I recently picked up a very cheap a Sony XDR1000 CD / Radio which needs a new DAB tuner board. Looking on Ebay I found the board that I needed for just $10 on Ebay in the USA (which is a bit strange as they don't use DAB). I guess some boards got sent there accidentally. I was surprised by the postage price quoted. There were three options, with the lowest being USPS at $33,95 which seemed excessive, but as I couldn't find another supplier I decided to order one anyway The board turned up today in a small box not much bigger than a VHS cassette labelled Small Flat Rate Package. On interest I checked the price on the USPS web site and it actually was $33.95. Apparently the box is good for up to 2Kg but unless you were sending solid metal I think it would be hard to achieve that. On interest I checked how much it would cost to send the same package from the UK to the USA and got £9.25 which is about $12. I always thought UK postal charges were high and have had comments from people in Europe to backing that up. The charges from China are amazing. You often get "Buy it Now" items from China on Ebay for prices including postage for less than it would cost me to send the item to somewhere in the UK. We have members all around the world so I would be interested to hear whether they think the post is cheap or expensive in their country.
In the uk I find Royal Mail prices extortionate but couriers such as Hermes are much cheaper. If I ship overseas it's usually by eBay's global shipping as it takes all the hassle out of it. In terms of importing there only seems to be Germany who can send it cheap as far as I can see. I do order lots of electronics direct from china as it's so much cheaper even including shipping
