Postage costs from US to UK

General
1

I’m in the UK and I’m wanting to buy a card from someone in the US. The card is $30. They’ve said they aren’t sure how to post it as their local post office claimed it would be $59.

I checked USPS’s postage calculator and even declaring a $10 item in a flat envelope has a minimum of $35.

How do people usually ship from the US to the UK? I’m expecting to pay between $2 and $15, which is what I’d normally expect from eBay.

2

Is it someone you know and/or trust? If so, a PWE for a $30 card is probably fine.

3

I used to ship stamps and cards overseas to people in the UK (I’m in the US) and I don’t remember ever spending more than $15 on shipping through USPS. Now, these were very small/light items in cardboard mailers, however. Not sure what the size/weight of what you’re ordering is.

4

The item in question is just a single card which isn’t graded or anything like that.

What is a PWE?

5

plain white envelope

1 Like
6

Yeah, that quoted price sounds like Priority Mail - in my experience shipping something light like a single card should be around $14 by First Class International Package.

The PWE option would be even cheaper, but assuming it’s being sent in a toploader or something, I don’t believe rigid items like that can be shipped internationally with plain envelope pricing anymore. Or at least I had some issues with that last year, I don’t know how consistently it’s enforced.

1 Like
7

I’ve received so many cards from the US over the years packed in PWE with like a $2 stamp on it, and never had any issue. Usually shipped in USPS First Class International Mail (had to Google the name). Always worked like a charm.

4 Likes
8

Ask for pwe and pay two bucks. If it gets lost just accept full responsibility…you’ll lose, not the seller.
Or
13.50 trackable mail like a bubble envelope. Then if it gets lost just split the loss.
Or
Pay that big amount and the seller takes the full loss.

How’s that sound?

9

I typically do Priority Mail Flat Rate boxes which is a step up from First Class Package and even the Small Flat Rate Box would only cost around $25 to do international.