"Shipping Impossible: 'Wrong Side of the Pond'" [Non-US users?]

[madicetea]

Recently (or who am I kidding, over the last year),

I've been looking for some old IBM Thinkpads. I find some on occasion, but often the seller will say 'only ships to the US'.

[#vent] WHAT? WHAT? I feel swindled. [/vent over, so no worrying about me]

I really like these computers and they are easy to practice opening up and investigating a little about. It's fun to do so, and I've proudly cut my hands against sheet metal making mistakes - like ... uh... maybe trying a complete disassembly on a 760XLD once.

If I'm willing to bid on your product when you say that you only want to ship to the US, I'm willing to pay the shipping - it would have been that important to me. But I don't do this, because my understanding is that sellers will just ignore / cancel your bid anyway.

*loud and audible sigh*

So the purpose of this post is simply to vent and ask if there is anyone else who feels frustrated about this at times.

Thanks guys.

P.S. Not to divide the house, but anyone else feel addicted to Thinkpads at times? It's worse than my tendency to use only my national airline whenever possible

[theterminator93]

I once sold a T420 on here to someone in India. My experience was one that ended successfully, but it was a little dicey at times. It took them a month to get it to the end user, and only because they started to harass their local post office for the package. It had been sitting there for three weeks without delivery until he inquired about it.

I know this is a generalization for other countries, but it's my fear when shipping internationally that something terrible will happen and come back around to bite me... but I guess that could be said about shipping domestically too. That said, I'm always open to shipping internationally when it's to someone I "know" (e.g. a forum vs. someone on eBay)... especially if it's to a "developed" country. Yes, Japan qualifies.

Now, I'd be happy to act as a proxy to relay items overseas on anyone's behalf if ever the need arises...

[RealBlackStuff]

One of the reasons people won't ship outside of the USA is the horrendous price that USPS charges.
Not to mention the outrageous prices from Fedex and UPS, who charge even more!

Here's a personal experience from me from only a few weeks ago:
Package with 4 laptops, to be shipped from USA to Poland, weight 27 LBs / 12.24 KG.
Dimensions: ca. 14" long, 12" wide, 15" high (ca. 36 x 30 x 38 cm).

$177.45 USPS Priority Mail International

$756.07 FedEx International Economy
$967.17 FedEx International Priority

$769.44 UPS Worldwide Expedited
$983.03 UPS Worldwide Saver
$991.43 UPS Worldwide Express

But then I found another means of shipping: International Parcel Services
$103.50 IPSParcel/GLS

IPSParcel is somehow affiliated with Fedex.
You drop the package off in any Fedex box (if it fits) or else at any Fedex office, then Fedex transports it to a shipping company named GLS in Clearwater, Florida.
In Clearwater GLS has a "collection center", which gathers packages from all over USA until they have enough to ship.
This may take some extra time, but at that price...
GLS first transports it to Germany, and from there trucks deliver it to other countries.
The only sad thing is that they do NOT allow any Li-Ion batteries to be transported.
If you insist on such batteries to be included, you will have to pay the above Fedex rates, so be warned!

So far I have used them for shipments from USA to Norway, Czech Republic and Poland and have saved hundres of $$ that way.
Delivery time varied between 8 days and 3 weeks, but I (and my customers) are not complaining at these prices.

Don't get me wrong, this is NOT to be considered as advertising/promoting, but I see no reason why we should be ripped off by USPS, UPS and Fedex.
I am sure there are other companies that can do similar cheap shipping.

======================================================

Final thoughts:

While I was (re)checking the shipping prices, I somehow got UPS-prices in Polish Zloty, for that same shipment from Poland to USA.
The difference is dramatic!
Zloty 889.49 / $259.06 UPS Worldwide Expedited
Zloty 821.72 / $239.32 UPS Worldwide Saver
Zloty 1211.66 / $352.88 UPS Worldwide Express

And if you use a similar (Polish/European) parcel shipping company, the price would probably be around $60-70.

[MikalE]

E-Bay makes it easy to ship USPS internationally. Anything going overseas is routed to their Kentucky international sort facility/customs and they take it from there. The seller only has to ship to Kentucky.

If the overseas buyer wants to pay the freight, more power to them. I'm not paying for it.

Unless I dig a little deeper on Paypal, I don't even know where international purchases are going. My shipping labels are all addressed to Kentucky.

I sold a James Bond jacket a few months back that went to Finland, a shortwave radio that went to Australia, and a Boeing 727 control yoke that went to Japan. I have no idea what it cost the buyer to get it to them. The cost for them to get the stuff to Kentucky was about $8-$12 dollars.

