So I was writing about how to send big shipments around the world since the demise of Economy Mail by the post office. If you sell books, records, CD's, comic books, toys or any kind of collectible you remember the good 'ol days of being able to send a 60lbs box of stuff to Europe for around $85.00. We got lots of good business from small stores all over the EU, Japan and Australia. The world loves our crap! And that hasn't changed. But the price to ship that 60lb box can cost as much as $300.00 now.
I left off talking about shopping around to different cities. If you're shipping to Europe and your business is in California (like me), it can be cheaper to contact a shipping company in Boston (from which shipments take one week to reach the UK) and mail your goods to the shipping company. This isn't always the case. In my experience, Italy and Greece are cheaper to ship to from the West Coast, but the shipment time is six weeks.
While insane and complicated, surface shipments can still find their way around the world at a cost effective rate. The key is to look outside your local geography and see if mailing to a shipper in another city cuts your cost. One upside to this process is that once you've mastered it, you'll end up with very loyal customers.
I'll talk more about shipping around the world on next week's Vinyl Record Talk, Tuesday 8pm ET / 5pm PT.
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