Solution for ridiculous US to Canada rates?

[jaq]

Hi - sending a tarot deck from the US to Canada can be more expensive than the deck itself. I was just wondering - for smaller decks, might it be worthwhile to divide a deck into, say, 5 letter-sized envelopes? An envelope to Canada is only $1.15, as opposed to the slowest shipping method for a small package, which is $25.

[Charlie Brown]

From the US perspective, if you reinforce the envelope so that it won't bend, then it can't go through the automated machines and you are charged a higher rate. A normal letter would be around $3 and change that way, domestic.

[jaq]

From the US perspective, if you reinforce the envelope so that it won't bend, then it can't go through the automated machines and you are charged a higher rate. A normal letter would be around $3 and change that way, domestic.

No, you'd have to find a way to put about 18 cards into a regular letter envelope. The reinforced envelopes are the expensive ones. I don't know ... probably only works in some situations.

[Charlie Brown]

My point though is that if you put 18 cards into a regular letter envelope they are likely to be damaged by the automatic mail sorter.

[Joan Marie]

My point though is that if you put 18 cards into a regular letter envelope they are likely to be damaged by the automatic mail sorter.

My sister just sent me a tiny little book, about the size of a Lenormand deck, overseas from the US and they told her at the post office that because it wouldn't bend, they had to charge the big price.

[jaq]

My point though is that if you put 18 cards into a regular letter envelope they are likely to be damaged by the automatic mail sorter.

My sister just sent me a tiny little book, about the size of a Lenormand deck, overseas from the US and they told her at the post office that because it wouldn't bend, they had to charge the big price.

Sigh. There goes my great idea.

[litefoot13]

I have a friend in Canada who I send packages to - luckily, she lives quite close to the border, so I send them to a US address she uses to just cross the border periodically and pick up.

I wonder if it would be feasible to find someone who lives in a similar situation and whether it would be cheaper to mail a package to them on the US side, with money for them to go over and ship from the Canada side. That would require somehow finding someone you could trust to essentially be the middleman, though.

[jaq]

I have a friend in Canada who I send packages to - luckily, she lives quite close to the border, so I send them to a US address she uses to just cross the border periodically and pick up.

I wonder if it would be feasible to find someone who lives in a similar situation and whether it would be cheaper to mail a package to them on the US side, with money for them to go over and ship from the Canada side. That would require somehow finding someone you could trust to essentially be the middleman, though.

Yeah, I'm seriously looking into this, especially since my favourite shoe story will be closing all its Canadian outlets.

[HRU's Muse]

I used to send little things that would fit in an envelope, up to a quarter inch thick, as a "non machineable" letter. Basically it adds a surcharge of maybe 70 cents US or a couple of dollars internationally, to the normal letter mailing cost, for things that can't go thru the sorting machine because they dont bend (or you don't want them to bend) They have a special postage stamp to use that equals the surcharge per ounce.
I would put them in a square, black, envelope to further ensure that they didn't get put through the sorter accidentally, because the sorter cannot do squares or read addresses on black. A precautionary measure so stuff would not slip thru and get damaged. The workers see a square or black and fish it out.
However, things sent this way took forever to arrive, with no tracking either to check on. And then the post office made rules, saying you could be fined if you sent something without declaring customs value because they knew people could use this method for that.

So no more of that for all those reasons.

But I don't know why more people don't just use an international package forwarding service. They give you a US address to ship your US purchases to. Then at some point you can direct them to ship all your stuff at once to you, from you. Yes they charge a fee but overall you save money on postage and avoid customs. If you shop enough it's probably worth it.