SHIPPING INFORMATION
INTERNATIONAL BUYERS ONLY
UPDATE: September 2025
The world of trade is changing rapidly and I need to adjust ... trading "Blocs" are being enforced and this means I NO LONGER ship to the following trading Blocs under any circumstances
USA and Territories
For the foreseeable future I will NO LONGER ship any goods to USA and any client intending to have items shipped to USA will not be able to proceed with their order on my website.
Why?
As of 29th August, 2025, I have been advised that the de minimus exception, which previously allowed goods valued under USD$800 to enter USA duty free, will no longer apply to all shipments. This means that ALL shipments, even those of low value, will incur duties, taxes or a high single administration fee at the USA border - the amount of tariff, taxes or fees could change at any time (up or down). It makes no difference what the country of origin of the item is, whether it is second hand or new and whether the package is sent as a gift or a commercial transaction. This ever changing tariff or tax regime makes it impossible to accurately estimate the true cost of goods being purchased by those within USA and for this reason, all exporting to USA has now ceased from my website.
EUROPEAN UNION:
For the foreseeable future, I will NO LONGER ship any goods to EU Countries from any client from those countries, they will not be able to proceed with their orders on my website.
While not varying tariffs from day to day (such as the USA administration is in the habit of doing), new regulations called the EU GPRS now mean that it is no longer viable to send ANY items to countries in the EU Bloc. The new paperwork requirements are draconian and with many of my products, cannot be complied with e.g the need to have EU agents for the item manufacturer. All of this paperwork has costs, not only the normal VAT costs but additional administrative costs. I was recently quoted by an agent EU200 fee to process a vintage spare part worth A$2. These new regulations are obviously a variation on the USA administrations "closing the door" to imports, particularly those of low monetary value.
While this situation exits, it is no longer viable for me to ship anything to a EU country.
THE REST OF THE WORLD STILL ENCOURAGES FREE TRADE!
Yes, the world still has governments who exercise progressive, rational thinking.
I will continue to ship to those countries where Australia Post allows me to (to see if your country is in my list of accepted shipping destinations, go to the Checkout area and select your country in the shipping address area)
Now on with some shipping hints and tips for the "rest of the international community" ...
We are located in Australia ("The Land Down Under") and a LONG way from most other countries. This means that shipping is quite costly but can be made most cost effective when these things are kept in mind ...
WHEN SHIPPING INTERNATIONALLY
SIZE DOESN'T MATTER!
Most international shipments are costed on weight ONLY, not the size of the package being sent
SHIPPING COSTS ARE ALWAYS THE MOST EXPENSIVE FOR LIGHTWEIGHT ITEMS
Think of the initial shipping cost as a "fixed fee" set by the shipping company (for me it is usually Australia Post) which means that very light items are expensive to send but as the weight increases, the overall costs go down.
EXAMPLE: Shipping to United Kingdom
(These prices are current as at April 2025 but should be taken as a guide ONLY - shipping costs keep increasing frequently!)
An item that weighs just 100 grams would currently cost A$26.80 to send to anywhere within the UK (Yes, the UK is not a EU member (very sensible decision in hindsight)
Add more items so that the total weight is 240 grams and the cost remains the SAME at A$26.80
Now let's just say you go a bit "crazy" and add quite a few more items so that the shipping weight subsequently totals 1 Kilogram (10 times heavier than the original package) - the shipping cost increases to just A$47.10
So you can see that although the weight has substantially increased (10 times over the original 100g), the cost of shipping has only almost doubled
It continues in this fashion for heavier weights, in broad terms, the higher the weight the less is the overall cost per gram for shipping.
I would encourage anyone internationally who is curious about "how much would that cost to ship to me?" to please visit my checkout area and "play around" with various items being added or taken away and seeing what the effect is on the shipping costs.
I see a LOT of clients who are effectively "wasting" their shipping charges by paying high prices when the weight allocation has not been completely taken advantage of e.g purchasing an item costing A$5 but paying A$25 to have it shipped with one item only weighing 50g is so wasteful of money! - 200g of wasted opportunity!
ALL my shipping internationally includes tracking - I do not ship any item without tracking
While it might take a while to receive items (at the moment it ranges from 10 days to 28 days delivery times - depending upon the country, wars, pandemics etc) it is always sensible to be able to track a package that has not shown up.
Thank you to all my worldwide clients (goodbye America & EU - enjoy your self-imposed isolation!) stay well and mayPEACE surround you in these very difficult times around the world!
