Sending items via first class LETTER MAIL is only feasible for flat things like stickers, and it's not tracked and may take literal months

Btw the $9 and $12 I said is when you have some sort of deal with Usps, which sometimes you usually have to pay an extra membership for. If you go to the post office it starts at 9.50 and 13. ALSO this doesn't cover any of the shipping materials

ALSO packing items for shipping takes a really long time...!! let's say you take 10 minutes to prep 1 package (imo this is an underestimate). For 50 packages, that's 8 hours of packing. Most artists (even zine projects) have 1, maybe 2 shippers. Please be patient!

@dddagneo Priority shipping is hell, from what I remember at the post office: sending a zine by priority from Canada to the U.S. was $40+ CAD. same when I asked to send a charm by priority. and I just walked outta that deal

@alicenpai LOL YIKES I mean Canada to us probably wouldn't have taken that long anyway?? Priority for a charm sounds overkill... But yea we had to send zines priority also and they were so expensive 💦💦💦

@dddagneo I don't think a lot of people realise we aren't making money usually on shipping. Any excess after the label itself is usually materials and some labor. Esp for international I try to use more material so the merch is safer

@sketchbeetleart Same, I try to use extra bubble wrap/packing peanuts!! But yea its upsetting bc every now and then I hear about other artists getting msgs from customers about shipping costs and like nooooo we're not arbitrarily charging for shipping like??????

This is gaining traction so I'm just going to throw in a link to my podcast/stream where I talk about US shipping related things for anyone setting up their own shop:

Apparently there is a kind of intl mail forwarding service that is a lot cheaper??? Might be a good option esp for heavy packages!

@deepseasalt_ It seriouslu sucks that even though the world is a click away on the internet it's super expensive to physically get anything there...!! And like we can't do anything about it except feel bad for customers

@taemin Oh my god that's so much 😭😭 same tho I feel bad everytime someone pays a lot of shipping and I'm just like... Are you sure... 💦

@dddagneo @Roxushi If you’re looking for cheaper prices and have some money on the side I recommend getting a thermal printer, paypal charges me a bit less for printing your own labels but it does make a major difference for the costumer Unfortunately yeah I haven’t seen better anywhere else .3.

@dddagneo @charlestan i think the buyers(incl me) know it's not your fault but still the shipping cost3 would be twice the item i'm buying, it's just not fair 😭 i don't blame you, i blame the shipping companies for feeling robbed 😭😭

@dddagneo @foxville_art I get this pretty often. It’s super expensive 😩 I wish I could make it cheaper but I can’t

@dddagneo Hell even just shipping within the U.S. only can be expensive. You can get away shipping charms and stuff in tiny bubble mailers, but any sort of box and you're looking at $12-$30 to ship it depending on weight and size and where it's priority or not.

@dddagneo @toastedlemon I lived in France. When I buy merch from USA, I always prepare myself mentally like a month before for the shipping cost😂😂 I know it is not the seller’s fault. It hurts when the shipping cost twice the merch but seller always give some freebies and it touched me a lot.

@dddagneo @TheBeastcub A 2 pound box of modelhorserelated stuff easily taps in at a minimum of 50 bucks, tracking and insurance included. That cost is from Swrden and worldwide... over 2 pounds and things gets seriously expensive! So it is not just the USnor CAN that have silly rates!

@dddagneo Postage from the US is always crazy, and it can't be good for small businesses. I'm in the UK, and I can ship stuff to the US from £3.30, but if I want to buy something from there, it costs about 3 times as much!