herbwench wrote: If anyone does track her down please let me know. In the meantime, I can just hold on to the books that were sent my way. There aren't that many of them so they don't take up too much space.
Good plan! And yeah, definitely let's not advertise to collect more just in case she never resurfaces. That's nice of you to hang on to them though.
And I don't think we have to move this, but I might put a link over to this thread, starting with herbwench's post over in the old thread so that there's a bit more of a status on the butterfly-noir m-bag.... I'll go do that now while I'm thinking of it.
Can you please add my name to the list as doing an m-bag for veganmedusa? The rates to NZ are the same as to AU so $5 per pound (or use $3/paperback and $5/hardcover) will work for me. Thanks!
chambejd wrote: Can you please add my name to the list as doing an m-bag for veganmedusa? The rates to NZ are the same as to AU so $5 per pound (or use $3/paperback and $5/hardcover) will work for me. Thanks!
There you go babe, you're in! Thanks for doing this for Vegan!
The USPS has released new "large" flat rate priority boxes. I haven't experimented, but these might be a good deal for Australia/NZ m-bags:
Large box --> 12 x 12 x 5-1/2 --> $49.95 to anywhere other than Canada/Mexico (which are $29.95)
The "regular" box comes in a couple of versions:
11" X 8.5" X 5.5" OR 11-7/8" x 3-3/8" x 13-5/8" ($37; $23 to Canada/Mexico)
I haven't experimented with putting books in these, but my hunch is that it's hard to get the 17 lbs. you'd need to make it more cost efficient than the m-bag to the UK. But maybe for Australia where the m-bag rate is more expensive.
For the UK, a 20 lb. m-bag would cost $57. A 17 lb. is $48.45 -- pretty close to the rate for the flat rate box. And the m-bag is charged per pound, so as soon as you're over 17, you're in the flat rate box territory.
For Australia/NZ, a 20 lb. m-bag would cost a whopping $90. Just 11 lbs. costs $49.50 -- the minimum m-bag cost.
So if 11 lbs or more of books can be crammed into the large flat rate box, it would be a good way to go since it can be sent for $49.95...
As a follow up, I did some experimenting with the new "large" box.
Using only large hardbacks/big ARCs, I was able to fit about 8-9 books in the box, weighing in between 10 and 11 lbs. Since for the m-bag, you have to count extra weight for the box and packing materials, this looks like a winner for the expensive countries.
It gets even better with a more mixed selection. Using a mix of trade and mass-market paperbacks, I easily fit about 20 books in the box -- about 13.5 lbs. Of the 20, I think about 6-7 were MM, the rest trade paperbacks. I might have been able to squeeze in one or two more books with careful arranging.
If I had all MM, I might have been able to fill the box enough to get it up to 17 lbs. for the UK...but I actually don't have that many MM paperbacks around and didn't want to go dragging them from all my shelves.
Anyway, I think those who are preparing m-bags for Australia/NZ might want to pick up one of the "large" boxes just to see. It would definitely be easier in terms of dealing with the post office if you didn't have to try to explain the m-bag to them and could just hand over a flat rate box and know the postage in advance. Also, given the shape of the box, it looked like there would almost definitely be a "wasted" corner in the priority mail box, and since there aren't the same restrictions on what can be in there, if someone wanted to send a non-book extra, there might be room at no extra cost.
Do you still have to do the customs form? *laugh*
(I really do hate my PO)
Cuz I'm thinking $57 for the mbag or $87 for a large and medium... might be worth it for me to toss in the extra myself and just do it. LOL... 'sides I'm always begging off from having to send International so this is kind of my way to give back for being such a snot. LOL
EDIT: Yeah, still gotta do the customs thing... hmmm... will have to get a box and see what I can figure out
Thanks for doing this for Vegan! 