On shipping costs and how much to send

I’ve got this e-mail today from a paper swaper who told me she received a box of papers from someone new to paper swap which has cost the huge amount of $66 to send!!!

Although this is very generous and brought real joy, I think, it is time to talk about shipping costs.

In fact when I started the whole thing, I adviced just to use small letter (the normal ones) enevlopes to send it, because I wanted to make it affordable for everyone. But soon I realized, that people are much more generous than I thought and they nearly all send real big enevlopes (the one you could send a magazine in, we call it DIN A4 here in Germany) filled with stuff.

So soon this was the usual amount to send. We are the lucky ones in Germany, wherever in the world we‘ll send it to, it's € 3.50- 7. And that's ok. But shipping costs have risen badly these times, esp. in the UK, but also in Canada, Australia and the USA. They always have been high in France and the Netherlands and it's not getting better.

So here is my advice:

-          Please always „talk“ it over with your swap partner how much to send and be honest, if you can’t send a big envelope.

-          Quality over quantity! It’s not about sending as much as you can, but sending some real gems and things, that you think, she/he will like to use in her/his art.

-          Before sending it, go and check the envelope at your local post office and ask how much it will be. If it’s too much, go home and take some things out. Maybe sending two envelopes is cheaper? Check it out, sometimes it can be the case.

-          If you are not able to send out what you’ve packed due to unusual financial strains, please let me know. We’ll find a way, I promise!

And: I will put up some quick swaps in the future, which means only filling the normal letter envelope (and there is much more fitting into it than one realizes at first). It's also a good chance for those who are tight with time and material to join the fun.

Any questions? Suggestions? Please write to me or comment here! Thx!