Postage rip off.

Sandman · Postage rip off.

I had to post this up as I can't quite believe what I've just experienced.

I bought an SA1 roadster on behalf of Graham_Jilly. After checking it was OK, I re-parcelled it up in a light cardboard box filled with polystyrene noodles to keep the weight at a minimum.

When weighed at the Post Office it came to 2.6 Kilos.

That's when I was told this load of nonsense.

It's too heavy for surface mail.

For gods sake. How can it be too heavy for a boat, yet not a plane?????

The upshot is that our Ozzy friends have to pay just short of £50.00 to get an SA1 delivered.

No wonder it is a bloody expensive hobby over there.

Just think how lucky we are over here folks.

Chris

There isn't a swear word with enough power to cover that!

Madness, utter madness.

Try a different post office? DHL?

That is more than I paid for my SA1!

SPOKESMAN

Madness SM!

Wallace

Bloody hell

50 pound !!! I don't get that

I have had varying quotes on the Roadsters, but never bought one. Anywhere from 25-50pound. I assumed 50 was the seller doing a rip off quote

As a comparison. 50pound is about $125 AUS.

All quotes from the USA, which are via airmal, are usually $45US. Thats about $60-70AUS.

Mamodman123

Jesus christ

What a total rip off

James

Wallace

Should add, I don't get why they charge so much.

It's literally cheaper to buy a roadster from AUS ebay (at times)

SPOKESMAN

To send a Steam bible to Tony cost £6.12.

Graham-Jilly

It cost us about that for our first sa1

and one turned up today cost usd$45.95

so the uk is far dearer

Wallace

Graham-Jilly

Sandman

I'm still in shock.

The guy behind the counter is a friend of mine, and if he could have done it cheaper he would.

He even showed me the list of how the prices were calculated when he saw how gobsmacked I was.

I should have told him to give me a ransom note with it instead of a receipt.

SPOKESMAN

Mamodman123

tmuir

It cost me 50 pounds to get my two Bowman 234s to be sent to me.
There is a magic weight at Royal mail and that is anything under 2Kg.

If you go over 2Kg it starts getting silly.

If you have a 3kG item it can work out cheaper if you can repackage it into a 1.9 and a 1.1Kg parcel.

I recently bought a SP4, and 4 accessories.
It was going to cost 35 pounds to have them sent in one box but in 3 seperate boxes it cost 23 pounds 50.
Go figure.

Graham-Jilly

this is what we bought
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISA...D1&item=160100065169&rd=1

no seat no burner but was in mint condition it has never been fired
but his packing left a bit to be desired one of the side guards was bent in shipment and now is missing paint

SPOKESMAN

As Tony said ot the 2kg barrier.

If a parcel can be split into two seperate pracel then its cheaper.

How do you light an SA1?

Take the wheels and burner off as well as the spare and put in one and the rest in the other parcel!

Wallace

I don't know which is closer MM. USA or UK. I think they are much the same, flight time? 15hrs roughly? Definitely not enough difference in time to warrant that price difference I wouldn't think.

tmuir

tmuir

Graham-Jilly

I have new seat on its way from Forest 8 pounds

steamgranny

The answer to this madness has already been covered - do not exceed the magic 2kg weight & wherever possible split parcel into 2.. Fine if a friend is sending & prepared to do so but difficult asking this direct of some ebay seller.. A huge handicap for me too where most stuff has to come from abroad. That, plus any possible custom charges do make this a very expensive hobby at times

tmuir

I just sold my minor 2 to a work mate for $60 OZ as it had no burner and the base has been repainted but still a good runner.

He enquired at a local hobby shop to get a solid fuel burner for it and was told $40 OZ.

Consequently he is using the aluminium circular dishes that tea lights come in instead to burn solid fuel.
We all complain about postage but certainly in OZ even including postage it is still far cheaper than buying locally.

Mamodman123

SPOKESMAN

Sounds like you guys in Oz need a vast shipment of parts - saturate the market and bring the prices down!!

MooseMan

I arranged the shipping for IndianaRog's Stuart beam engine....it cost him £114.55 in the end. Another case of rip-off Britain. Rog was his usual gracious self about it, but I did use a few choice words in the post office....

tmuir

Graham-Jilly

I have thought of doing a much bigger box of stuff and shipping it --but the first box is the most expensive and we would then run into problems with the $1000 customs limit or possibly because it was not Royal Mail could have problems with even less than $1000 . We just have to include the postage as part of the expenses ------ggggggggggggggggg. If anyone can think of a solution --let us know ---

G-J

tmuir

Go for a holiday to the UK and buy big and bring it back home in your luggage.
I'm not 100% sure but I dont think they charge import duty on second hand goods if escorted by yourself.

