OT: Biblio International Consolidated Shipping Program

Apologies if this information is common knowledge but prior to this post, I found only two mentions on the GMD forum:
https://www.librarything.com/topic/321265#7187272
https://www.librarything.com/topic/152123#7435847
And as mentioned therein, fans of HP/ LEC based out of the UK/ EU and elsewhere across the Atlantic stand to save significant shipping fees on Biblio. Books tend to be cheapest in and around the geographical point of their origin, so the only impediment is shipping.

Biblio's Asendia program: https://www.biblio.com/faq_detail.php?faqid=422

Sellers in USA listed on Biblio can ship to international buyers at significantly cheaper rates (local USPS rate + Asendia's rate for that country); with the following exceptions:
* items priced ≥ $500 (or $5000? - both figures mentioned in the link above!)
* items weighing > 5lbs/ 2.27kg
* multi-volume booksets/ multiple packages
* expedited shipping
* Ascension Island, Bolivia, Falkland Islands, North Korea and Somalia

Eligible packages must be shipped to Asendia's consolidation center where Asendia will initiate onward tracked shipping and Biblio provides buyer protection similar to other market platforms. Buyers must select 'Standard Shipping' and sellers must ship from a US-address ONLY.

This shipping program has been in effect since Jan, 2019 and applied across the Biblio platform to all booksellers in the USA, though sellers can opt out. Is there a way to tell from a product listing if the seller is un/subscribed to the Asendia program?

While the eBay Global Shipping Program (GSP) includes 103 countries as per this list: https://www.ebay.com/help/global-shipping-program/default/global-shipping-progra...; the Biblio Asendia program allows shipments (from the US only) to any country - except the five mentioned above.

I order books from USA occasionally but was forced to pay exorbitant shipping charges especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. The only solution was mega booksellers or requesting sellers to check for better rates on 'parcel delivery comparison websites' like ParcelMonkey/ Parcel2GO/ Interparcel.

I recently contacted a seller on Abebooks and was asked to 'ship the book to Biblio and Biblio can forward it to you via Asendia program'. Till date I had never received this advice from any US-seller with listings on Biblio, so you can imagine my excitement!

In the past, I have received a parcel shipped via Asendia (not a Biblio purchase) and it was delivered by the local post office. It makes sense since Asendia is a joint venture by French La Poste and Swiss Post - both national postal carriers and part of the EMS global network.

I am sure many FSD members are already aware but to those who are not, I hope this information is useful. I also hope Abebooks follows suit!

I always make sure that a book I order is sold via Biblio. Then I can have it shipped using Asendia. It usually costs 25 USD to ship a book to Lithuania - a decent price.

I most often use Biblio. They have good customer service and there’s a discount program for about $25 USD that gives you 10% off all orders to a max of $25 per order.

Has anyone ordered multiple items - each weighing 5lbs, from the same seller on Biblio? Should the items be ordered separately to meet the International Shipping Program weight limit OR can a single order be placed and seller ships each item separately? There is a shipping discount on items subsequent to the first if ordered from the same seller in a single order but I am not sure if availing this discount would violate the 5lbs-weight limit.

Thanks for the info - I’ll give it a try. When ordering LEC books from US I usually have to wait to consolidate multiple packages using a forward service - if I get 3-4 books together I can maybe get away with ~$30/book. Of course, following that, there’s the standard customs charge and 5% tax on the total value. It’s a long and expensive journey.

>4 mr.philistine: I have always assumed that I need to place separate orders with the same seller to keep each one within the 5lbs limit.

That's also been the thinking from the few sellers I've spoken to when discussing which books can be ordered together.

That being said, I would love to be wrong about this! You could always send an enquiry to Biblio's customer service. In the past I've found them responsive (usually within 24 hours or so).

>5 bacchus.:
Which forwarding service do you use? I have been using Stackry and am not unhappy but certainly see room for improvement, including on price…

>7 GusLogan: I use shipit.to but like you I wouldn’t mind trying another. I had to pay a small subscription fee to have a tax free address though. I’ve heard positive feedback on pirateship and will probably give it a go sooner or later.

