Hi everyone,

I am based in Australia and I recently visited an online store in the USA that sells bumper caps, drop targets.. a range of pinball machine parts. I popped two items into my basket (four pop bumper caps and a set of five plastic drop targets). The total of these items came to roughly $55USD. The seller calculated international shipping per item: $13.11USD for bumper caps and $21.83 for drop targets. Despite the fact that this amounts to roughly $35USD to ship items weighing about 100 grams ($350 per kg!), I'm wondering why it is not possible for a retailer to have a fixed price for shipping up to a certain weight? I tried adding two more sets of pop bumper caps to my order, and the shipping went up to a whopping $100USD. The seller has advised that they provide tracking, which is great however I'd like to understand if this is how USPS, FedEx and other companies calculate shipping costs. I recently had an airbrush shipped from China and the shipping cost was $30 AUD. At the rates for those two items I mentioned earlier, I'd be paying $160 AUD for 4 bumper caps and 5 drop targets to be shipped, which seems just a little excessive.