I wonder whether the members in the States are bracing themselves for another rise in shipping costs from here in the UK. Another factor is the the inconvenience of Parcel Force's new format of filling in a form with all the details of the transaction. This apart from gaining a tracker number is totally unecessary when the sender has already applied names and addresses (usually in duplicate ) on the parcel .Only this morning when posting a correctly labelled parcel to the USA I was asked to fill in this new type of form with a queue of people waiting to be served , fifteen minutes later I walk out and vowed I would never be repeating this exercise again. I should point out this only applies to over packaging at 2kg.max.which still at the moment is staightforward. Fingers crossed!
The time will come when shipping prices outstrip the cost of the goods by such a margin that people will not be able to afford them. To the extreme I suppose the goods could split up into smaller lots using the small packets rates but what does one do with frames. An idea would be cut them up to be rebuilt on arrival,nice little earner for someone do'nt you think!!
Seriously though it will be a problem in the coming year or so , better be prepared and brace yourself for inevitable folks.
Doug Smith
North Dorset
UK