Jeannette
Shipping the "Traveling Deck"
Here's some information on domestic and international shipping (from the U.S.) that hopefully will help make things easy for those who don't send a lot of packages. We'd all hate to see the "traveling deck" held up at one location for too long due to shipping problems!
Unpacked, the deck weighs about 10 oz. (about .3 kg). It should be possible to keep the packed weight under 1 lb. (.45 kg) if the packing materials are chosen carefully. If the box with the deck arrives to you in good condition, then you may wish to save the packing materials and reuse them.
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SHIPPING INFORMATION FOR SENDERS & RECIPIENTS INSIDE THE U.S.
=====
For those of us who are in the U.S., and will be passing the deck on to another participant in the U.S., I'd seriously recommend using the U.S. Postal Service. The USPS had a bad rap for a while -- perhaps originally deserved, but no more, IMO. I've had reports from customers who say that USPS delivery in their area is not too good, but they're in a very, very small minority. All I can say is that in 4-1/2 years of business, we've never had a domestic shipment get completely lost. And the number of packages we've had go temporarily astray can be counted on one hand with fingers left over.
With the USPS, you effectively have two service choices:
Unless you live very, very near the next recipient, you may be surprised to find that there's virtually no difference in cost between Priority Mail and Parcel Post for a 1 lb. package. If you're kind enough to add package tracking to the shipment, Parcel Post will likely even cost more. So Priority mail is generally the better choice, as it can be delivered up to 2.5x faster than Parcel Post. But you can check the cost of your various options by using the USPS online rate calculator at the following link:
Edited to note: the rate for shipping a package of 1 lb. or less by Priority Mail within the U.S. -- AND ITS TERRITORIES AND APO ADDRESSES -- is a constant $3.85, regardless of where you are, or where the recipient is. If the package is < 1 lb. (and ours will be, just barely), you can be in Florida and ship to Alaska, and the cost will be $3.85. If you "manually" add the Delivery Confirmation service, that's another .45 cents (.55 with Parcel Post), so then the total postage is $4.30. But as noted below, you can get Delivery Confirmation free with Priority mail if you purchase and print the postage online.
Please note that in our situation, we can NOT use the media mail option. Tarot decks do NOT qualify for media mail, unless they are part of a larger deck/book set. The USPS does NOT consider this to be up for negotiation, despite my having had several email exchanges with customers who insist otherwise. I've been through this over and over again with our local p.o., and I have to admit that in the end, the USPS regulations that I've read are very clear on the matter. If you send the deck by media mail and the postal inspectors decide to open your package, it may be sent back to you, or at the least will be sent to the next recipient with postage due charged.
If you are able to affix the correct postage to the package, you won't even have to take it to the post office to mail it. You can just put the postage on the box, and set it out for carrier pickup just like you would a letter.
Better still, if you have a credit card, you can print a Priority shipping label online and get FREE delivery confirmation as part of the deal. (The USPS doesn't offer online label printing & payment for parcel post shipments.) The link to online shipping label printing is:
https://sss-web.usps.com/cns/landing.do
You have to set up an account (just like you would with many online businesses that accept credit cards), but it's not hard -- you just give them your address and your credit card info, and you're good to go!
I'll include some Priority Mail stickers in the package with the deck, so those who care to use Priority mail can mark the box clearly. If the deck was sent to you by Priority mail, and you use the same box to reship the deck by non-Priority mail means, you'll have to remove or completely obliterate the sticker. Regardless of how you decide to send the deck onward, though, please retain the unused stickers and pass them on to the next person, in case he or she decides to use the Priority mail option.
Of course, you may choose to use any shipping service you like. But in my experience, UPS and FedEx (the two most common commercial services in the U.S.) provide no better service (usually equal, but not necessarily better), and almost always cost more money when comparing equal delivery timeframes.
=====
SHIPPING INFORMATION FOR U.S. SENDERS TO NON-U.S. RECIPIENTS
=====
I realize that the plan is to circulate the deck in the U.S. first, then send the deck on to the next country or continent, to be circulated there -- all with the intent of minimizing postage costs. However, depending on how quickly the signup list fills up, it strikes me as possible that the deck could end up back in the U.S. once or twice, to be sent overseas again in a subsequent "round." To that end, I include this information for U.S. participants to whom the duty of sending the deck outside the U.S. may fall.
Once again, if you can keep the packed weight of the deck at 1 lb. or less, the shipping cost shouldn't be too bad. There are very few places in the world that you can't send a 1 lb. package by the international mail system (i.e., to the postal service of the destination country, via the USPS) by airmail for US$ 10 or less. I would, however, seriously discourage shipment by surface mail. Surface mail is usually about half the cost of airmail, but is notoriously unreliable, and certainly much, much, MUCH slower. And with 100 participants who all have the option of keeping the deck for up to 2 weeks, we're looking at over 4 years of circulation time if everyone holds on to the deck for the maximum period, then sends it along via a FAST method. So just imagine what will happen if we all choose a method of shipment that could be up to 12x slower in some cases!
