what's the cheapest way to ship a book to the US? some guy on ebay is trying to charge 19 GBP to ship a standard-size hardcover book to the US, which seems ridiculous to me. what service should I ask him to use?
check the royal mail website.
I did that once for a large paperback coming from London to me here in Canada. I think shipping ended up being 9 GBP's. the seller was originally asking around 20. http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm
what's the cheapest way to ship a book to the US? some guy on ebay is trying to charge 19 GBP to ship a standard-size hardcover book to the US, which seems ridiculous to me. what service should I ask him to use?
Royal Mail is quite pricey. But probably not that pricey. Should more likely be around £10 including packaging. A book will probably be small enough to be sent via Airmail Small Packet post.
Sounds liike you are being stung. I send plenty of things to the U.S and I reckon it should cost you for that weight no more than a fiver (£5) (8-10 dollars)
It's pretty common for sellers to inflate shipping prices as an added form of profit ($100 to "ship" a napkin, for instance ;)). It's generally a bad sign if they don't specify a shipping price in the auction. Always best to ask before bidding.
Shipping is free now, but what is funny is that the bidding is up to $504 now with no sign of that reserve. As I mentioned, he paid about $175 for this from me. I would think that $500 would satisfy him, but maybe not...
Who would pay $500 for a napkin? I was surprised that I sold it for $175. Unless it is someone that is just trying to figure out the reserve? Odd, I tells ya.
i didn't end up bidding on that item- the guy told me he could "surface ship" the book for about 10 GBP, but that it would be untraceable and would take 6-8 weeks to get to me. the annoying thing is that I knew he was lying, given that I ordered a less expensive copy of the SAME BOOK from a UK seller on ABE, and he charged me around $10 (USD) for shipping that took about 2 weeks. it's a shame too- the damn book went for $30, and the cheapest on abe is $150.