[Hallicrafters] USA postage to Australia? Microphone What the?

[manualman at juno.com]

He's shipping by USPS Priority Mail International (according to USPS
generally 6 to 10 days delivery).  Base price is $41.50; package can be
insured starting at $2.45; probably any additional difference is
handling(paypal/ebay fees, packaging materials, etc.). 

If he sent it by First Class International (regular box or very good
padded envelope) price is $16.75. According to USPS, no delivery time is
specified, which means it could be 10 days, 20 days, 30 days, etc. for
the package to reach you.  Also, no insurance can be applied, so if it's
lost or damaged, you're both out of luck.

The USPS postal calculator is here:
http://postcalc.usps.com/

Pete, wa2cwa

On Thu, 17 Apr 2014 12:00:39 +1000 "Peter VK6PM"
<peter_may at optusnet.com.au> writes:
> 
> 
>         Has anyone in the group got any theories on why is would 
> cost
> US$48.25 to send a normal sized microphone to Australia from the 
> USA?
> 
> I would have thought an item like this would be slipped in a padded
> post-it bag, shouldn't be anymore than $5>$10.
> 
> I've actually stopped buying from USA at the moment.
> 
> You should have seen what someone in the USA was charging to post a
> single crystal to VK land, another obvious rip-off.
> 
> I've emailed the seller to query the postage price, however I'm not
> expecting  a positive outcome, my experience in the past has been
> "that's the price, take it or leave it".
> 
>         The item is a Drake 1525EM DTMF microphone, the link is: 
>
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Vintage-Handheld-Microphone-by-DRAKE-Model-152
5EM-w-Keypad-/291093817626?ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:AU:3160#shpCntId
> 
>         I would send a screen grab of the Australian pricing, but I 
> know it
> won't get through the mailman.
> 
> It's just getting plain stupid!
> 
> Peter VK6PM