Russian parcel forwarder SPSR USA offers a no sales tax address in Delaware allowing customers from Russia to avoid state sales tax completely.
SPSR USA uses SPSR Express for shipping parcels from the USA to Russia. SPSR has offices in 6000 locations in Russia allowing you to avoid using Russian Post and USPS completely.
Shipito, a package forwarding company, is opening a new warehouse in Minden, Nevada. The shipping cost will be the same as in California warehouses. Nevada is a smaller state than California so there is better probability that sales tax will be not charged. Only sellers with physical presence in Nevada have to charge a sales tax.
Another benefit is a bigger mailbox. This is the biggest warehouse of Shipito, so it is offering 4 times the size of California mailbox. You can store 12 36″x17″x17″ boxes in Nevada.
Also free package storage for virtual mailbox is up to 6 months instead of 90 days.
The new address will be available to clients with status (Diamond, Gold, Silver) first and immediately after that to all customers.
Shipito freight forwarder has finally added QIWI payment method for customers in Russia. If you want to use this method, simply select QIWI on the payment form when adding your deposit.
Maximum transaction is limited to $400, and deposit added using QIWI does not count towards the monthly spending limit (so if you run out of your monthly limit, you can use QIWI to add funds to your deposit and ship more)!
Shipito opened a warehouse in Austria. For start, it is available to all clients with Virtual Mailbox and account verified to at least 50%. They will lift this restriction in few weeks. Consolidation is available, shipping rates can be found in the shipping calculator.
Now that Shipito has a warehouse in Europe, I’ll be more willing to try some European private shopping clubs that don’t ship outside the European Union. Although prices are usually higher in EU than in the USA, some items are not sold in the USA and some are to heavy to ship them from the USA.
Update (February 08, 2013)
The Austrian warehouse is available to all customers, and the shelves are filling up already.
All customers are able to use the European address provided in their account for purchases all over Europe (UK, Germany, France, Austria, etc.). Nearly every European store (like Tommy Hilfiger, ebay.de, Amazon.de, Esprit, H&M, etc.) is shipping to the warehouse.
The location provides all services available (content photos, special requests, consolidations, etc.).
Shipping methods available at start: Austrian Postal Service and FedEx. For Austrian Post only real weight is used (not DIM weight).
I’m continuing to post detailed fee structure for sending my packages from the United States of America to Russia. The fees of both Shipito and USPS grow every year, so you may find it useful to compare the figures from my previous post for 2010-2011 and 2012. This article will be updated each time I send a new package from the USA to Russia via Shipito throughout 2013.
Shipito fee structure 2013
Total per 1 kg of gross weight: $32.53
Total Shipito fees (not including USPS shipping, insurance and Shipito monthly fee): $28.81
TOTAL: $159.4
Shipito service plan: Old Virtual Mailbox ($100 / year, available for old customers only)
Total per 1 kg of gross weight: $27.87
Total Shipito fees (not including USPS shipping, insurance and Shipito monthly fee): $31.88
TOTAL: $180.87
Shipito service plan: Old Virtual Mailbox ($100 / year, available for old customers only)
Do you use Shipito or any other shipping forwarder? If you do, are you satisfied with its fees and service? How much did it cost you to send you package?
Shipito package forwarder started offering free photos of packages to its customers. I’ve never ordered any pictures in the past, althouth the delivery+damage insurance required photos. Here is my first package gallery:
The first photo is with all my packages before consolidation:
Most other photos show the contents of the packages before consolidation:
The following photo shows all the content of the box after consolidating packages:
The final photo shows the box with a tape on it:
It is interesting that my box after consolidation had a 90-day free storage. I had to sent all my previous packages in 3 days. And it would cost me about $50 to add yet another package to the condolidated box. And now I can see how much free space I have in the box, so I can add more stuff into it. Hope this was not a mistake, but a new feature.
