Shipping Small Box Across US and to Europe

Back and forth to and from Germany for decades. Here's what I've found out:

The USPS and the Bundespost do not handle 'signature required' or any form of receipt based package/letter well. Many times, a family member in the US would send me something important with 'receipt requested' and it would be returned to the US - after a delay of about six weeks. Never, not once, did such a package/letter arrive. Not once.

The reverse? Cost hundreds of Euros and failed nearly every single time. Only did it when the US company demanded it.

All packages, insured or not were horribly damaged in transit. Unless goods were packed such that they could survive a fall onto hard concrete from 1.5 meters, they would be damaged.

Rates were all over the place in the US, in Germany they were standardized. To this day, I've never figured out how the same size/type/weight of package sent the same way to the same address from the US could vary in cost by factors of 100s of percent.

Now, nearly everything breakable I had sent to relations in the Netherlands and then sent on from there to Munich arrived in perfect condition. Ditto the reverse direction. And so, after far too much commentary, my recommendation: Determine with whom and how you ship stuff to Europe dependent upon which country it's going to. Germany/US seems to work far better and much cheaper than US/Germany, but damage was enormously high.

Oh, and in my experience:

USPS, UPS, FedEx in that order of speed of delivery.


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Post# 920721 2/11/2017 at 11:28 (2,630 days old) by stricklybojack (South Hams Devon UK)
Checkrate/Likes . In our business we are starting to do this more frequently, any ideas on where and how to find the best rates? I am stunned at the costs in my experience so far.

Post# 920723 , Reply# 1 2/11/2017 at 12:13 (2,630 days old) by ea56 (Cotati, Calif.)
Checkrate/Likes I buy lots of small items on ebay that require small boxes for shipping. Hands down the best experiences have been with the USPS. They ship consistantly the quickest with zero damage. Their rates are competitive with UPS and Fedex, neither of which would be my first choice for shipping anything. Also, the USPS has several flat rate boxes for Priority mail, I believe the smallest box starts at $3.95 or $4.95. And I think they will even come to your home to pick up your shipment if you request this service. And an added plus is that USPS delivers on Sat. and I've even seen them delivering on Sun. in my town. Eddie

Post# 920749 , Reply# 2 2/11/2017 at 15:34 (2,630 days old) by firedome (Binghamton NY & Lake Champlain VT)
Checkrate/Likes *my experience is very different...* although the items we ship are very fragile, rare, and often heavy: vintage vacuum tube equipment, vacuum tubes, and vintage mini-(not micro) computer stuff. By far the most satisfactory with least damage for us has been with FedEx, including shipping to Europe, Asia and S America. USPS has probably been the worst (and the worst to deal with when collecting damages) and UPS a close 2nd. Both sloppy with handling, you must pack to withstand dropping from 8 feet on box corners. AS to cost, no shipping option is cheap, it used to be one could ship by surface ship to Europe, very slow, but it's almost all by air freight now. If you can keep weight down to a bare minimum it helps though. We just received a couple of small vacuum tubes from Bularia, packed in styrofoam for lightness, it took a long time but at $8 the cost not too bad.

Post# 920750 , Reply# 3 2/11/2017 at 15:37 (2,630 days old) by kb0nes (Burnsville, MN)
Checkrate/Likes Define Small, and how heavy etc? Who have you used as a carrier so far? For domestic shipments I agree that for small and light packages USPS is cheapest. I find that FedEx has been significantly cheaper then UPS for mid-size/weight boxes. No matter who you ship with be sure too create an online account and generate the labels yourself. The shipping stores often charge a fair bit extra just for the shipping charges alone if they create the label. I have never shipped out of the country so no comment in that regard.

Post# 920766 , Reply# 4 2/11/2017 at 17:05 (2,630 days old) by Stricklybojack (South Hams Devon UK)
Checkrate/Likes . We are shipping something the size and weight of a Betamax tape if you recall those. We sometimes ship one, or sometimes more. The latest batch of 20 is $100 total, insurance included, using the large flat rate box, via USPS to the Netherlands. I was happy to get that price.

Post# 920767 , Reply# 5 2/11/2017 at 17:17 (2,630 days old) by Yogitunes (New Jersey)
Checkrate/Likes a trick with shipping and insurance.... if you only take what they offer that's included....that's a minimum, and a great chance your item will arrive damaged..... now if you increase the insurance by a few hundred dollars......items arrive safe and sound...... you will get paid....the difference is just cutting you a check for $100.00, versus, cutting you a check for $1000.00, and an investigation as to how it got damaged! I use those "if it fits, it ships!" boxes the UPS offers.....really inexpensive!

Post# 920772 , Reply# 6 2/11/2017 at 17:34 (2,630 days old) by kb0nes (Burnsville, MN)
Checkrate/Likes Those flat-rate boxes 'can' be a great deal, but you should at least check the standard rate as a comparison too. A while back a family friend shipped some throw pillows in flat USPS rate-boxes. Since they were so light the shipping rate for standard Priority mail would have been about 1/2. Really light items in flat-rate boxes subsidize the rates for those shipping bricks I think lol

Post# 920865 , Reply# 7 2/11/2017 at 23:52 (2,630 days old) by panthera (Rocky Mountains)
Checkrate/Likes *I've been shipping and receiving 'small boxes'Al* Back and forth to and from Germany for decades. Here's what I've found out: The USPS and the Bundespost do not handle 'signature required' or any form of receipt based package/letter well. Many times, a family member in the US would send me something important with 'receipt requested' and it would be returned to the US - after a delay of about six weeks. Never, not once, did such a package/letter arrive. Not once. The reverse? Cost hundreds of Euros and failed nearly every single time. Only did it when the US company demanded it. All packages, insured or not were horribly damaged in transit. Unless goods were packed such that they could survive a fall onto hard concrete from 1.5 meters, they would be damaged. Rates were all over the place in the US, in Germany they were standardized. To this day, I've never figured out how the same size/type/weight of package sent the same way to the same address from the US could vary in cost by factors of 100s of percent. Now, nearly everything breakable I had sent to relations in the Netherlands and then sent on from there to Munich arrived in perfect condition. Ditto the reverse direction. And so, after far too much commentary, my recommendation: Determine with whom and how you ship stuff to Europe dependent upon which country it's going to. Germany/US seems to work far better and much cheaper than US/Germany, but damage was enormously high. Oh, and in my experience: USPS, UPS, FedEx in that order of speed of delivery.