>8 bacchus.:
Thanks!

>7 GusLogan:

You asked someone else, but just in case: I'm using ColisExpat. Prices have risen quite a bit since Covid, but they're still better than direct shipping in most cases, especially if you can combine packages.

>6 GardenOfForkingPaths: Thank you, I decided to follow the same train of thought than risk losing the items. It is now well over 24hrs and am still awaiting a response from Biblio - I hope I have not unduly confused them!

Re. your comment on 'discussing which books can be ordered together', have you ordered more than one book in a single order? Multi-volume book sets are automatically opted out of the International Shipping Program, but I wonder if multiple items within the 5lbs-weight limit are permissible.

>11 mr.philistine: Yes, there's been no problem with multiple books from the same seller in one order as long as the total is under 5lbs. Most of the books I order from the US are LECs, so that weight limit is quickly used up. But, you can sometimes get away with a couple of the thinner LEC volumes together and several times I've ordered 2 heritage press, or even 3 small fine press volumes in one order.

A couple of times, I've ordered 2 volume LEC sets with no problem too, so I'm not sure where the multi-volume exclusion kicks in! My guess is that they are talking about book sets which they think will almost certainly be over 5lbs rather than having any objection to multi-volume sets per se.

You may already know about this but Alibris has an inexpensive international shipping programme too, and they don't seem to have any stated weight limit. I've ordered some quite heavy 2-book sets through them with no problem. There are some drawbacks to Alibris though, and I usually go with Biblio unless weight is an issue.

>12 GardenOfForkingPaths: Appreciate your detailed response. I will also try to combine multiple items in future orders.

Yes, I have tried Alibris once. But apart from the untracked ISAL shipping service, what other drawbacks do you refer to?

>13 mr.philistine: Yes, lack of tracking is the main drawback, but also longer shipping times, and the fact that at some point on the journey to the UK the box always seems to end up in one of those huge mailing bags, which lend themselves to being thrown around.

Even though there's usually a discount coupon available for Alibris, and the international shipping rate is only £2.99, I've generally found that the price of the same book from the same seller will be higher on Alibris than on Biblio or Abe. I'm not sure if this is because Alibris adds a mark-up or if sellers set a higher price to cover Alibris' fees. So, if we're under 5lbs, and when all is factored in, including the Bibliophiles Club discount, it often works out only a little more expensive to ship via Biblio and I am happy to pay that to have full tracking.

That being said, when the book is over 5lbs, Alibris is still a viable option, especially if you have a seller who will package well. I recently received the Lewis & Clark LEC set via Alibris, which is probably well over 8lbs once packaged. Albeit, the books and slipcase did get dinged during shipping!

Otherwise, and assuming eBay isn't an option, the only way to reduce costs on heavier orders is by using a parcel forwarding company as discussed by >7 GusLogan: >8 bacchus.: >10 SF-72: and that's usually the way I go if it's a valuable order and the weight is over 5lbs. Parcel forwarding also opens the door for shopping with sellers who only list on Abe (if direct shipping is prohibitively expensive).

>14 GardenOfForkingPaths:

In the case of Abebooks and Biblio I don't have another choice these days, since they require booksellers to register for a German waste tax, which most book sellers understandably don't do. Why should they, I'm already paying for my waste removal and this is supposed to only affect businesses that sell a lot here (amazon and the like), not small book sellers who only ship a few books each year to Germany. So if I want to buy something there, I need to have my books shipped to a forwarding service since that tax was introduced.

>15 SF-72: That sucks. A shame that things have become more complex for book buyers and booksellers alike.

>6 GardenOfForkingPaths: You are right regarding placing separate orders for multiple items - each item weighing ~5lbs.

I got the following response after 7 days (168 hrs) from Biblio Support Team...

We would recommend creating two orders. It can cause issues if it goes altogether.

>17 mr.philistine: Thanks for the update. Ah well, I guess it's what we suspected.

Has anyone else noticed a sharp rise in shipping costs approx. $42, up from $26?

>19 mr.philistine:

Not there, but definitely with my forwarding service. It looks like shipping fees have risen very sharply yet again.