International International buyers - does anybody use parcel consolidation? (1 Viewer)

[classicmovieguy]

Several sites out there - Parcel It On, ParcelZoom, My US.com....
I'm seriously considering signing up with a consolidation service because in the long run I believe it will save me on shipping stuff to Australia. Plus I could start indulging in the Warner Archive during their sales periods, etc. Does anybody here use a service, and if so, which would you recommend???

 

[Ernest]

So what would you do after ordering the titles from whomever have them shipped to the consolidator with instructions to ship to Australia when they have say 10 Blu-ray/DVD? Check with UPS, DHL or FedEx they may offer a similar service. Forwarders use consolidation to ship LTL goods on ocean containers moving from country to country.

I am not sure consolidating will save you money in the long run unless you buy from a company like Amazon under their Prime service. Then Amazon would ship free-of-charge to the consolidator in America who would then ship to you in Australia. It depends what the consolidator will charge and if you are comfortable waiting for you Blu-ray/DVD's.

 

[classicmovieguy]

I was going to use it mainly with Warner Archive stuff, maybe Amazon super-saver shipping as well... Unless I can find a reliable 'shipping buddy', I think I'll have to go with one of these services.

 

[Persianimmortal]

I've used shipito to buy things from Amazon US and ebay that wouldn't normally be shipped to Australia (electronics). Worked quite well for me.

 

[Nebiroth]

Well in Australia you have rational import allowances - that is, you can import a high value of goods before getting stiffed with customs charges and that sort of crap.

Here in the UK we only have an allowance of £15, anything above that we get 20% VAT slapped on there plus an admin charge as well. So it;s not worth it at all!

 

[AnthonyClarke]

Bloody Amazon used to offer a consolidation service so that you could add purchases to each other to gain discounted bulk purchases but that's no longer an option unless you order them at precisely the same time.
And that's impractical since to do that, if something comes up which you want to add to an existing order, you have to first cancel that existing order and start all over ... and therefore lose an early-buyer discount if you'd managed to get one.
That's a really crook change ... the 'consolidate orders' option was one I used to use very often.