Shipping to other countries/Canada

So, I've been getting a lot of emails lately about people wanting items shipped to them in Canada, and they seem to think shipping will be reasonable.  Which, it used to be.  I can't say I've ever shipped gobs of items out of country, but I have shipped my fair share, and as I remember it, it was never ridiculously outrageous to do so.  For example, it used to be, if it would cost $12 to the U.S., maybe it'd be $15 to Canada.  Not bad, right? 

Boy has that changed.  Apparently, since USPS has upped their prices earlier this year, as that's when I noticed the ridiculousness.  Just recently I've had a few people from Canada ask about shipping things.  First, I had someone ask about me shipping a cage with wooden shelves.   I just recently shipped one out in the U.S. for $19, though usually it runs about $25 for farther U.S. destinations - I checked on Canada for this same item -- $85!!!  Holy hell.  So, I thought, well, it weighs ~25 pounds, and it's a big box, that could be why.

But then I had someone ask about two hidey houses, so, we're talking a significantly smaller box, not even 8 pounds.... and shipping would be $45.

Needless to say, I'm sure I won't be having either of these people purchase these items for me, as the shipping would be considerably more than the cost of their items.

Just for kicks, I thought I'd check out how much it would cost me to ship a regular hidey house ~3-4 pounds, <12" box on all sides, and I came up with $27.35.  For a $10 item.  Ouch.

Went back, adjusted a few things, and I learned, I can ship anything under a pound (<12" box) for ~$11.  If I can get it under half a pound, it's "only" $9.15.  If I could somehow manage to get a package that weighed 1 ounce to Canada, it would be ~$6.55.  *eyes bug out*  I can't even express how ridiculous I find this, considering last year shipping was only slightly higher.

So....I actually posted this dilemma of mine on the forum, because it seems to have become completely ridiculous to ship anything out of country.  Heck, even a hammock can weigh maybe 3-4 ounces with packaging, and who's going to pay $8 to ship an $8.50 hammock?  Unlikely.  I know some people immediately jump on the UPS/FedEx bandwagon, but I even tried that -- both those carriers were even higher for these out-of-country packages.

So out came the thought of flat rate boxes.  Granted, 90% of the products I sell with any frequency (the hidey houses and the food being the best sellers) will not fit in them, but I thought, let me check.  Turns out, a DVD flat rate box (which has to be tiny tiny, think of the size of a DVD box) to Canada is $19.95.  A flat rate medium box is $40.95. 


I asked on the forum if people have any cheaper way to ship out of country, but I'm betting there's not one, and this is just how things will be.  It's kind of sad, though, considering I just bought a CD from Europe with $6-7 international shipping to the U.S., but a DVD flat rate box to Canada, which doesn't even have to cross an ocean, is ~$20. 

It's not like this is going to take away a ton of money in terms of orders that I won't get or anything of the sort, but I find this just a tad bit ridiculous.  So I had to share.