Michael Watterson wrote:
> For any significant US order the USPS and couriers from US to Ireland
> are so expensive that a return flight is cheaper.

I have no idea what you mean by a "return flight" since nothing is returnin=
g
anywhere.  However, I've found the US postal service to be about half or
less the cost of commercial parcel carriers like UPS, DHL, FedEx, etc, with
a lot less customs hassle.  At least that's when I'm sending from the US to
elsewhere.

When I send PIC programmers outside the US, I use registered mail with
ordinary parcel service.  The registered part is important when sending int=
o
the uncharted wilds outside the country where things "fall off a truck" too
easily.  It's also the only way to get a return receipt so that someone
can't claim they never got the shipment.  This usually costs between $20 an=
d
$25 as long as the package is under 2 pounds.  The actual cost within that
range seems to have no correlation with distance or any other factor I have
found yet.  It's probably purely a political thing between the post offices
of the various countries.  If I remember right, the UK is one of the more
expensive destinations.

Canada is also suprisingly expensive considering how easy it should be to
get it there.  I can send the same package to Hawaii or the Marshall Island=
s
or a remote village in Alaska (yes, I've sent PIC programmers to all these
places) for less than to Montreal.  I once had a customer at a university i=
n
London Ontario, and I got a letter from him postmarked Buffalo New York.  I
asked him about that out of curiosity, and he said that the canadian mail
was so expensive that there are courier services that collect mail for the
US, drive it just over the border, dump it on the US post office in Buffalo=
,
and are still able to charge less.

International mail is apparently not a well solved problem.


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