Outrageous Shipping Costs

I was recently looking at the site www.wholesalechess.com and was very interested in buying a few miscellaneous items + a chess clock. It was all well and good until I went to the checkout and realised that it was going to cost me $48 minimum to have it shipped to Australia!!

I was wondering if anyone knows a good, reasonably priced chess store in Australia (online or offline it doesn't really matter I'm sure there will be one in Brisbane) for a wide range of products?

You can't find anything in Australia by using a search engine? I did in about 3 seconds by typing "Australian Chess Store" into Google's search engine. Sorry, I didn't poke around any further to see which ones are reasonable on P+H (if any)

Having just gone to buy a chess.com T-shirt I can confirm this is ridiculous. $60 to send a $22 item of clothing to the UK, uninsured, untracked and no guaranteed delivery time? Such a shame because I'd really like to buy one!

In addition to shipping cost, you may also need to check for any tax/tariff your country may levy on the imported goods. I recently bought a set of chessmen from an online store based in USA. The chessmen cost around $70. The shipping cost was pricey (around $70), but I wanted the chessmen so bad that I still purchased them anyway. I don't usually buy things online, and that was my first. The item arrived in great condition, but I had to pay an extra $70 for import tax at the local custom office. So in total, I spent about $210 for a $70 item. :(

http://www.chessworld.com.au/ are based in Melbourne, and when I dropped in the sales person actually understood the importance of sizing the board squares correctly for the pieces. I don't know about shipping charges, but from work-related shipping stuff around the country, it will be cheaper than from overseas!

Unfortunately (as usual!) the number of tournament sized boards were limited. I preferred the one of the boards with 6cm squares rather than the 5.5cm squares you'll doubtless be familiar with from vinyl boards.

Quality -- I'm not a woodworker so don't know how to describe the construction well. I believe I've seen better boards, but usually at 2+ times the cost, and typically with too small squares.

My 2c. Follow up or ignore as you wish; I have no connection (not even a customer at the moment) with the shop.

Most Australian suppliers seem to have the same products; clearly there are one or two distributors supplying most of the retail shops.

Good luck! I'm hunting a board (or maybe a table ...) myself. Having taken the plunge and bought some pieces (not here yet) I'll wait until I can see them and be confident of their colours before proceeding further.

I noticed something that is the "sign of the times" in shipping. I ordered a Dubrovnik set from CB and a folding board with bag from HOS on Friday. Where are they now?

CB - CHANDIGARH IN, NEW DELHI IN, DUBAI CITY AE, ROISSY CHARLES DE GAULLE CEDEX FR, and it arrived at MEMPHIS TN very early this morning...

HOS - MADISON AL, NASHVILLE TN, in transit to TEXARKANA AR...

This is crazy! CB shipping is FREE, and despite coming from thousands of miles away, is only one day behind HOS (which was $16+ for Priority Mail or $19+ for Fedex Ground!), with HOS arriving on Tuesday and CB arriving on Wednesday! If I were a nationalistic male, it would make me feel absolutely impotent! Or, I would just say it would make me feel barren...

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