Expect to Pay Out the Ear for Transatlantic Shipping

I don't buy a lot of imported British merchandise, so I never knew the cost of shipping for transatlantic purchases. Nor had I fully realized the exchange-rate between the British pound and the US dollar.

A couple weeks ago, my brother bought a Radiohead tee-shirt from the band's online store (based in England of course). That brought home the relative worthlessness of the USD, as the shirt's 15-pound British price tag translated to about 30 USD.

Last week, I pre-ordered the May 5 issue of British music magazine NME to get a free copy of Coldplay's new single "Violet Hill." The magazine itself cost only 1.87 British pounds -- roughly 5 USD -- but the total came out to 8.10 pounds. That's 6.23 -- more than 10 bucks -- in shipping costs!

It'll be worth it once I spin that "7 vinyl on my record player. But, like any self-respecting consumer, I still had to whine a little.