Postage

[chris vickery]

Exactly why I find it is cheaper to ship a bunch of items rather than one-offs.
Usually the box fee is the same whether or not it is a few grams or a Kg as the rate is usually scheduled up to a certain weight .
As was mentioned, I would rather see my valuable item in a box rather than an envelope, even when an envelope would likely do. Unfortunately, envelopes take a beating and so does your item.

[Wayne Henderson]

Gentlemen,
Packaging is the sole responsibility of the supplier/sender.
The days of sea mail for shipping online purchases died years ago.
Your children will not wait 6 weeks for a parcel to be delivered, they track the parcel on their phones and ipads every hour or less and scream at any delay. The future

Jack, that item could have been wrapped in paper or a small piece of bubble wrap and mailed in a satchel. Instead you got a strong box, that was on hand probably, air mail, and a signature on delivery, hence the cost but you did get it in good condition.

There are many ways to get things posted into Australia by air mail or sea mail. Many companies, apart from the government one, bring in all sorts of goodies, some of it even gets examined by Customs and Aqis.

The cheap items bought online ie China free postage, Latvia the choice of smugglers or GB mail houses, takes up to several weeks and is low low priority and examined/sorted/delivered with the same attitude.

[Jacques Reed]

Yes, and in most cases the sender is not going to waste his time and effort to find for you a cheaper means of shipping an item even where they exist.

He will just take it to the most convenient PO, FedEx, etc and pay their going rate.

My experience with Daco was the only time the seller tried to find me a better deal on the shipping cost. A very rare exception indeed. Pity he does not sell CMP truck parts!

Cheers.

[lendlease]

Well, the way I see it is this: Buy your parts locally (within your own country), or pay the price. Also, international postage costs are determined on weight only (at the present time, however that might change anytime soon), so the external size of the box does not affect postage cost.

[Jacques Reed]

I agree it is best to buy locally and have always tried to do so to keep the money in our economy but sometimes things are just not available here or are in very limited supply and get snapped up before you even hear about it.

Try buying original NOS dash and diff/tail light changeover switches here in Australia or original Lucas type side mirrors. I bought the last 8 dash switches Treleavens had in Adelaide 20 years ago and haven't seen any since. I bought my changeover switch from Holland after never even seeing one here.

I bought original Lucas type mirrors from the UK via Argentina from a fellow MLU member after twenty plus year of searching here. You hardly ever even see the remains of the mirrors on CMP vehicles here in Australia.

So buy wisely, support local businesses where you can, but if there is only an overseas supplier for an item you want you either go without or pay the price.

Cheers