Now that USPS prohibits international delivery of lithium batteries and electronics with lithium, Li-ion, Li-pol batteries, many customers from the Ukraine will face problems delivering electronics from the US. The problem is that when you use courier services like DHL, Fedex, UPS you will need to pay for customs clearance in some cases, even if you don’t exceed the limit of 200 EUR / month. Plus when you use courier services the limit includes the shipping cots. Luckily package forwarders (also known as mail forwarders, freight forwarders, parcel forwarders, shipping forwarders) started shipping packages from the USA to Europe in containers. Many package forwarders shipping to Russia won’t work for the Ukraine when shipping lithium batteries and electronics due to different logistics. But there are package forwarders that will work for the Ukraine. And their prices are often lower compared to USPS Priority Mail or USPS Express Mail International.
Do you know any other package forwarders that allows to deliver lithium batteries and electronics with lithium, Li-ion, Li-pol batteries to the Ukraine? If you don’t live in the Ukraine, do you experience similar problems with your package forwarder?
Now that USPS prohibits international delivery of lithium batteries and electronics with lithium, Li-ion, Li-pol batteries, many customers from Russia will face problems delivering electronics. The problem is that courier services like DHL, Fedex, UPS are still facing problems with Russia customs, so they are hardly used by Russians for shipping from the USA to Russia. But luckily package forwarders (also known as mail forwarders, freight forwarders, parcel forwarders, shipping forwarders) started shipping packages from the USA to Europe in containers. And even when major American package forwarders fail to offer any decent shipping alternative for customers from Russia, other major package forwarders do ship electronics. And it is even cheaper than using USPS Priority Mail or USPS Express Mail International.
Besides the above mentioned package forwarders, you may use Meest-America which is very popular among Ukrainian customers. Meest delivers packages by sea and air freight. You may also use package forwarders that ship by Meest such as RusBid and BosMix. The latter companies are well known in the Ukraine, but there is no much feedback about them from customers from Russia.
Do you know any other package forwarders that allows to deliver lithium batteries and electronics with lithium, Li-ion, Li-pol batteries to Russia? If you don’t live in Russia, do you experience similar problems with your package forwarder?
Shipito has offered a new way to send packages with lithium batteries and electronics for its customers from Russia. Shipito offers Polonez Parcel for customers from Russia now. Polonez Parcel packages are shipped by Container to Poland and then given to the postal service for delivery in Russia.
Polonez Parcel limitations:
Polonez Parcel is very expensive for Russia. For example, I have compared the cost of shipping via USPS, Shipito Airmail and Polonez parcel for my two packages sent in 2012 via USPS Express Mail International:
Shipito Airmail vs. USPS Express Mail vs. Polonez (29 lbs, 37″x19″x14″)
Shipito Airmail vs. USPS Express Mail vs. Polonez (36.80 lbs, 36″x18″x17″)
Please note that Shipito allows to deliver lithium batteries and electronics with lithium, Li-ion, Li-pol batteries through Airmail Priority and Airmail Express shipping methods:
See the Shipito Calculator for shipping options and calculating postage for your parcel.
I’m continuing to post my expenses on sending packages from USA to Russian Federation. The fees of both Shipito and USPS grow every year, so you may find it useful to compare the figures from my previous post for 2010-2011. This article will be updated each time I send a package.
Shipito fee structure
As you can see I haven’t received any shipping discounts this year, because I don’t have the Gold or even Silver status anymore. Plus Shipito added 2 additional hidden charges:
Not to mention that they charge the bank fee of 4.3%. Yet again it is not mentioned on the “Our services & prices” page.
If you want to calculate USPS shipping costs only, you can use USPS Shipping Calculator for Russia
USPS Postage International Price Calculator: Russia
Update (09/14/2012)
Since August 2012 there is no more warehouse insurance on Shipito. And you can choose whether you want to insure your package or not. Plus Shipito offers a 10% discount for USPS Express Mail for customers from Russia from 09/13/2012 to 11/15/2012. So it costed me less to send my last packages:
Alternative shipping methods offered by Shipito for delivering this package to Russia:
Total per 1 kg of gross weight: $22.16
Total Shipito fees (not including USPS shipping, insurance and Shipito monthly fee): $45.55
TOTAL: $195.04
Shipito service plan: Old Virtual Mailbox ($100 / year, available for old customers only)
Do you use Shipito or any other shipping forwarder? If you do, are you satisfied with its fees and service? How much did it cost you to send you package?
