International orders are increasing rapidly. We’re getting more and more inquiries about costs, regulations and others. To help answer some of these questions I’m creating this post and a new category. I’ll use this category to try to answer other questions as they arise.

Today’s question was about the cost of shipping international orders. The customer wanted to know if we could ship more economically. Here’s the answer I sent:

I charge $5 handling on all orders which covers some of the expenses of filling out customs forms, etc. The remainder of the shipping charge is the actual cost of Flat Rate Priority International shipping through our post office.

I used first class mail (which runs $2 – $4) for a long time but the packages were taking 3-5 weeks to be delivered. During this time the seed is exposed to a variety of conditions, some of which might kill them. I’m sorry about what seems to be outrageous shipping costs but in the interest of safety for the seeds and getting the seeds delivered in a timely manner it’s necessary to use priority shipping.

As a side note, I just received a shipment of wholesale seeds from Europe. The UPS delivery charge was $136. I too pay the high cost of shipping.

Another email to the same customer explained that a minor reason for upgrading international shipments to flat rate priority was because during the extended weeks while shipments were in transit, customers were sending emails almost daily asking where their shipment was. I couldn’t get anything done because I was replying to all sorts of emails. And, I don’t think they liked the answers. I can’t track international orders through the post office so both the customer and I feel, and are, helpless.

This may beg the question, why don’t you ship with UPS or Fed-Ex? The simple answer is that I have chosen to go with the most economical and most reliable shipper, the U.S. Postal Service. The other options are MORE expensive.