[Self_Propelled_Crane]

I'm just p'd off that the Customs Bureau here in the Philippines tends to steal stuff/put excessive duties and/or taxes so that you'll give up on claiming your item(s). That's the main reason I can't get anything via eBay, etc. (Basically anything from overseas) *sigh*

[axur-delmeria]

I'm just p'd off that the Customs Bureau here in the Philippines tends to steal stuff/put excessive duties and/or taxes so that you'll give up on claiming your item(s). That's the main reason I can't get anything via eBay, etc. (Basically anything from overseas) *sigh*

^ IIRC if the value of the parcel is below 10,000 Philippine pesos (thats less than 200 US dollars these days), the customs tax is only 112 pesos. At least, that's how much I had to pay the post office to claim the M.2 2242 SSD that my sister bought through Amazon.com.

[Self_Propelled_Crane]

I'm just p'd off that the Customs Bureau here in the Philippines tends to steal stuff/put excessive duties and/or taxes so that you'll give up on claiming your item(s). That's the main reason I can't get anything via eBay, etc. (Basically anything from overseas) *sigh*

^ IIRC if the value of the parcel is below 10,000 Philippine pesos (thats less than 200 US dollars these days), the customs tax is only 112 pesos. At least, that's how much I had to pay the post office to claim the M.2 2242 SSD that my sister bought through Amazon.com.

That's the problem. The stuff I want from overseas might be worth more than 10,000 pesos (i.e., the most sought-after components of the Frankenpad). XD

[ajkula66]

I've sold ThinkPads to customers worldwide - pretty much anywhere around the globe apart from Africa AFAICR - and 90% of the time it was a smooth sailing, more or less.

However, these 10% could legitimately make most people re-think the concept of shipping internationally. One too many things can - and sometimes do - go wrong and make the entire experience less-than-desirable from a seller's standpoint, especially if one accepts PreyPal which I had stopped doing for this very reason many years ago.

Also, count your blessings while you're buying/selling laptops. Try shipping a guitar or bass with a rosewood fingerboard internationally and see how that one works for you.

[Thinkpad4by3]

Also, count your blessings while you're buying/selling laptops. Try shipping a guitar or bass with a rosewood fingerboard internationally and see how that one works for you.

DHL think it is guitar smashing day?

[FryPpy]

One of the reasons people won't ship outside of the USA is the horrendous price that USPS charges.

+1 to RBS. There are more companies (other than IPSParcel/GLS) that can reduce shipping costs by consolidating parcels and shipping them as a BIG parcel. Some companies even can help participating in ebay auctions for those who can't (don't undestand language). I know some companies in EU and China doing similar things. Yes i have used those companies for gathering ThinkPads from US;) But i don't know is there any companies that can make such things for any destinations (for example for Japan).

Couple of times sellers have shipped to me small parts in plain postal envelopes (with other papers) and this is the cheapest method. Yes such shippings can't be tracked and things can be brake in transition. For me all such shippings was 100% successful.

[ajkula66]

Also, count your blessings while you're buying/selling laptops. Try shipping a guitar or bass with a rosewood fingerboard internationally and see how that one works for you.

DHL think it is guitar smashing day?

No. Throw the term "CITES" into your favourite search engine and read on. It's an unmitigated disaster.

[Thinkpad4by3]

No. Throw the term "CITES" into your favourite search engine and read on. It's an unmitigated disaster.

So they are basically the PETA of international transactions? Seems like living hell to me .

[ajkula66]

No. Throw the term "CITES" into your favourite search engine and read on. It's an unmitigated disaster.

So they are basically the PETA of international transactions?

for coming up with that description. Unfortunately, unlike PETA, CITES regulations empower customs officers to seize musical instruments that contain "endangered" species of wood regardless of their (vint)age. A significant number of private sellers as well as small business has been adversely affected by this nonsense.

Seems like living hell to me .

It is. When the time for my retirement (hopefully) comes within the next couple of years I'll have to go through purgatory in order to bring the instruments that I had legally bought into the country of my origin and not have them confiscated.

[Tasurinchi]

Dude!! You're leaving in the ThinkPad paradise!

Which model do you not get in Japan that's available in the rest of the world? Normally is the other way around, we DON'T get models sold in Japan, the S30, S31, G50, X230s and so on come to mind...

-

[jaspen-meyer]

$103.50 IPSParcel/GLS

I never thought of that. That is certainally the most common delivery company around.

With private shipping companies I never have problems getting packages from the US or other parts of the world.

With the regular postal service I have lots of trouble. The Czech Post is terrible at delivering packages from abroad. They destroy packages, steal packages, over charge duties on packages -- they charge 30% import tax on both the value of the product AND the cost of shipping. Their reason is Czech's are dishonest and would otherwise try to hide product cost into the shipping fee.

[wujstefan]

Yeah it's a pain to import anything; Polish customs office charges around 30% as well, also the parcels' net worth+shipping. Polish Post is very reliable however, I haven't had any single problem for years.

Shipping from Poland to anywhere is pretty cheap actually; I have no problem shipping oversea starting with $35 for a single system, almost anywhere. I have practised shiping the US->PL way many times with many users here (and most recently, the GLS package RBS mentioned here). It is either problematic or expensive. Or both