Expensive S&H. Some magic shops give fair prices for S&H. But others want to keep it high especially when a sell is going on.

Isn't all the business like that?

International shipping is deadly!

I often buy from an online magic dealer, they have free shipping over xx ammount of purchase, and whenever they have a special discount, free shipping over xx amount is not valid... well that's business. money need to be made.

(disclaimler - I don't work for these guys or get any benefit from what I'm about to say)
I recently started using usamail1.com to get a USA address. I have everything shipped there, and they consolidate packaging and reshipping if I ask them to do so. So I can order from several online vendors, wait for it all to arrive, ask them to repack it into a single package and send it to my overseas address.

I signed up with a promo, it was $15 for three months. I think the promo is over, but they run them all the time.

That's interesting. And they're safe? You've gotten all your goods?

I've noticed some of my overseas customers are using these specialty shipping companies. Seems like it is working out well for them and saving them a lot of money.

So far they've been good. I've had several different items shipped there from different vendors. When everything I expected arrived, I had them consolidate all the packages and send it to me as a single shipment. It took about as long as expected and I saved on shipping. Of course it was probably not as fast as shipping directly to the final destination, but shipping to the USA can often be less complicated than shipping overseas.

MJM have free shipping and handling to Canada which is why I buy from them.

I wait for the free shipping specials that Hank Lee and others sometimes have, then order. Obviously, some of the "cheaper" dealers offset costs by hefty postage.

Why pay for shipping? Penguin has free shipping, return customer discount and low prices.

I made an order last Tuesday and it was here Thursday.