SPOKESMAN

tarbyonline

would ups, dhl, etc not be cheaper. It is scandalous how much they can charge tho. Even domestically my venture in rebottling oil is put on hold at the moment as the postage to get the oil here is more than the oil than itself (we are only talking 5litres here)!!!! Bearing mind that oil prices are sky high as well it just shows how much we are getting ripped off!

IndianaRog

Tarby, before you go too far with your oil empire...check with the postal folks on any restrictions they might have re: shipping oil.

I mention this because a year or so ago I tried to airship a sample of 2 ounces of steam oil from the U.S. to the UK. Because of concerns with "flammable" substances traveling on airplanes, I had to ship it by surface (truck and boat) to get it to it's destination about 5 weeks later.

The postmaster argued with me that NOTHING flammable could be shipped by air. I countered that he could therefore NOT ship anything packaged in paper, envelope or corrogated as last time I checked they were quite flammable. He didn't appreciate my logic!
Just imagine if they knew how things like Esbit travel by air all the time!!!

cheers,
Roger

tarbyonline

This is something i am looking into. The people I am getting the oil from have returned with a better shipping quote and have mentioned this fact. Infact the carrier they were going to use originally didn't ship oil!

flywheel61

I think we had this discussion in regard to postage from the UK just before Graham & Jilly joined the forum.

From my six years of experience of buying steam engines from the USA & the UK the following applies.

it seems that an SE3 purchased from the UK, in it's original box (and maybe a roller), with a bit of paper packing is just under the 2kg limit . Anything bigger eg, traction engines & vehicles are definately over the limit.

Up to 2kg is handled by Royal Mail but over 2kg is contracted out to Parcelforce, which I understand is a private contractor with out any direct competitiors.

Only last week I recieved an MIB SE3 in a large box ( twice the size of the original box) from the US and the post age cost was US $45.15. A MIB fire engine purchased last year cost US $52.35. A similar MIB SE3 from the UK was quoted at GPB 15.00 plus International signed for.

Any item sent via post and valued at under AUD $1,000.00 is both customs duty & GST free.

Under no circumstances should a private courier serive such as Fedex be used. Whilst the original freight cost may be a bit cheaper, all private freight companies act as a collection agent for the Australain Government and customs duty & GST (VAT) apply no matter waht the value of the item is. On top of this some of these companies also charge a service fee. The end result, the only time I used such a service, was that with the freight, taxes, & fees the total cost was 50% dearer than airmail postage.

Sending items over 2kg buy sea mail makes no difference to the way it is handled and verey little difference in postage prices, GPB 11.50 for an SE3 by sea against GPB 15.00 for airmail. delivery time for airmail is usually under two weeks versus 12-14 weeks by sea mail.

If carried in personal luggage the value of the item needs to be under AUD 500.00 otherwise duty etc is payable.

The bottom line is, if you can't keep the weight under 2kg (or divide it up like Tony did) when buying from the UK, expect to pay a lot for the postage.

cheers

Chris

Cedge

The past few shipments I've sent to the UK have been in the $45.00 usd range, with one double packed shipment tipping the scales on $60.00 usd. It's not too bad for the UK buyer, especially with the advantage of the currency exchange rates on the GBP and USD. I'd be stocking up big time if the rates were reversed.

On the other hand, trying to buy an engine out of the UK has become rather prohibitive for many of us here in the US.. At nearly an even 2:1 there is no way to ease the pain. Add in the cost of shipping and most of us have to step back and take a pass. With hand made engines weighing in well above any weight limits, the cost of arranging a purchase and shipping can cause spontaneous nose bleeds. Add in the skyrocketing valuations of the good ones and you have a real barrier to growing a collection.

As bad as it is here, I have real sympathy for the collectors down Oz way. I've had to advise more than one buyer he'd be better off to look at other engines, rather than have them have to spend hard earned cash like that. Difficult to keep the fun in a hobby when every purchase requires pawning one's first born.

Steve

Graham-Jilly

I hartily agree Steve
it is very hard for us down under and as the only supplier here in Queensland sells them as collectables and charges accordingly it is still cheaper for us to import
cheers Graham Jilly

tmuir

I'm just glad my mother in law is visiting me from the UK in 3 weeks and brings the project loco I just bought with her as that will be well over 2kg.
Without paying postage its a bargain but add another 50 pounds to it and it wouldnt look so good.

SPOKESMAN

Graham-Jilly

example the william loco boxed set train track and carriages aus$2500 aprox GBP1000

SPOKESMAN