Advice on how to ship a lot to Japan

[plushroo]

So the winner of one of my auctions happens to be from Japan and I don't know how I'm going to ship these ponies to the buyer without losing a lot on shipping cost. The stupid shipping service estimate on ebay calculated it as costing 3 times less than it actually will cost to ship in a box. I've thought about sending them in separate envelopes to hopefully offset the cost, but this is really a pain for me and I may reconsider just making my ebay auctions US only for now on to avoid getting cheated.  Does anyone have any advice on shipping to Japan? Even though I know I'm going to have to eat some of the cost, I would like to know if shipping them in large envelopes would work as it was a bait lot anyway. The lot was about 40 ponies in various sizes.

[ponylady]

Can you perhaps check with UPS or FEDEX to see if you can get a cheaper rate? 

[plushroo]

Thought about that. Will give it a try. Thanks,

[Ringlets]

Can you perhaps check with UPS or FEDEX to see if you can get a cheaper rate? 

this is definitely worth a try - especially with a big parcel  ^^ 
Or as you mentioned yourself, shipping them in seperate boxes or envelopes can sometimes work out cheaper than sending a big lot altogether as well   I know I've had to do that with some of my international sales (including a swapbox) or the price would have jumped to crazy monies

Side point: If you *do* send the ponies in seperate boxes or envelopes, please let your buyer know about it. Sometimes parcels arrive at different times even if they were shipped at the same time to the same buyer so you dont want your buyer to think you didnt send all the ponies if for some reason they dont all arrive together.. does that make sense?

[emery]

What was the shipping weight that you listed on eBay? And how much does the box actually weigh? You should get a discount for printing the shipping label online but 3 times the amount seems way off!

[nhal039]

In most countries shipping gets really expensive over 2 kilos, I once got 2.6 kilos of stuff shipped from the uk in 2 different parcels for 26 pound together, the shipping cost before the parcel was split was 92 pounds!
I think size of the item makes a difference in the us too? I might be wrong about this one but if you find out the dimensions you could make sure you stay under the mark that postage becomes excessive.

[cloud_weaver]

Shipping overseas is crazy expensive and I find the shipping calculators to be off when it comes to shipping overseas.  I always note in my auction that if they're international, to contact me *BEFORE* bidding for an accurate quote.  And when I do an invoice, that's when I make sure to adjust the shipping price to the correct fee, otherwise it will bite you in the tushie. 

[rosierjay]

if it's from ebay, don't they have some sort of service available for international to help lower the cost?
you ship it to them and they ship it out? something like that.
check into that too, then the cost should be what they said it was.

[plushroo]

Tried to mail it at the UPS store and guy claims postal code is incorrect or not long enough but it's printed exactly as it was on paypal. This is becoming a bigger pain in the a*# than it's worth!
I've contacted the buyer to re post their address so I can be sure it gets to the right place!

[rosierjay]

Tried to mail it at the UPS store and guy claims postal code is incorrect or not long enough but it's printed exactly as it was on paypal. This is becoming a bigger pain in the a*# than it's worth!
I've contacted the buyer to re post their address so I can be sure it gets to the right place!

is part of it in Japanese?
i lived there for several years, so i can help if you need it.

[plushroo]

It wasn't in Japanese, just the address is all jumbled together where I have to decipher what to put on the correct line of the customs form. The lady at the office claimed I needed a 7 digit zip code, but I'm unsure which is the zip code in Japan. Maybe someone living or knows someone living there could let me pm them the address to see if they can help?