Any tips for shipping keyboards on the cheap?

snacksthecat · 16 Jun 2018, 17:28

Keyboards are big and heavy and often times shipping them costs an exorbitant amount.

Anyone got any good tips for shipping things internationally at cheaper prices?

This could be anything from shipping items separately to websites for finding low shipping rates.

For reference, I'm located in the US.

Blaise170 · 16 Jun 2018, 19:33

Depends on the size and destination country but on the consumer end, the cheapest I've found is shipping via First Class Letter and choosing "large envelope" (naturally this requires a padded envelope, no box). Once you hit the maximum weight for First Class Letter (varies by country, usually 4lbs max), it can be a free for all, FedEx and UPS are generally cheaper than USPS though. Cheapest domestic is typically First Class up to 16oz, then priority mail up until about 10 lbs. After 10lbs FedEx Home Delivery/Ground is often cheaper, and then UPS Ground becomes cheapest at about 30 lbs.

On the commercial domestic end, FedEx SmartPost is usually cheapest to about 40 lbs, at which point USPS Parcel Select or UPS Ground becomes cheaper. For short distances, USPS may be cheaper than FedEx. For commercial international, DHL is often the cheapest, followed by FedEx, UPS, and USPS respectively.

mike52787 · 17 Jun 2018, 23:27

parcel monkey

snacksthecat · 23 Jun 2018, 22:51

mike52787 wrote: parcel monkey

good call

green-squid · 23 Jun 2018, 23:25

be careful though..

https://www.trustpilot.com/review/parcelmonkey.com

snacksthecat · 23 Jun 2018, 23:31

green-squid wrote: be careful though..

https://www.trustpilot.com/review/parcelmonkey.com

Psh, what do you care if a package I'm sending doesn't make it?

Norman_ · 24 Jun 2018, 17:26

I prefer USPS because (to canada, at least) the price of customs etc is included in the cost of the label. It really simplifies the process

Blaise170 · 25 Jun 2018, 03:53

snacksthecat wrote:
mike52787 wrote: parcel monkey
good call

This seems to pretty accurately reflect my comments. DHL is incredibly cheap internationally many times. I had a 13kg package delivered to me from China in about 5 days and it only cost $170. EMS was quoting around $500.

P.S. For anyone who isn't really in the know about parcel companies, EMS is an organization that basically groups all of the world's postal services together for express shipping. So USPS, China EMS, Japan EMS, Canada Post, Royal Mail, etc. are all part of the EMS organization.