In my experience, purchasing insurance for an overseas shipment via the USPS is a waste of money. Even if the USPS tries its best to help you with an insurance claim, the post office of the overseas destination may deny it. Save yourself the money and skip the insurance. If the deck gets lost in transit, I'll see if there's something I can do to replace it (although granted, the signatures and the "colorful history" of the deck couldn't be replaced -- but how do you put a dollar value on that, anyway?).
To ship a 1 lb. package overseas, you'll need to fill out USPS customs form CN 22 (this form is green on the left, and white on the right). For purposes of our present project, mark on the customs form that the package is a GIFT, with a value of US$ 10 (or less, or $0, if you prefer). This is important, in order to help minimize the possibility that the recipient will be charged customs duties when it arrives in his or her country. I've found that you can never guarantee that the Customs office in a particular country on a particular day won't decide to charge a duty anyway -- but in general, in most countries, they're not supposed to do that for gifts of low monetary value.
You can determine the exact cost of shipping the package to a particular destination country using the same link I gave above for calculating the cost of domestic shipments. But you're pretty much going to have to go to the post office anyway to drop off the package -- the USPS doesn't much like to pick up international shipments at your mailbox, because of Customs declaration procedures and whatnot. So just pack up the deck and march down to your nearest post office, ask for customs form CN 22, fill it out, then give the package and the form to the clerk for weighing and determination of the final charges.
INTERESTING NOTE: If there's anyone on the list who has an APO address overseas (usually someone serving in the U.S. military, or residing with family serving in the military), the package could be sent to that person at the domestic mail rate, using the instructions given in the preceding section (although you can't print labels for APO addresses on line). That would be a great way to get the package overseas for a low cost, if possible.
And for those of you outside the U.S. shipping to another international destination: check the online information for your country's postal service, as they likely to have the details you'll require to determine what customs forms you need, should you be asked to send the package onward to a destination outside your own country.
Hope this info helps! I will probably edit this post in the future as I think of more details that might be useful.
-- Jeannette
The Tarot Garden
Here's some information on domestic and international shipping (from the U.S.) that hopefully will help make things easy for those who don't send a lot of packages. We'd all hate to see the "traveling deck" held up at one location for too long due to shipping problems!
Unpacked, the deck weighs about 10 oz. (about .3 kg). It should be possible to keep the packed weight under 1 lb. (.45 kg) if the packing materials are chosen carefully. If the box with the deck arrives to you in good condition, then you may wish to save the packing materials and reuse them.
=====
SHIPPING INFORMATION FOR SENDERS & RECIPIENTS INSIDE THE U.S.
=====
For those of us who are in the U.S., and will be passing the deck on to another participant in the U.S., I'd seriously recommend using the U.S. Postal Service. The USPS had a bad rap for a while -- perhaps originally deserved, but no more, IMO. I've had reports from customers who say that USPS delivery in their area is not too good, but they're in a very, very small minority. All I can say is that in 4-1/2 years of business, we've never had a domestic shipment get completely lost. And the number of packages we've had go temporarily astray can be counted on one hand with fingers left over.
With the USPS, you effectively have two service choices:
- Priority Mail
- Parcel Post (a.k.a. First Class Mail)
- Parcel Post (a.k.a. First Class Mail)
Unless you live very, very near the next recipient, you may be surprised to find that there's virtually no difference in cost between Priority Mail and Parcel Post for a 1 lb. package. If you're kind enough to add package tracking to the shipment, Parcel Post will likely even cost more. So Priority mail is generally the better choice, as it can be delivered up to 2.5x faster than Parcel Post. But you can check the cost of your various options by using the USPS online rate calculator at the following link:
Edited to note: the rate for shipping a package of 1 lb. or less by Priority Mail within the U.S. -- AND ITS TERRITORIES AND APO ADDRESSES -- is a constant $3.85, regardless of where you are, or where the recipient is. If the package is < 1 lb. (and ours will be, just barely), you can be in Florida and ship to Alaska, and the cost will be $3.85. If you "manually" add the Delivery Confirmation service, that's another .45 cents (.55 with Parcel Post), so then the total postage is $4.30. But as noted below, you can get Delivery Confirmation free with Priority mail if you purchase and print the postage online.
