For those of you interested...
Alec's bolt is on its way to its new home - I hope.
I have no idea what is going on with the postal service here in the States, but I feel like I just got out of an interrogation!
The shipping wasn't as cheap as I had hoped, but it was less than half of what ABP was going to charge. The total weight was 1.80 ounces, and the packet was 6" x 9". I asked if it would of been cheaper if I had used the 5" x 7.5" packet and he said "no".
The last package I shipped to the UK was just a few months ago, weighed almost a pound, was in a small box and only cost me about $12.00.
If I had used the International Express Mail, like ABP would of, the cost was going to be about - $38.50 - but it is shipping form the middle of the country and not the east coast so it woukd be slightly more. International 1st Class would of been about $23.50.
The Postal Clerck said it will probably take 2 to 3 weeks to get to Alec, but said it could hit the airport at the right time and get there faster.
In re the tracking number the clerk said "good luck with that". The USPS is notoriously bad when it comes to tracking numbers. I have all of my packages tracked and I'm lucky if half of them actually enter the system before it gets delivered. There are a couple of companies in the UK that no longer provide tracking numbers though.
Since Alec isn't "technically" buying it from me we were able to list it as a "gift/other" on the customs form. Here in the US, an auto is an "antique" once it's 30 years old, so it's listed as an "antique screw replacement" on the form.
The clerk said that the UK customs service is getting really bad when it comes to packages arriving from the US. So far I've had no issues with packages I've sent. He said it WILL BE scanned and if it looks funny to them they will open it. I collect WWI militaria, you should see some of the descriptions sellers have put on customs form when shipping to me!!
Also...his address... the kept putting it in the system and the system didn't like it. This isn't the first time either. Every time I ship to the UK this happens, the USPS system just doesn't like UK addresses!! I always worry a package won't arrive because of this, but haven't had one go missing yet.