Is combined shipping a myth?

[imjustme]

This has been bothering me for quite some time. Almost on a daily basis, I get buyers asking for combined shipping. I ship from 2 different countries and in both countries, it also costs me twice the postage to ship twice the weight, for example. If I ship 150 grams internationally, it costs me $3 with regular AirMail. If I ship 300 grams, it costs me $6.

Are there really countries where twice the weight costs less than double the cost?

[derbydave]

240g packet is £1.20, 480g packet is £1.60 with Royal Mail in UK

[imjustme]

Thanks Is that for inside the UK only? Or for international shipping as well?

[derbydave]

That's inside. Those weights to the US would be £4.98 & £7.98

[rsot]

Inside Canada - similar concept set price for up to 300 g but the next price is not really double up to 1 kg - so lets say up to 300 g = 10, up to 1kg might be 15 - but costs vary on distance to delivery.

International is quite different.

[zoneout]

Combined shipping is ALWAYS cheaper in the US, gets more pronounced the higher the weight, and applies to any carrier as well (usps, fedex, ups), domestic or international. I guess they figure it`s more efficient to process one box instead of multiples. Kinda like taking a taxi... one 2 mile trip is cheaper than two 1 mile trips.

Funny, I was at the PO a while back and there was this little old Italian woman trying to grasp this concept as well. The clerk was telling her it was cheaper to ship her 2 small boxes inside of 1 big box to her family in Italy. She was staring at him like he had 2 heads and made him explain it like 5 times while there was a line out the door behind her. I thought the clerk was going to lose it, but he calmly kept explaining the process very slowly to her (much to our chagrin). I think she was getting stumped on the point of buying the extra box - even though she still came out way ahead with the savings on the shipping.

[al9232]

yes its cheaper..
but people expect to get too big of a discount. some times you tell them ok you get $2 off on 2 items and they are like OH THATS IT?