I'm wondering if a tips and tricks (and references) thread for shipping internationally might be a good thing to have for this community, what do people think?
Covering things like ways to save on shipping, card wrapping to save money, standard postage costs by weight, tracking costs outside of USA/Canada, etc...

What do people think? Would this be a good thing to have as a reference guide? What would you like to see?

I just did my first international trade. I traded with a great guy in Germany. Few things I found out from the trade.

• Shipping was around $30 with insurance and tracking. This was a $400 + trade, so it was worth it.
• Tracking did not tell me jack once it left the US. All I knew was that it was some where in Germany
• There was an issue on the Germany side with reviving. I declared everything that was in the trade for customs and insurance. He had issues with his customs. Anything over about $50 should have an import tax on it. Fortunately he did not have to pay the tax. This can happen on the US side as well.

With that said I will gladly do international trades in the future. It will have to be for hard to find cards though.

Make sure both parties understand and accept in advance, that customs can charge you to receive your package. Make sure that you both understand each is responsible for how his or her country handles customs. I had an issue with this, and had to take it to BTR for a resolution. Keep in mind, tracking is really really expensive. If you don't get it, you have zero recourse if your package is "lost"

As an adendum to that, a first class letter does not require a customs form.

A way to save on shipping, in the U.S. to Canada you can send a first class letter for $2ish. If you have a dragon lady at the postal desk like I do, you may have to just ask how much to send a letter first class to Canada, purchase postage, and throw it at them.

Paul_K wrote:I'm able to ship to Canada for $1.20ish. I go to the same post office, a very rural one which is not busy and has the same postal worker there. She knows my packages are magic cards since i've been going there for almost a year now exclusively. I have never had an issue with customs forms when I do it that way. I ship no more than 9 cards in a plain white envelope and use one of the long envelopes so they can all fit 3-3-3 side by side.

I'm scared of putting more than 1 top loader in a PWE. It makes me feel like the envelope will tear being machined or manhandled.

There's some great advice in here so far!

I think the moral of the story is just to go to the PO. Walk in, Say "I need this to go to Canada", Pay the 30 some cents and away I go.

Ive done a few trades with people up North (1 currently) and aside the added wait time of having the cards arrive (which is usually only an extra day or 2) Its been pretty simple. I feel alittle uneasy not being able to send with tracking for thing of higher value, but so far (knock on wood) I have not a had a reason to stop.