Shipping a box to Israel ? - Think Again!

Since my visit to Israel last summer I have been accummulating things in a box that I wanted to send to my cousins, such as: My favorite coffee, jelly beans, a computer program for the kids, and lots of Hershey Chocolate Kisses, which I know they like.

First you have to find a box, it should be something sturdy. I found a box from a case of wine. That was just about the right size, maybe a little too big, but definitely sturdy.

After months of collecting and planning, I was ready to ship. I had to call Israel to get the address, but today was going to be the day, of that I was determined. Bought shipping tape last night, labeled the box and all ready to go.

I took the box to a UPS store. I remembered it as a Mailboxs place, but whatever, they have a scale, they can ship. First thing they told me is that you can't ship anything in a box from wine. Ever. I had two options, one was to buy a box from them, the other was to wrap the box in brown paper. I chose to wrap my sturdy box in brown paper, but when they found out the box was going to Israel, they dissuaded me from that because they said the paper "wouldn't make it that far." So, I bought a smaller box from them for $3.50.

We opened the box, repacked everything. Fit nicely. Now how much does it cost to ship this box. Weight 12 lbs. Well via UPS it would cost either $236 or $136 dollars, depending on if I wanted it there tomorrow or not. If I took it to the post office I could ship it Priority Mail for $76. Well, I decided not to ship UPS and take my chances with US Parcel Post, which I knew was cheaper.

So we drove down the street to the post office and I already had the customs form from the UPS store. I get up to the front of the line and I am told that as of May 14, 2007 there is no more parcel post and the cheapest (and only) way to ship anything to Israel is Priority mail, which will cost $76. However, the lady says, we have a small box that is flat fee. This means whatever you can fit in it, you can ship for $37. Everything these days goes by air, no boats or ships involved.

Well, I decided to go for the small box. I took the box back to my car, opened the purchased UPS box and repacked most of the things into the smaller US Priority mail box and returned to the post office, where the box now weighed 9 lbs. I filled out about 7 forms and showed ID and paid the lady and my box was on it's way. Should be there in 6-10 days - approximately.

Anyway, here's the zen question of the day - "Why is it called SHIPPING, if you can't ever put it on a SHIP?"