standard int'l shipping

[tratrahar]

Does standard int'l shipping go to the post office or directly to your home?

[reallynicestamps]

Standard International Shipping is a meaningless term.

It is used by sellers who do not want to tie themselves down to a particular service but are selling to many countries. For example, I would send a book priced at $100 to the UK or the Netherlands as Small Packet Air, and not worry that the service is neither tracked nor insured.

The same book to Italy or Israel, would use a tracked service based on my own experience with postal systems and customers.

The term is used by eBay for the use of sellers who are listing on a site that is not in their own country. Mostly seen on eBaydotCOM, where many foreign sellers list, it allows the seller to give a firm shipping rate although we cannot use the default USPS services and rates.

But go to the post office or directly to your home?

Either or both. If the seller is using the postal system (and some use couriers), the postie will knock if he has a parcel. If there is no answer, he leaves a delivery slip in your mailbox. You take the slip to the PO indicated for pickup.

You will need photo ID with your address.

If the item is valued over $20 CDN, expect to pay duty, sales tax and a service fee at the PO counter. You might be charged these on your doorstep by the postie. If the seller uses a courier you WILL be charged these on your doorstep.

If the US seller is using the Global Shipping Program, these charges are part of what you pay, before the seller ships.