Shipping fun

I'm going to talk about this in as generic terms as a can, in order to protect the innocent. You are warned.

So our last set of auctions ends. I made special arrangements with one person to ship one of the books overseas. Overseas shipping isn't cheap. It turns out that there are two shipping options. One option is about 11 dollars, and arrives at the destination in 4-6 days. The other option is 15.50, and arrives in 4-10 days. The cheaper option does not allow for insurance.

The buyer wanted insurance. Keep in mind, the item cost less than $10.

So, this person paid about 6 extra dollars so the item could be insured and possibly arrive later than if it wasn't insured.

In all fairness I should say that this was my first experience shipping anything overseas, and the price I quoted for shipping was the higher of the two --because I wanted to err on the more expensive side. It was unclear to me from looking at the USPS web site whether shipping would be $11 or $15, because we packaged the book in a small box and not a large envelope. In my defense I would have happily refunded the difference.

But, they wanted insurance.

On another note, I'm happy to say that some of the items I put up last already have bids. I'm taking this as an excellent sign, considering that they'll be up for a week.