O Canada

I thought about rhyming a post about shipping costs to Canada's national anthem but found I didn't have it in me. Wow, international shipping prices are ridiculous.  And this one's only going to Canada.  I've had three international sales through etsy- two to Canada and one to England.  This one was a little larger sized than my usual stuff, but I was still amazed by the cost-  USPS international first class was $23.45.  That was the cheapest I could find.  I added a little for covering the box and packing material, so ended up charging $25.00. 

An international sale requires some communication with the customer because I don't include set rates for countries other than the U.S. in my shipping profile.  I ask the customer to contact me with his/her city or postal code so I can find an accurate rate.  Plus side of this is creating a connection with the customer.  Down side is the time lags between communications due to time zone differences, and having a life away from the computer. In our communications I learned that the wall hanger above was meant for a belated mother's day gift.  When my customer received my message with the shipping cost I calculated she was shocked by the shipping price, too. She wrote back saying she would go shopping that evening and if she didn't find anything she would purchase the wall hanger.  I told her to let me know and I'd reserve the listing for her.  I also said I'd take a little off the purchase price since the shipping is so expensive.  Normally it sells for $40.00 and I told her I'd lower it to $35.00.  Maybe I shouldn't do that, but I feel guilty charging that much for shipping.  Next day I got the go ahead to reserve the listing.  Nice to know that my item won out over the shopping trip.  I suppose sweetening the price helped, too.