quote:Originally posted by dmhcollectibles:
but truthfully there's no way to know in advance how much it will actually cost to ship a package to any given location, unless you use a priority mail flat rate envelope or box and it's staying in the US, or a global flat rate envelope (which you can't use for all countries).
Not true - in fact, I do it all the time.
For shipping within the US:
1) First class mailing/shipping is based only on weight. It doesn't matter where you are shipping. Box it up, get a weight, and you are good to go.
2) Priority and Parcel Post shipping is based on a weight/zip combination. Here, you use eBay's Calculated Shipping feature. Enter in the weight of the item, and enter in your s/h fees. The customer enters in their zip and eBay calculates the shipping cost to their location, automatically adding in your s/h fees. I've never ever had it make a mistake.
International orders are a different type of beast - there are a lot of variables. But it is still easy to quote shipping... box it up, get a weight, and look it up. I never can get the Calculated Shipping to work for international orders, but there aren't many of them anyway.