shipping models from England to USA

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Im a junkie for luftwaffe kits so if i can get my hands on them i will, no matter how many years away the build might be . most modelers i think are collectors at heart too, if i waited till i was ready to build they would all be out of production! seems like if its a good sound popular kit they will stop producing it.
 
Funny how that's not the problem....with the....healthy juice, that you buy in the.....shop!

How is it yourself old boy, any unfinished birds...builds? ;) :lol:
 
Oh, quite a few old boy. Now that I have my new display cabinet - and another, slightly smaller, on the way (at less than 1/3rd of the retail price!), I aim to clean the completed ones, and finish the uncompleted ones, and get them all under cover. Should have it all done by Christmas - 2014 !!
 
As a long time buyer and seller on Ebay, I feel your pain as to shipping costs. The USPS is constantly raising the prices of international shipping. So much, I don't ship out of the USA anymore, some won't ship out of the 48 states. A lot of US sellers don't ship overseas anymore because the cost has gone up so much. One of the reasons shipping could be as much as 25.00 is because if you (seller) want to track the package to ensure it is delivered, you pay thru the nose for shipping. A lot of sellers will only ship with a tracking number because of past dealings where you ship parcel or air post without a tracking number and then you get notified that the package never arrived and no way to check. Unfortunately buyers from overseas lied about receiving a item and the seller has to refund the total amount.

One way to help get the cost down is to tell the seller that you will accept full responsibility for the package shipped at the lowest rate or whatever rate you want as long as the seller sends you a pic of the receipt to verify being mailed.

Ebay now charges an additional fee for shipping and handling charges on sellers regardless of amount charged. A lot of sellers are now doing buy it now auctions rather than a real auction starting low. It saves the hassle of not making what little profit you can get now.
Personally, I wish there were another place to get or sell some things. Ebay and Paypal are owned by the same master corp. Talk about a monopoly. The only one making out is the buyer because of all the fees. With the EBay fees and the Paypal fees, your talking almost 12 to 17 percent sometimes.

Please don't get the impression that I am defending anyone, not knowing the details or the weight or the zip and postal codes, it would be impossible to figure out costs. Most folks send items inside other boxes as I have. Sometimes the outer box is twice as heavy as the model or item being shipped. Most folks charge a modest handling fee, anywhere from almost nothing to a couple of bucks.

Something you might want to think about is having a friend in the states or wherever be the intermediary on shipping items. You trust your friend to ship the item cheaply and depending on the cost it may well be cheaper to do it through your friend. plus it may help in customs or whatever if the item is listed as a gift when your friend ships it. I don't know anything about any countries customs or extra postal fee concerning items shipped from the US.

My 2 cents
Rusty
 
Had to pay 11 quid for customs, on the last kit (1/25 '37 Chevy Coupe) that I bought from the US....
Something that I'm sure would work here, us being pals in the US and the UK, if someone need something, just ask each other for help...
 
Lucky, just what I was getting at. There are hundreds of folks on line here from all over the world, some closer to the different companies that ship items. It may well be cheaper to do it through a friend rather than the company you bought it through. Do they charge custom fees if an item was sent as a gift from a person not a company in the UK or any other country? Plus not to break the law but fudging on the actual item cost might help too...wink wink :)
 
I had a kit sent (via e-bay) from the US on November 8th. Shipping costs were £17 (non tracked) - and it still hasn't arrived.
If it does eventually arrive, and there's any hint of a Customs charge, I'll be f***ing livid !! And if it doesn't arrive, I'll be double livid, as the kit is no longer produced, so very hard to find!
 
Still hasn't arrived yet Rusty (replied to your PM). It was the Hobbycraft 1/48th scale Dornier Do17Z - I've got the vac-form set and decals and other bits to go with it, ordered from Hannant's, but still waiting for the kit from e-bay.
 
The hobbycraft flying bannana! I will be looking forward to what you can do with that one. I have toyed with getting it myself. I love a challenge. (sometimes)
 
Shouldn't be too bad Paul. The 'bannana' title comes from the fact that the shape of the nose and canopy give it a 'bent' look, but the vac-form parts correct this. There are a few other small areas to tackle, but nothing major. With a bit of scratch-built internal and external detail, it should turn out OK - I hope !
It's going to be the aircraft flown by Lamberty, of 9/KG76, which crash-landed at Leaves Green after the low-level attack on RAF Kenley, 18th August, 1940.
 
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