UK peeps: need help / advice on shipping

[LadyMoondancer]

Hi all, I won two lots of MLP comics which add up to a very hefty weight, and the seller is not very familiar with international shipping.  So I would appreciate any advice I could pass on to the seller.

Here's what she wrote to me:

I did initially go for the regular post service royalmail, but they don't ship that weight to the USA the alternatively postal service which is parcelforce was coming in at £35 to £50 to send.
That's why it worked out the best deal.
As I say the weight is 4.1kg and size of parcel is 40cm x 27cm x 10cm.
If you want to pass that onto your friends and see what they can find, maybe they can save postage because they ship a lot.
I'm a private seller therefore I don't get any deals.
I could post it to someone in the UK for £5.00 if you know someone that I can post it too and they can then ship it to you, if that helps.

Should I have her split it into two packages or . . . ??

(Is parcelforce the same as parcel post?  I'll pay whatever I have to, I NEED those comics, ha ha.  35 to 50 pounds doesn't sound that outrageous to me, but the seller wanted me to check.)

Thank you.

[Lollipop]

It will work out cheaper for her to go on to http://www.parcel2go.com/ & price it up as one parcel. Otherwise it will have to be split up in to 3 parcels at about 1.5g each (dont go over 2kg)

You can go on the http://www.parcel2go.com/ site yourself to if you want to help her work it out

Royal mail will work out more expensive as it will end up being 3 packages as it has to work out under 2kg each.

May be worth checking at the same time on printed paper rates as this may make a difference particularly on royal mail.

*this is all quoted from mum as she deals with our heavy, bulky, & weird shape packages that we send

Hope this helps 

[ponylady]

Thanks for the info Lollipop! I hope that will be able to help you LadyM.

[hathorcat]

Parcelforce is Royal Mail's courier service basically. When parcels get to a certain size, weight, value you are forced to use Parcelforce instead [or the Royal Mail simply will not carry it]. You can have something that size shipped with Parcelforce easily. They are normally not the cheapest service but neither are they the most expensive. Typically Parcelforce sit in the middle of shipping price averages.

Despite being more expensive, I will admit I do prefer to use them as it means you are shipping with the post office and shipping with one party. A lot of the cheap courier comparison sites involve middle men and sometimes you dont know who is actually dealing with your parcel; if you use it make sure you pick a recognisable courier. I have had as many bad experiences using these sites as good ones...unless I take the time to pick a courier I know will deal with the parcel themselves without a sub contractor involved.

I do recommend using one of the courier comparison sites and shipping as one parcel; as you are using a courier, shipping weight is not as important any more [as long as it does not get too high]. You should manage to get it to the US for the £30-35 mark.

[Ringlets]

Looks like you've already got some great advice here - thanks everyone  
Hopefully you should be able to get your parcel sent now