Sounds interesting, potentially devastating on the wallet, but interesting nonetheless.
Sounds interesting, potentially devastating on the wallet, but interesting nonetheless.
Perfect timing for Amazon cutting us off.
It still wont help us with Hasbro site for new stuff and SDCC items, as that site require credit cards with US billing addresses.
Well I think it's a very interesting step, clearly the income source for Auspost these days is parcel shipping.
I've done the numbers and assuming I can get a mate in the states to make the purchase for me, the cost of shipping the knights of unicron set from the states to here with this service is about $78.50, which is about a $20 saving on having him ship it using usps.
unfortunately a lot of that $20 saving has been eaten up in the last couple months with the dollar tanking.
Probably a good timing for competition...
Watch the Wreckers at DHL
http://mobile.news.com.au/travel/tra...-1227112130491
I have a list of all G1 characters that have been released in CHUG form. You can find it here. Please feel free to let me know if I got anything wrong so I can fix it.
Unfortunately, those are airport workers doing the throwing into the DHL truck, so it isn't just DHL... it would be all parcel freight (including Australia Post) that gets the same "thrown" treatment.
It was mentioned here, so I'm giving it a little time to see if it is permanent or just a glitch that gets corrected, before I post it in the news section.
They certainly must know about foreign companies keeping their monopolies in place in Australia with the many shipping restrictions of items, and the cost differential of the "Australia Tax" on those monopoly items.
It mentions a "Bundling discount", but you will have to time the purchases so that they arrive at the AusPost warehouse at the same time or within a few days to get the discount.
Sounds like that US Postbox scheme that I signed up to several years back but never used. You buy items and use a designated shipping address from AusPost, and when they arrive, AusPost contacts you with the international postage price and then you pay.Bundling discount: If your parcels arrive and you pay for them on the same day, then your first parcel will be charged the full shipping costs and we will offer you a discount of AUD10.00 on each subsequent parcel.
Once your shopping arrives at your US address, we’ll let you know what the shipping charges to Australia will be. You can pay with Visa or MasterCard.
Not sure how much time they'll give you to wait for multiple parcels to get the Bundling discount though, but there is a fee if it sits for more than 21 days unpaid (so I guess in theory, you could wait 7-10 days for other parcels to arrive, and then get a new quoted shipping rate with the discount).
Not bad.
They even assess your items to see if they can be repacked to a smaller shipping carton, to save you international shipping. (plus $5 repacking fee)
Normal Customs fees apply, if over AU$1000.
And just be aware of the weight and dimensions restrictions... which shouldn't be a problem on Transformers purchases (but could be for other things).
This could certainly be a worthwhile replacement for Amazon if they remain cut-off from international shipping.
This is what I'm looking forward to... and if Hasbro Shop ever allows for paypal payments, SDCC items could be so much cheaper.