No silver bullet for international shipping

I'd hoped to find a way for International backers of the Kickstarter to get cheaper shipping, so investigated myus.com.

 

Sadly, it's unlikely to help. That's not to say it's not a good company (I have no idea what their reputation is) or that it couldn't be a good choice for some people.

 

The way myus.com works is that they give you a US address to use for shipping and then take responsibility for re-shipping the goods you purchase to you. There are three levels of membership: Standard, Premium, and Premium+Mail. Premium+Mail allows one to receive things like magazines and letters. I will leave it out of the rest of the description.

Standard costs less up front ($10), but uses more expensive shipping rates. Premium l cost more up front ($20) and has a monthly ($7) or annual ($60) cost, but uses less expensive shipping rates.

 

I found out from Christopher what box/weight would be used for shipping Shattered Timelines (12x9x4, 2lbs.) and spec'd out the cost for either Standard or Premium to Germany. Standard was about $43. Premium was about $35. Given the costs above (assuming just one month for Premium) the total costs were $53 for Standard and $62 for Premium.

In comparison, it looks like USPS can do it for an online price of $42.

Well,

 

Those sites charge a price for handling, therefore it will be more than USPS. However, it is cheaper if you merge packages (from other kickstarter projects/shops). Another option is if you send the card on a padded envelope (instead of a box)...This second option also saves import taxes (used item, not resellable )