Shipping a box of books to South Africa?

[donnap99]

A student here says that one of her classmates, also from South Africa, who graduated last year, somehow shipped her books back home for "next to nothing."  I can find no record of us paying for the shipment, so I have no idea how it was done.  I'm guessing it will be 50 pounds in box ~ 12x15x18.  I plugged in 50 pounds to the USPS web page, and it came back with $83!  

Any ideas?

Thanks!

Donna  (still barefoot under my desk!)



DonnaP99

[mathwhizchick]

In the US, you can "ship" books by Greyhound bus for very low cost (lower than USPS or UPS).  They basically ride in the luggage hold of the bus.  Since they go when there is room in the hold, you can't really specify a certain day when they need to arrive, but they will arrive.  
Is there something similar with airlines or ship cargo holds that might work the same way?  Maybe her friend had a friend of a friend, etc, who cut her a deal.
mwc

[movinonup]

I haven't tried UPS for international shipping yet, but I would guess they'd be much more reasonable than the $83 quote you got from the postal service.  

Movinonup

[elkiedee]

I was recently sent 6 mass market paperback books from the US for $6.25 to the UK. They still arrived in just a week. I know your main postal service has something called media mail - see if UPS has something similar for printed materials such as books. I don't know how urgently the books need to get there, as my other experience of international shipping took a bit longer, like a few weeks, and I really didn't expect Kate's Mystery Books to be so cheap or fast.

Luci