pigeon post records

[ikel89]

This posts is to help with international shipping in general, useful for but not limited to secret santa exhanges. If you have questions about secret santa gift exchange specifically, try our FAQThe wisdom of this post is built on communal experience, and I encourage you to keep on contributing. I will keep the main body of this post updated as you

Comments

[ragnarok_08]

Neat post!!

[hamsterwoman]

The dodginess of my CP3’s cover is only rivalled by what’s beneath it, which is, ok, fair, but let’s avoid that for better books :P

I wonder what the heck happened that time, but that's good to keep in mind. hm. I'm guessing the bubble wrap would keep water from most other things, but I do always pack books on the bottom for packing stability, so it wouldn't have in that case...

So far all US mail shipped without tracking numbers arrived to Russia, so fingers crossed the luck holds.

This is definitely the conclusion based on all my experiences.

Also, US has the same divide between parcels <4 lb (best off shipping First Class -- unless your contents are small enough to fit in a Flat Rate Small box, which is, like, the size of a trade paperback) and >4 lb (best off shipping Priority Mail International -- either Medium Flat Rate or in your own box; which is cheaper will depend on the exact weight, but pretty comparable until ~6 lb). Priority International is marginally faster, I think. Also, 4lb is the point where you switch from

[ikel89]

Before the CP3 package of Quality Lit, I don't think any other one got wet (either that, or my memory is vaguer than i think :') - and that even I think happened on Russian leg of the journey - I think the paper was somewhat recently ruined by the looks of it, and it was mostly the wrapping that got destroyed. Of all the books only CP3 got a bit soggy and tattered, and even that I mostly fixed by press-drying and all :) I am just thinking in future if possible books can be put into uhm - stuff like that ziplock baggies you know? To help prevent this nuisance damage. Still can be put at the bottom of the package for stability imo

[ikel89]

Anechka! At the bright hour of 1AM in the blessed day where I was consecutively deprived of electricity, gas, and now water and heating, I had a brilliant idea :D At his point in life, I can't quite keep up in my head all the track record of santa matchings, and I can't come up with a good way to arrange the records in excel, so could I maybe borrow your brain for it? Can you play around excel to show me how best to arrange a matrix of how people matched over years? As senders and recipients?

<33

[hamsterwoman]

I might have some ideas! I can't think of a particularly elegant way, but depending on how repeatable the group of participants is, I would either set it up as a square grid of senders vs recipients, or keep track of individual people and sender/recipient for each year. This is hard to explain in words, so I mocked up a Google spreadsheet here with the two ideas.

I think the first way makes it easier to see combinations that haven't happened yet, the second way makes it easier to see if you want to set up sender-recipient reversals across the years. You can also add a column for country, preference where to ship, etc. in the second way.

Dunno if this is helpful?

And I hope you've gotten all of your utilities back, wtf...

[rinkafushi]

Shipping to doitsu

[ikel89]

sankyou for sharing the fruits of your labour! updated the list with your hard-won adovaisu :D

[rinkafushi]

yw @ your response

uuuuuugh @ that gif

[rinkafushi]

Oh btw Päckchen goes up to 2kg, after that you always have to ship as the more expensive Paket (which should be around 30-ish euros when going outside EU or something).

[sephystabbity]

I AM STILL VERY CROSS ABOUT THAT TIME MY PACKAGE TO CANADA DIDN’T DELIVER :<

I keep an everlasting hope that Canada Pigeons will, one day, when I am sixty, deliver it to me :((( Seriously, regardless of how I rag on them, CP is usually reliable when it comes to mail, if somewhat lethargic...idk what happened this time :(

Oh that reminds, I still haven't mailed off your postcards oh my god!!! Actually...now that we know Georgia Pigeons can deliver small parcels, I'll just put it as part of your holiday parcel <3

[ikel89]

I sure hope it does! But preferrably before you're 60 :') It had some edible stuff I brought you from travels and a pile of art supplies, so nothing, like, irreplaceable and unique, but also it's annoying that it got lost in the void *shakes fist at pigeons* Oh well, I guess Geopigeons will have to work twice as hard now :D

And aw! Whichever shape/form, I'd be happy to see it <3 :3

Thank you for the pigeon wisdom! Will update the post :D

[rinkafushi]

I want to edit my reply for sending from Germany, now that I'm definitely older and questionably smarter! :'D (Also, for shipping to, you could remove my dumb assumption that DHL belongs to German post. The colour scheme fooled me! D': They are safe to ship with, however.)

Your cheapest option when shipping from Germany is as "Brief International" - cheaper than "Päckchen" and way cheaper than "Paket" (exceptions are maybe if you're shipping within the EU).

"Maxibrief" let's you send a package (sides up to A+B+C = 90cm) and up to 1kg or 2kg. The former costs 7 €, the second 17 €. You can even add a tracking number for just a few Euros more.