Our goal since opening Squidco has been to sell music and not to sell shipping and handling service. Many of our competitors nearly double their profit on the items they sell by adding a shipping surcharge. As collectors ourselves we find that practice understandable but antithetical to the idea of getting the music to our customers so that they can experiment and take chances. For that reason we've shouldered some of the cost of the CDs that our customers buy, a practice that we're not willing to stop.

This October Squidco will turn 5, during which time we've offered free US shipping and extremely reasonable international shipping despite two Postal rate increases. On May 14, 2007, the Post Office will once again raise and streamline their shipping rates. As much as we hate to do it, we're also streamlining our rates, and standardizing our shipping charges.

After much discussion we've come up with what we think is an equitable shipping policy given the new Postal rates. All customers will now have fixed shipping rates, whether requesting US Media Mail, US 1st Class, or international shipping. All shipping rates will have a maximum cost, which is an incentive to order more from us and save on shipping.

Here are the new rates, which are described in full at our Squidco Policy page.

US Media Mail the maximum shipping cost will be $2.00, which is $1 each for the first two items, then no additional shipping cost for additional items. This means that if you buy 1 item your shipping will be $1.00, 2 items $2.00, and 3 or more items are still $2.00, so you could buy 20 CDs from our store and pay only $2 in shipping. Canadian Customers: Items that list an additional shipping cost for Canadian customers will have that additional shipping cost manually added to the total cost of their order.

US 1st Class mail the maximum shipping cost will be $6.00, which is $2 each for the first two items, then $1 each for the next two items. This means that if you buy 1 item your shipping will be $2.00; 2 items $4.00, 3 items will be $5.00, 4 items $6, and more than 4 items will still be $6,so you could buy 20 CDs from our store and pay only $6 in shipping. Items that list an additional shipping cost for 1st Class or Canadian customers will have that additional shipping cost manually added to the total cost of their order.

International mail has been reduced for single item shipment to $3.00, the second item will also be $3.00, and the next three items will be $1 each until a maximum of $9.00 shipping. This applies to all international destinations. This means that 1 item will cost $3.00, 2 items $6.00, 3 items $7.00, 4 items $8.00, 5 items $9.00, and more than 5 items will still be $9.00, so you could buy 20 CDs from our store and still pay only $9.00 in shipping. Items that list an additional shipping cost for international customers will have that additional shipping cost manually added to the total cost of their order.

Registered Mail Service and Insured Mail require additional shipping cost. Of course any item marked with a "Shipping Note" may require additional shipping above the flat rates listed above.

We hope these rates make sense - they're far cheaper than any other store we're familiar with, and all rate have an incentive to buy and experiment more. As always we welcome your feedback on these new rates or on any aspect of our service.