Please note that in our situation, we can NOT use the media mail option. Tarot decks do NOT qualify for media mail, unless they are part of a larger deck/book set. The USPS does NOT consider this to be up for negotiation, despite my having had several email exchanges with customers who insist otherwise. I've been through this over and over again with our local p.o., and I have to admit that in the end, the USPS regulations that I've read are very clear on the matter. If you send the deck by media mail and the postal inspectors decide to open your package, it may be sent back to you, or at the least will be sent to the next recipient with postage due charged.
If you are able to affix the correct postage to the package, you won't even have to take it to the post office to mail it. You can just put the postage on the box, and set it out for carrier pickup just like you would a letter.
Better still, if you have a credit card, you can print a Priority shipping label online and get FREE delivery confirmation as part of the deal. (The USPS doesn't offer online label printing & payment for parcel post shipments.) The link to online shipping label printing is:
https://sss-web.usps.com/cns/landing.do
You have to set up an account (just like you would with many online businesses that accept credit cards), but it's not hard -- you just give them your address and your credit card info, and you're good to go!
I'll include some Priority Mail stickers in the package with the deck, so those who care to use Priority mail can mark the box clearly. If the deck was sent to you by Priority mail, and you use the same box to reship the deck by non-Priority mail means, you'll have to remove or completely obliterate the sticker. Regardless of how you decide to send the deck onward, though, please retain the unused stickers and pass them on to the next person, in case he or she decides to use the Priority mail option.
Of course, you may choose to use any shipping service you like. But in my experience, UPS and FedEx (the two most common commercial services in the U.S.) provide no better service (usually equal, but not necessarily better), and almost always cost more money when comparing equal delivery timeframes.
=====
SHIPPING INFORMATION FOR U.S. SENDERS TO NON-U.S. RECIPIENTS
=====
I realize that the plan is to circulate the deck in the U.S. first, then send the deck on to the next country or continent, to be circulated there -- all with the intent of minimizing postage costs. However, depending on how quickly the signup list fills up, it strikes me as possible that the deck could end up back in the U.S. once or twice, to be sent overseas again in a subsequent "round." To that end, I include this information for U.S. participants to whom the duty of sending the deck outside the U.S. may fall.
Once again, if you can keep the packed weight of the deck at 1 lb. or less, the shipping cost shouldn't be too bad. There are very few places in the world that you can't send a 1 lb. package by the international mail system (i.e., to the postal service of the destination country, via the USPS) by airmail for US$ 10 or less. I would, however, seriously discourage shipment by surface mail. Surface mail is usually about half the cost of airmail, but is notoriously unreliable, and certainly much, much, MUCH slower. And with 100 participants who all have the option of keeping the deck for up to 2 weeks, we're looking at over 4 years of circulation time if everyone holds on to the deck for the maximum period, then sends it along via a FAST method. So just imagine what will happen if we all choose a method of shipment that could be up to 12x slower in some cases!
In my experience, purchasing insurance for an overseas shipment via the USPS is a waste of money. Even if the USPS tries its best to help you with an insurance claim, the post office of the overseas destination may deny it. Save yourself the money and skip the insurance. If the deck gets lost in transit, I'll see if there's something I can do to replace it (although granted, the signatures and the "colorful history" of the deck couldn't be replaced -- but how do you put a dollar value on that, anyway?).
To ship a 1 lb. package overseas, you'll need to fill out USPS customs form CN 22 (this form is green on the left, and white on the right). For purposes of our present project, mark on the customs form that the package is a GIFT, with a value of US$ 10 (or less, or $0, if you prefer). This is important, in order to help minimize the possibility that the recipient will be charged customs duties when it arrives in his or her country. I've found that you can never guarantee that the Customs office in a particular country on a particular day won't decide to charge a duty anyway -- but in general, in most countries, they're not supposed to do that for gifts of low monetary value.
You can determine the exact cost of shipping the package to a particular destination country using the same link I gave above for calculating the cost of domestic shipments. But you're pretty much going to have to go to the post office anyway to drop off the package -- the USPS doesn't much like to pick up international shipments at your mailbox, because of Customs declaration procedures and whatnot. So just pack up the deck and march down to your nearest post office, ask for customs form CN 22, fill it out, then give the package and the form to the clerk for weighing and determination of the final charges.
INTERESTING NOTE: If there's anyone on the list who has an APO address overseas (usually someone serving in the U.S. military, or residing with family serving in the military), the package could be sent to that person at the domestic mail rate, using the instructions given in the preceding section (although you can't print labels for APO addresses on line). That would be a great way to get the package overseas for a low cost, if possible.
And for those of you outside the U.S. shipping to another international destination: check the online information for your country's postal service, as they likely to have the details you'll require to determine what customs forms you need, should you be asked to send the package onward to a destination outside your own country.
Hope this info helps! I will probably edit this post in the future as I think of more details that might be useful.
-- Jeannette
The Tarot Garden
