Hello fellow forum members! I’m here to ask for your help (once again!)
As it is clear, I live in Greece, meaning I’m a bit doomed when it comes to supplies (stationary, labels, even postcards). Although I find great online shops for everything all around Europe they most of the time not ship to Greece and if they do it costs usually more than the order (7euro for 100 stickers, 16euro shipment etc). Shipment to other countries is most times cheaper (same company sends to Japan for 9 euro and to French Polynesia for 13…). It seems it is not a matter of distance or territory.
So I was wondering if there are any volunteers in Netherlands, France and Germany to mediate between the shop and me (meaning the stuff will be sent already paid to them and they will forward them to me). I guess normal postage for 15 postcards would not reach the 19euros I was asked by an online shop to have them shipped to me (I find those prices outrageous and not worth the purchase). I can transfer the postage cost via paypal or arrange it via revolut etc.
Even vistaprint who has shops all around Europe needs one of the highest amounts in order to send here…
Thanks for listening to my rant, and if anyone is willing to help you can message me. I know it is hard during the pandemic but it is worth asking the community!
hey, i wouldn’t mind at all to help you with this. though tbh i don’t even know where i can send out a package. they closed most shops that were still open for mail stuff because people were upset that they couldn’t also buy a book (we’re in lockdown people are dumb).
aaaaanyway what i’m trying to say is yes send me a pm i’ll be happy to help you.
I also offer my help if needed. But keep in mind that we are not allowed to send any kind of goods as letters here in Germany. Everything beside documents must be sent in packages. This means it will be a minimum of 4,89 € for shipping from Germany to Greece.
Thank you all! It is a relief to see your responses… @Cassiopheia I trust it will be much cheaper than having 5 A4 papers of stickers been sent for 19euros!
The rules are the same in Netherlands, I guess it’s European legislation that we are not allowed to send ‘goods’ without a bar code for registration.
So just putting extra stamps for the weight cannot be done in this case since 2020.
No, governments have nothing to do with it, it’s pure greed, caused by the political mistake in the 1980s and 1990s to privatize vital infrastructure that previously was gvernment-owned. The official reason is that the latest version on the World Postal Treaty of the World Postal Union requires separation of documents (which don’t involve customs) and goods (which require customs involvement). While that seems like a governmental rule, it is not. The World Postal Union is not made up by government agencies (any more) but by the same greedy private postal companies who use this as a “reason” to drastically increase their prices. At least in Germany, the main aim of German Post is the private customer - commercial customers can use “Warenpost International” (goods post) with almost the same price as a regular letter (there may be a requirement to send a certain amount of Warenpost per month, I’m not sure).
Hi!
I am Greek and live in the Netherlands, and would be happy to help as well - even get stuff to you when I manage to visit, if we perhaps are in the same or nearby locations in Greece
What others have said might be true though: might be difficult to send bigger quantities of stationery in any other form than a package. But if it is not bulky and can fit in an envelope, e.g. some cards and sticker sheets, I believe it can be done.
