a courier service so that you get tracking then 40 GBP is realistic. 20-25 GBP is more the typical cost of shipping via Royal Mail.

 

[tiger02]

22.50 GBP to ship half a dozen shoe trees to Budapest. FWIW.

 

[TKDKid]

Originally Posted by j

I'm looking at a pair of ankle boots on Ebay and the seller quoted me 40GBP to ship them here. Is that realistic? That's 80 bucks!

I'm looking around ebay.co.uk on the boots and people are quoting anywhere from free (?!) to 25-ish GBP. 20-25 seems to be normal for stores like Pediwear.

If I want to appear to have done my homework, what shipping service should I tell the seller to use? And which one is going to hit me with the least customs/duties/whatever other hassles?

Thanks.

I'm pretty sure I sent your Asprey boots to you as a small packet via Royal Mail's bog standard Airmail service, which would mean a maximum of just over GBP 20 in today's prices.

Tracking is then available via their Airsure option for an additional GBP 4.20.

 

[j]

That's about what I thought. (Thanks again, BTW, still enjoying them.

) I wrote the seller saying just that, that I had had boots sent over for 20-25 GBP. I'll see what happens.

Thanks all.

 

[teddieriley]

Also, as you are aware, people add a "handling" charge to the shipping. This is for a variety of reasons, but it's basically a mechanism to off-set ebay and paypal fees. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think there is an e-bay policy that says you can only charge actual shipping costs. I'm not saying it's right or wrong. I think a little bit extra is okay, and many times it's just an over estimation if you don't know what part of the country you're shipping to, actual weight, etc., but it shouldn't be a huge margin. A high shipping cost has a tendency to turn bidders away, but you'll get bidders who overlook it or figure ordering Int'l is the only way to get the goods they can't buy in their own country.

 

[chobochobo]

Small packet rates are good value but once you go beyond these, there is rather a jump. I'm not familiar with the limits of the definition and I haven't bought stuff from the UK for a long time due to the exchange rate.