[peted]

Good morning all,

I am based in the UK.  I'm trying to arrange for the shipment of 2 books to the UK from the US. Unfortunately, my American counterpart is stating that UPS and FedEx are quoting in the region of $200-225 range to ship them to the UK.  

I arranged to ship 2 books to the US last month for less than $35.

Surely there are cheaper options?

Any advice would be greatly welcomed.

[eyectopus]

Jul 8, 2020 10:09:41 GMT 1 peted said:

Good morning all,

I am based in the UK.  I'm trying to arrange for the shipment of 2 books to the UK from the US. Unfortunately, my American counterpart is stating that UPS and FedEx are quoting in the region of $200-225 range to ship them to the UK.  

I arranged to ship 2 books to the US last month for less than $35.

Surely there are cheaper options?

Any advice would be greatly welcomed.

I received a large number of books sent to Ireland from the US a few weeks ago (20 in one package). I used an Irish mail forwarding service and it cost about €55. Does the Royal Mail provide a similar service? For smaller packages it is usually €15.

[Kevin Anderson]

FedEx and UPS are definitely the more expensive choice. Using the USPS would probably be much closer to the $35 price, but the service won’t be as quick.

[sfnyc]

Tell him to check rates on parcelmonkey, usually a bit better prices for same carriers

[Pipes]

I use USPS to save money (as compared with Fedex or UPS)

www.usps.com/international/priority-mail-international.htm

Once you have an account you can use their tool to calculate cost (and create a shipping label)

[John The Badgers]

As above Peted, I would look at organising the collection yourself?

At work we use TNT/FedEx, and DHL for our US shipments (imports), all pretty painless booking a collection, and the rates the best we can find. Shipping labels etc just mailed to the sender.

Might be worth checking what size box he has put them in as well? If your counterpart not paying, he wont be that motivated to put in an 'economical' size box?

Also, is there not a thread on here with people having issues with USPS? I know I have.

[Billy Sport]

in this instance assuming books are not high value, likely best/ quickest and most reasonably priced option would be USPS - mark as Printed matter - books should have zero customs/ VAT on them, although you can never quite be sure with USPS and UK customs.

[John The Badgers]

Apologies Peted, forgot to mention in my above post, when we use FedEx (TNT), they handily offer 2 services.

They have Express, but also off Economy Express. We use this service a lot as although slightly slower (only a few days), quite a bit cheaper.

[John The Badgers]

I shopped around for a shipment from the US dmatt, and found Fedex (TNT) pretty competitive, and this was for a private booking.

As mentioned, we use them via work, so have a bit of experience, but the MyTNT platform pretty easy to negotiate.

For my private booking, I did this after a nice US member sent me something via USPS, and it was a bit of a shocker pretty much from the start so was reluctant to use them again.

This a recent thread from other members experiences -

urbanartassociation.com/thread/163773/usps-long-delays

[ant0187]

I am looking to get some artwork shipped from both Brazil and Colombia (possibly via the US) to the UK, am I right in thinking on arrival I will have to pay 20%VAT and 5% import duty?

Thanks in advance for your help

[Dive Jedi]

Sept 2, 2020 16:19:15 GMT 1 ant0187 said:

I am looking to get some artwork shipped from both Brazil and Colombia (possibly via the US) to the UK, am I right in thinking on arrival I will have to pay 20%VAT and 5% import duty?

Thanks in advance for your help

VAT on original art in UK is 7% , I think

[ant0187]

Brilliant - thanks Dive Jedi - much appreciated 

[John The Badgers]

If its any help ant0187, I put a thread on here about importing from the US a while ago -

urbanartassociation.com/thread/161613/import-duty

Some invaluable help from some great members on here.

[ant0187]

Sept 2, 2020 19:32:16 GMT 1 John The Badgers said:

If its any help ant0187, I put a thread on here about importing from the US a while ago -

urbanartassociation.com/thread/161613/import-duty

Some invaluable help from some great members on here.

Thanks for the heads up, this is a massive help. Thank you

[KaL976]

No idea if it's any help but for comparison I was looking to ship a fully tracked & insured print for 1k to the US a few weeks ago and the cheapest I could find as a punter was around £85 from all the usual suspects.
Shipped with the same couriers using the uk works account was £42.

[cest]

I was quoted 140 USD for 2 Peckham rocks
.... usps was $30

Usps