Buy your Australian books while you are there!
Jan 25th, 2008 by Nick
A couple of weeks ago, I’m shopping for souvenirs at the Freycinet National Park gift shop. I’m not buying much because my big suitcase is back in Melbourne and I’m extremely pressed for space in my small bag and backpack due to Virgin Blue’s weight limits.
I find a book that I really liked: a pictorial of Tasmania by an Australian travel publishing company called Steve Parish Publishing. It’s on the expensive side, and it’s bulky. So, I figure that since it’s a book and it’s probably overpriced in a gift shop, I’ll be able to find it in Sydney for the same price, or at least online from Amazon when I get home.
No such luck. Zero for two in Sydney, and none of the US booksellers seem to carry it online. I ended up ordering it this morning from one of the an Australian chains I visited (Dymocks). It ended up costing me another A$20, as the book was $10 cheaper but the shipping via DHL was A$30. Another bookseller had it for even cheaper because they were discounting it 10% and also willing to refund the general sales tax, but wanted A$49 for postal shipping.
Moral of the story: the global economy is not quite there yet… if you see something you like while you’re on vacation, buy it!
Nick,
On your last day, you probably could have shipped a box of souvenirs and dirty clothes to yourself for less than $30. The shipping is often reasonable - it’s the “and handling” that gets you.
I always mean to do something like this when I go on vacation, and never remember to actually do it.
K-)
Actually, it was much more expensive than that to ship back to the US. IIRC, a ten pound box was about $80. But what I should have done was ship a box from Launceston to my hotel in Sydney on that Thursday - I was just worried that Australia Post might have some of the same issues as the USPS and the box would take a full week to get there and I’d be home already.