The recovery out of the COVID crisis has been a rough one so far, with lots of challenges for all of us. One of the biggest problems for J-List has been the unfortunate rise in the price of oil and thus jet fuel, which caused shipping companies like UPS and the Japanese post office to raise shipping rates. Today’s good news is: that we’ve been working with UPS to offer a great new shipping service with rates that are lower than both DHL and EMS!
How Does the New J-List x UPS Shipping Work?
First, I’d like to say how in awe I am of companies like Japan Post (the now-privatized company that operates the postal system in Japan) and DHL. Japan Post was so efficient, that J-List didn’t miss a single day of shipping packages out in the aftermath of the terrible 3.11.11 earthquake and tsunamis despite the massive damage. And DHL helped J-List immensely by allowing products to reach our customers even in the darkest days of the pandemic.
There are two reasons shipping from Japan was disrupted during the crisis. First, nearly all passenger flights stopped during the pandemic, which forced Japan Post to ship EMS shipping, because it rents the (usually cheap) cargo space inside those airplanes for shipping…but suddenly there were too few airplanes flying for this. Then the ever-higher moves in the worldwide price of oil caused DHL (and EMS, when shipping finally resumed) to raise their rates.
Happily, the new UPS shipping helps a lot by adding a cheaper yet equally fast option for some customers. Please note that the UPS new shipping option
- is currently for the U.S. only
- maxes out at 10 kg
- is unable to ship to APO/FPO addresses (though P.O. boxes are okay).
Are you not inside the U.S.? Don’t worry, because we’ve dropped our DHL shipping rates for you!
How International Shipping Works
You might sometimes be surprised at how some packages’ shipping is quite reasonable while others are expensive despite not being all that heavy. This is because some shippers (Japan Post) charge by weight only, while others (DHL, UPS) consider the size and circumference of the package in addition to its weight. So a relatively heavy box of doujinshi or some onaholes or lotion might be best shipped with one shipping company, but a large 1/4 scale figure shipped with another.
J-List will always bend over backward to provide the best shipping choices available for our customers, so you hopefully can pick the shipping that works for you. Sometimes we can’t ship to certain countries with one method or another due to COVID rules or issues related to Russia’s war on Ukraine, but we always do our best for you!
Thanks for reading this post on the new cheaper UPS shipping option from J-List! Start browsing our new and restocked products here!
J-List is super happy to announce a tie-up with UPS, which is aggressively expanding its support for shipping from Japan. While the new lower shipping rates only support the U.S. at present, we hope to expand that eventually. And for all customers outside the U.S., we’re happy to announce even lower DHL rates for all orders! Browse and make an order now!
