need advice from pcb manufacturers regarding international shipping

[markeprice]

I am trying to ship pcbs internationally now and am using a small bubble mailer.  For one board it is 1 ounce and for two it is 1.5 oz.  I went to the post office and it was going to cost about 14 dollars to ship to sweden fom kansas city.   What is the best way to ship these items and not cost so much I've only collected $4 for shipping on each of these. Your help would be appreciated. Thank you.

[madbean]

2 - 3 oz 1st Class should be $9. Shipped as "Flats" it will be about $3.50. They quoted you the wrong price.

[markeprice]

I think they said it's not a flat if it can't be sent like an envelope.  It is in a bubble mailer should I put it in a flat envelope of some sort?

[markeprice]

That was bent like an envelope.

[madbean]

Sorry, I misquoted. 1st Class 2oz $9, 3oz $13

You can, by USPS standards, ship a bubble mailer via Flats. You need to have 2" min. clearance on each side of the PCB and envelope (I tape them in the center of my mailers). However, you are at the mercy of whatever USPS employee thinks the rule is. Here are the details:
http://pe.usps.com/text/qsg300/Q201c.htm

Bubble Mailers are more flexible than thick cardboard envelopes so they meet the standard better, IMO.

Anyway, if you cannot convince them that it can be sent flats, you might be able to get them through reg. 1st Class in a birthday card sized one.

[markeprice]

Thanks Brian!

[daleykd]

Honestly, I haven't had issues shipping them in a regular envelope.  I mark it (and pay for) non-machinable.  I usually tape the PCB to a piece of paper.

But as Brian said, you're at the mercy of the USPS employee.

I did not know about the flats.  I'm going to have to investigate this.

[alanp]

When I've been to the post office, if the letter is thin enough quite often the counter lady will tell me to just lie and put a stamp on it for a regular letter.

[markeprice]

I have been using a 5x8 bubble mailer and printing shipping labels out of Paypal.  The labels which include the international required customs form are very professional looking, and so far, they haven't been scrutinized very closely.  I am rounding up the next ounce and paying for large envelope, First Class mail.  I will know in the next week or so if the post office has any issue with that.

[GermanCdn]

Personally, I'd go the birthday card route.  A PCB is roughly the same thickness (and often the same cross sectional area) as a gift card.  As far as customs goes, I can't think off the top of my head what country would require duties or taxes to be paid on four or less boards (the VAT limit in the EU is 20 Euros IIRC, Canada is $50), so you might be going with overkill on the PP postage route, unless you're using it strictly to ward off any PP claims later with proof of delivery, but for international shipments I don't think you can get signatures through PP (I can only get delivery confirmation through PP when I ship internationally (which in itself doesn't really mean anything, I had a guitar shipped to the wrong address and I got delivery confirmation on it, took the buyer two weeks to actually find the guitar in his neighborhood), I don't get the option to have Signature).

It comes down to risk and reward.  If you're selling 100 pcbs (as an example) and you overpay by a couple of bucks on each package, that works out to the same cost as if 10 - 15% of your orders ended up in Goods Not Received claims, which to me seems like a really high number.

[markeprice]

All good points.  I appreciate it!

[aion]

+1 to flats, but you'll have to get an account with Stamps.com or Endicia if you don't want to hand-write a customs form each time. But even if you are just using it for a temporary run of PCBs, it's probably worth the $10/month due to the time you'll save. Just cancel it when you're done, and think of it as a one-time $10-20 expense rather than a recurring one.

[BuGG]

I have the same problem here, and have been quoted the exact same $14 price to ship....  I can't convince anyone at either of my local post offices to ship anything as a flat for me, and the automated kiosk can't do an international flat.

Stamps.com worked like a charm.   You can just sign up for the trial month, you'll even get $5 credit free and that'll cover it.      As others have said, just make sure you cancel before the month ends if you don't plan to keep the service.    The first month isn't actually free, you'll be charged for it (as well as the following month) if you don't cancel.

[markeprice]

I am currently using PayPal shipping and it's working pretty good so far