Looks like the shipping costs issue came up again.  Shipping costs were the reason why I decided not to participate again this year.

I'm in Australia and last time had to ship to the US.  From memory the shipping costs worked out to be something like USD$40-45.  This was mainly due to some RPG books adding a lot of weight to the package.

I was fortunate in that Bert the Troll, who received the MMT before me lives in the same city.  Since he didn't have to pay any shipping costs (he was able to just hand me the box) he agreed to chip in about half the postage.  Without that it would have been very expensive for me (and even with it the postage was still significant).

I think in future MMT you keep the contents to minis or just limit the traders to the US.  RPG books just add too much weight and cost too much to ship internationally.  This is especially expensive when the next person in line doesn't actually want the books either and has to pay the shipping costs to send it on again.

Olaf the Stout

I don't think the box size matters too much.  When you post items you are paying based on their weight.

Having said that if you limit the size of the box it will definitely limit what items you can physically fit into the box.

I found that hardcover books were the quickest way to add a lot of weight to the package.  Maybe if you excluded them from the MMT (at least when shipping internationally) it might make shipping a bit cheaper.

Olaf the Stout

Really.

Were you willing to help out with the $85 in shipping charges to send it by air? (After I sent the non-desired items to the US for a further $20.) The parcel as sent to me would have cost over $120 to ship to Sweden. It still cost me over $60 to participate in the MMT -- definitely a net loss on my part. There's a ton of stuff I'd have preferred to spend that money on. 

The other choices were to renege on the trade or arbitrarily decide that I would change the order of the MMT. Instead, I honoured the spirit (and the rules) of the MMT, with the ony drawback to the rest of the particpants being a delay. Maybe you could think about the choices I could have made and think a little before offering criticism.

I DID follow through. I DID ship it on. I DID take a loss. So what's your beef? There are no rules stipulating that it should be airmail (although I too would have preferred to send it that way).

Take a closer look. Go back a page or two in this thread, and I DID ask for help/suggestions. All I got from most people was, "Ouch, that's a lot. Too bad." Where were you then? Or the rest that you are so sure would help out?

Signing up, please.

hung4treason (Washington State, USA)