international book orders (and postage costs)

[Logical Language Group <lojbab@ACCESS.DIGEX.NET>]

Yes we are seeking international orders for the book, and I apologize
profusely that we have to charge such a large amount for the shipping and
handling.

Unfortunately, the idea of shipping several copies to one person for
remailing is not looking especially fruitful, except perhaps for
Australia.  We are still interested in this if we can make it work,
but the savings to people who order right now look like they would be
only a (US) dollar or two at most.

I will break down the costs, so that people will see what the situation is.
Packing the books for shipment - in a box or padded envelope, will cost
approximately US$1 per book, in my estimate, it may be higher or lower - I
have not actually bought the packing materials, but that is a good guess.

I estimate that the book will weigh approximately 3 pounds (1.5 kilograms)
with
the packing.  If it is slightly over 3 pounds, we get charged for 3 1/2 or
4 pounds depending on whetherit is air mail or not.  I cannot say till I
actually pack a book in its shipping whether it will be over or under this
boundary, so I have to estimate assuming the high side.

US surface postage is $6.38 if the book is under 3 pounds, $8.38 if over
3 pounds.  Rounding up, we end up with a cost of $7-$10 for surface mail,
and we are charging $10 for surfacemail shipping and handling.

Bulk shipping via surface mail helps.  The price is $.72 per pound for
most countries, so a 3 pound shipment would cost only $2.16, and 4 pounds
would cost $2.88.  Adding in the packing materials, we can thus bulk ship
the books for around $4 per book, provided that there are 3 or 4 or more
books being ordered.  Unfortunately, the books then need to be remailed
in your country.  So far I have reports from the UK and from Italy that this
would cost another $3-$4 in US equivalent, so the net cost turns out to be
around $8 provided that no repacking is necessary.  Thus you could save
$2/book plus the $4 saved by the person actually receiving the books for
each copy they are keeping.

However, this is not insured shipping, and insurance costs $4.50 for up to
$100 insurance.  We cannot afford to include insurance, and will therefore
have to trust the mail systems at least for the major countries.  So we are
not including insurance unless you specifically ask for and pay for it
(but if there are too many reported losses in shipping, we will have to start
adding this in).

The bad part of surface mail is time.  amazon.com, which does a lot of
international shipping of books, reports that surface mail can take from 3
weeks to 3 months depending on how far you are from the USA.

Air mail is more complicated, and if anything I underestimated the postage.
Rates vary by region.  I will give the detailed information for Europe and
for Australia, which covers most of our international orders.

For Europe, the bulk shipment rate is $4 per pound., and thus we can
figure that a bulk shipment would cost us around $12-16 plus the $1 for
packing costs.  Individual pieces will cost us $19.09 for 3 1/2 pounds, so with
the packing materials, we will be paying more than $20.  Thus a bulk mail
shipment will save us less than $5 in postage.  Still, this might be
worthwhile to some of you IF you all agree to pay for the higher air mail rate.
So far most orders have been for surface mail, though thi sis less than
10 orders so far,a s it appears that many overseas people have been waiting to
see how the bulk shipping arrangemenbts turn out.

For Australia, the bulk shipment rate is $5.76 per pound, so that we can
estimate $17-$22 for bulk shipping or $26.61 for 3 1/2 pounds individual
pieces, plus the packing materials.  Clearly our $22 shipping and handling
charge isn't going to cover this full cost, so we have to hope the book
weighs less than 3 pounds.  Even bulk shipping will not necessarily allow
us to charge less.

Air mail times apparently are around 1-2 weeks.

amazon.com has another option - apparently they have a bulk airmail shipper
on contract.  These shippers in effect do the local remailing for you,
and we have used one of them for JL subscriptions overseas (but the one we use
is not very competitive for shipping the books).  Shipping time apparently runs
2-4 weeks.  If we could make similar arrangements, the costs would probably
be intermediate between the $10 and $22 shipping charges we list in the
announcement.   We will of course let you know if this becomes an option.

Because we have to self-insure, we have to charge a little more for shipping
and handling than we actually pay in postage, because there will be losses,
and for Visa/Master Card orders (which we expect most overseas purchases to
be) wemay be required to make good on the order if it is lost, or refund
the money - we plan to do this in any case).  Every book lost in
the mail is $35-$48 lost to us when we ship a new copy.

When we actually get the books, and know how much it will cost, we will
negotiate a fair price to anyone who has ordered at the standard shipping
costs, and credit you with the difference, if a suitable bulk mailing
approach works out for your country (so far, we have offers only from
the UK, Italy, and Australia along with enough likely orders to make
bulk shipping work out - Argentina is also a poosibility if we get more orders
and the cost savings would be a bit greater for bulk airmail to that country).

Feel free to ask any questions about the above, either privately or on the list
as appropriate.  But please let us know your ordering plans including the
kind of shipping you will prefer, or we will not be able to consider any
bulk-shipping reduction even if we figure out a way to do it.

lojbab
----
lojbab                                                lojbab@access.digex.net
Bob LeChevalier, President, The Logical Language Group, Inc.
2904 Beau Lane, Fairfax VA 22031-1303 USA                        703-385-0273
Artificial language Loglan/Lojban: ftp.access.digex.net /pub/access/lojbab
    or see Lojban WWW Server: href="http://xiron.pc.helsinki.fi/lojban/";
    Order _The Complete Lojban Language_ - see our Web pages or ask me.