Maximum shipping rate for DVD's

[intaggar]

What is maximum shipping rates for DVD's from Canada to Canada and USA

[toby_le_pue · Accepted solution]

There is no max in Canada so it is whatever

the seller can get.

[femmefan1946]

The cheapest rate in Canada is Letter. But those items cannot be over 2cm thick and 500 grams. After that we move to Regular Parcel and that can be $10 or more for a 2.5cm and 501 gram DVD set.

[reallynicestamps]

In the USA there is a postal rate called Media Mail, which is very cheap and very slow.

Some years ago, competing with Amazon, eBay decided that "media" including discs and books, could only be shipped at Media Mail rates.

The maximum is $3.99 USD.

However, US sellers can also use Calculated Shipping, choosing other faster and more expensive services and charge more.

Canadian sellers have a conundrum. The vast majority of discs do go Media Mail and that is the competition. However, Canada Post has no media rate (they even took away the subsidized rate for Books for the Blind) and shipping anything to the USA from Canada is more expensive than shipping within the USA.

Most Canadian sellers take some time to calculate their actual costs and what kind of profit and markup they need. If you are selling, it would be well worth using Free Shipping to both Canada and the USA, by including the average cost of shipping in the asking price of the item. This also reduces slightly your shipping FVF.

[wlee08]

Even if it gets through the 2cm slot, they often hassle you about it not being "paper", (usually based on nothing more than an assumption about the contents) at which point it must be sent as a parcel. I've tried to argue with Canada Post about this strange procedure of employees guessing the contents but they couldn't give me a straight answer. I was once mailing a deck of cards to the USA, it got through the 2cm slot, but the employee said she didn't think it was a letter. I told her it's 100% paper, but she said it looked more like a parcel. Just ridiculous. Why couldn't a letter be written on 52 cards?
The price should depend only on the mass and the volume. Not on a guessing game.

[femmefan1946]

I've tried to argue with Canada Post about this strange procedure

Print your shipping labels at home*.

Or only buy postage stamps at the PO counter, and affix them at home.

Then either drop the item in the nearest mailbox or in the mail box outside the PO.

Don't talk to the clerks at all.

Problem solved.

*You'll need a digital metric scale. Canadian Tire has Starfrit ones that handle up to 5 kg and sell for about $20. And a tape measure, also metric, which are free at IKEA (try the meatballs!) or cost a loonie at the dollar store.