CD Distribution and Postal Costs

[chris23]

Quick question for those of you shipping CDs:

I'm based in the US, and the cost of shipping CDs overseas is roughly 16$ per disc these days. That's a bit crazy, given that I only sell the CDs for $10.

Most of my sales come from Europe. I'm wondering if you know of a trustworthy source who can ship CDs out of the EU--someone I can simply pass along shipping info to when I have a Bandcamp sale.

If you have any experience with this--or know of some leads I might be able to follow--I hope you'll post.

I'm aware of a manufacturer, 8Merch, who can produce, store, and ship CDs out of Europe. But I don't like their discs as much as another manufacturer, Monotype Pressing, who does not provide this service.

[Julio Di Benedetto]

Hi Chris,

I went through just the same experience and it was APK who suggested to me to get in touch with Dennis @ Databloem....https://databloem.com. I want to say Datableom is in Holland or maybe Belgium, cant recall.

About 4 years ago or so I sent some of my cd's which he put up on the Databloem website....they all sold. He sent me a PayPal of the balance minus the Databloem commission.....was a very good arrangement and it got the cd postage down to just a few euros more or less.

hope this helps.

   

[chris23]

Great suggestion. Thanks!

[chris23]

Brief update for anyone who is interested in this issue:

I decided to try 8Merch for my most recent release. The CDs were fantastic, and I suspect that whatever reservations I had about other discs they pressed (see above) were grounded in design choices made by the labels/artists rather than the manufacturer per se. The discs came out exactly as I expected (no color surprises or blemishes).

They're holding on to about 50 CDs and shipping them out of their warehouse in Poland. It costs approximately 9 USD to ship/warehouse them, which is about half the cost of shipping from the US to overseas. That cost includes VAT and registered mail. The discs are also packaged carefully, in a cardboard box that is inside a standard plastic mailer.  Once an order is placed on Bandcamp, I simply copy-and-paste the buyer's mailing address into an 8Merch webpage and the rest is taken care of. Nothing to pack. No custom forms to complete. No trip to the USPS office.

5/5. I will definitely use them again.

[Julio Di Benedetto]

Thanks for the update.....good to know that 8Merch is out there and doing quality work. 

I have had issues with a cd production out of Taiwan.  I had to have all the digipack covers reprinted here in the US.  They tried 2 times to correct it but could not get the colors right.