Resolved!

[otocolobus_manul]

So sylvanianfamilies.co.uk has the mole family as exclusive to their store... and they don’t ship outside the British Isles. Go figure. I’ve seen people on here make arrangements for someone to buy something within their and have it shipped to them, then ship it to someone out of the country who pays them back in full (plus a convenience fee/tip), but I haven’t done it myself. I’m mostly worried about shipping costs - I think shipping within the UK is like 6 pounds, and to Ireland is 8? My question is, how much would it cost for someone in the UK to ship the item to the US? And how much would be a good amount to pay the middleman for their trouble?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[Sebby6]

It depends how big it is. Www.royalmail.com should give you an idea

[Lady Frostbite]

It depends on the size of the package. When I used to do Monster High dolls, it was £3.30 within the UK, £5.50 for Europe and £7.50 US off the top of my head.

I think the price is now £3.75 UK, and I can check for US but say it's about £8. Middleman fees I couldn't tell you, I usually did it for free as a hunter.

Hope this helps!

EDIT: Please be aware that you will need to pay for shipping to the sender's address, which is £4.99. So, £17.99 plus £4.99 plus approx. £8.00 and say £1.00 to cover bubble wrap and repackaging if needed

[otocolobus_manul]

Thank you so much! I checked the Royal Mail website and found that it'd be about £10 with tracking and around half without. I've seen a lot of U.K. sellers who won't ship to the US (or maybe in general, I wouldn't know as I've never bought from outside the US) without tracking. Is there like... a reason for that? Would you say it's worth the extra few bucks?

[Lady Frostbite]

There's no reason for that as far as I know  The US is a common and safe place to ship, it's not a known place for misplaced or stolen packages (I've had a couple of customers who insist on tracking due to their country's postal service's habit of losing or 'misplacing' items, especially if they look valuable) so there shouldn't be any reason for it.

Wither or not it's worth it is up to you. I've never had a problem, and your shipper should have a Proof of Purchase that will allow them to claim compensation up to a certain amount for any lost goods. The Mole family isn't so expensive or rare that the standard compensation wouldn't cover it.

You can always get it if you are impatient and want to know where your little Moles are on their journey 

[Taffeta]

If everything was normal then I would say it's not a big deal to order stuff for someone and ship it over. Your shipping cost estimate is probably right. We can still send post to the US but I am not sure how well Royal Mail are operating at the moment because of the need for distancing, the fact they're under more domestic pressure and the reduction in flights between here and other places (mostly on account of other places and their rules, though the US is one place that we still have cargo flights to). A lot of people also can't get to the post office at the moment because of lockdown - the POs are open but it's not an essential trip :/ and we're told not to use public transport unnecessarily.

If and when this is all done with, though, there are definitely people here who would and will help you get stuff, myself included if I'm able So yeah, it's possible and easy to do. When we have normal postal circs.

I've been shipping to the US for 20 years and I've had some blips but mostly it's easy and I've also had a lot of US people help me out in the reverse sense with items I can't get here. So yeah, when things are normal...if I'm able to help, I'll help - but right now is a bit tricky. I would do it at cost - which means the buyer paid the item cost, the shipping from the company to my address and the shipping from me to the US, plus any paypal fees incurred. It's the arrangement I've generally had with other people in both directions.

People who don't ship internationally is a problem we all have wherever we are - there are a ton of US sellers who don't ship to the UK as well. But there are plenty of us who do ship overseas

I would add - if you're looking up RM costs do look up tracking costs vis a vis the value of the item. I wouldn't send overseas without tracking because I have known Heathrow airport to accidentally send parcels to the wrong country before It's good to know where they come from.

[otocolobus_manul]

Thanks everyone! Yeah, I doubt I’ll be buying anything until things calm down a good bit. Shipping costs on eBay from the UK seem to have skyrocketed - with tracking they were usually at least $20ish, but now I’m seeing $40 as a minimum. Hopefully the moles don’t sell out before I have the chance to grab them. And ah, that explains why so many UK eBay sellers only send overseas with tracking.

[Taffeta]

Thanks everyone! Yeah, I doubt I’ll be buying anything until things calm down a good bit. Shipping costs on eBay from the UK seem to have skyrocketed - with tracking they were usually at least $20ish, but now I’m seeing $40 as a minimum. Hopefully the moles don’t sell out before I have the chance to grab them. And ah, that explains why so many UK eBay sellers only send overseas with tracking.

No, that happens because of paypal rules. You are only covered as a seller if you can provide a tracking number. A receipt of purchase does NOT count and will leave you out of pocket, so people insist on tracking to prevent fraudulent chargebacks and refund claims. It happens within countries as well, but UK postage does not automatically generate a tracking number so is a separate service (both domestically and overseas). That's why it gets listed as additional, because unlike the online printed USPS first class labels, it is additional and not automatic.

It's very rare for a package to take a detour, but it has happened before. To be honest USPS (mostly Chicago) has a more colourful record of sending my packages to Canada (many times -.-). Then there was the time New York sent a pony to Bangladesh, which ultimately came back to me via Dubai...

The thing is with so many things in the system, parcels do end up taking the wrong way. All these items eventually got to me (or to their destination) but it can help if you have tracking to flag up a problem and get the postal services to deal with it.

[brightberry]

I do tracking whenever I can as Taffeta is right, packages can end up any where.   In my case, they end up a block or two over as the street names are very similar.  Without tracking, I wouldn't know to call the post office.   95% of the time they're very accurate.  But I could have lost some of my packages if I didn't have tracking.

I also end up with my neighbor's packages, so I become a delivery go-between. 

[otocolobus_manul]

Thank you so much everyone for the advice! And thanks for clearing that up Taffeta - just when I think I've figured something out, lol. In the end I decided to order from a Japanese seller on eBay it ended up costing about what I calculated, and is more direct. The only problem is that Japan is currently not shipping to the US, but the seller very nicely agreed to hold the item and ship it once service resumes. Thanks again!

[Taffeta]

Awesome,  glad you found a solution and a nice seller!