How to ship lenses from GERMANY abroad cheaply

kds315* · Expire: 2021-03-09

There is a hardly know shipping method from Germany abroad, which actually is rather low cost, has tracking and additional insurance could be added to it (up to EUR3.000 in theory at 2% fees - and this is a hidden insurance, hint hint):

Have it sent as a REGISTERED MAXIBRIEF (MAXIBRIEF EINSCHREIBEN in German) (maxi brief means "large letter") which can be up to 2 Kilos in weight and Length + Height+ Depth girdle has to be smaller that 90 centimeters (which is quite a lot actually).

THIS IS IDEAL FOR SHIPPING LENSES!!! Much much less cost than using a DHL parcel.

dickb · Joined: 04 Apr 2008 Posts: 821

A German seller I just dealt with wouldn't use this service as he was convinced that there was a 5cm hight limit, as with the Maxibrief national. This is not the case, as stated in this pdf of the Deutsche Post:

https://www.deutschepost.de/content/dam/dpag/images/B_b/Briefe_ins_Ausland/pdf/handlingbroschuere_brief_international_2016.pdf#page=4

aoleg · Joined: 22 Feb 2008 Posts: 1389 Location: Berlin, DE

The only thing is, in order to ship it this way one has to actually go to the post office and wait in the line, whereas shipping a DHL Paket is a matter of dropping it off at the closest Paketshop. The difference in time can be enormous (for me it can be up to an hour), so whether or not the savings are really worth it is up to you to decide.

Marek