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Shipping Information

Here's what you need to know:

The online PayPal shopping cart collects shipping fees based on shipping weights and destination.

There are some special situations where the shopping cart will not collect the correct fee.

Save money on shipping: Tell me when you need to receive your order!  On many items I can refund part of your shipping fee by taking advantage of cheaper shipping rates for slower services.

PayPal is a third-party online money transfer service that I use because it is safe and cost effective.  But the PayPal shopping cart I use for online orders is not perfect, and does not allow for all desired permutations of shipping fees for certain combinations of merchandise or destinations.

In the latter part of 2007, I changed the shipping fee schedule on the PayPal shopping cart to one based on shipping weights and destination.  This is a major improvement over the old schedule, based on price breaks with no variability for destination, but it is not perfect.  Listed below are some special situations where the shopping cart will not collect the correct fee.  When it collects too little, I will email you an invoice for the balance, when it collects too much, I will refund the excess.  My purpose is to charge you a fee that is as low as I can manage yet recovers my costs (at least on average), including cost of the container, tape, stuffing, USPS postage/UPS shipping fees, and time spent for unusually difficult to pack items.

Special shipping situations:

Ordering rolled wall maps or charts at the same time as other items: To get the correct fee, you need to order rolled items separately.  Typically, all wall maps are shipped rolled, and the description specifically states when this is the case.  There are a few that come to me pre-folded, and if a map is folded, that is also always noted in the description.  (Raised relief maps, though a kind of wall map, are rigid and are always shipped flat.)  You can order as many rolled wall maps you like as part of the same order, but there are very few other kinds of items that can be shipped in the same package (which is either a cylindrical tube, or a triangular tube such as those supplied by USPS).  In order to recover shipping costs, I require separate shipping fees for separate packaging.  In the rare case where you have ordered something I can pack in the same container as the rolled maps, I will consolidate your separate orders and refund excess shipping fees.  If your order totals $200.00 or more, I will happily waive separate order requirements, and subsidize part of your shipping costs out of profit.  For other orders, shipping costs for rolled maps are too high and profits too low to do this.

Shipping refunds for slower rates: Many items on the website now have drop-down menus to choose between two shipping speeds.  Be sure to make your choice before adding the item to the shopping cart; otherwise, you'll have to remove it then add it again with your intended choice.  If you don't make a choice, whichever option is displayed when you click the "Add to Cart" button will be the choice that is transmitted to me.  The shopping cart automatically collects the higher rate, and you will pay that higher rate at checkout.  It is only when I process your order that I refund any excess amount (should you choose a cheaper method).  The refund will be processed any time from minutes after you order to 48 hours later (in rare cases longer, if I'm out of town).  You should also be aware that the time estimates provided when you check-out on our PayPal shopping cart are always for the faster shipping times, even when you have chosen a slower option.

Shipping refunds for selected weight classes: The PayPal shopping cart is currently limited to five weight ranges.  Under this system, I have to include under the same weight range weights that have significantly different actual shipping costs—especially now that higher fuel prices have led to the Postal Service and UPS charging much more for deliveries going more than a few states away.  To save you a bit of money, if your item(s) total in the 0.81-1.0 pound range, or in the 2.01-3.0 pound range, you will get a refund of part of the shipping fee, according to the schedule on the Order Form page (if the excess is $1.00 or more).

Media Mail option: Most books on the website have a cheaper Media Mail option.  Media Mail usually takes 4 to 10 days, sometimes longer; within Arizona it usually takes 1 to 5 days (it should take no more than two, but I've known the Postal Service send Media Mail out-of-state, to Denver, Colorado even though the destination was only a hundred miles away, and this can slow it down.)  Media Mail is a special US Postal Service rate that for the purposes of this website, applies to books only.  Maps are not eligible unless bound in the form of an atlas, and an atlas is a book, not a map per se.  If you order books and request Media Mail, but also order items not eligible for Media Mail, I will interpret that as a request for the cheapest rate.  Since it is often more expensive to split the order and send part of it Media Mail and the rest by some other means, you will probably not get a lower rate.  Media Mail is not available for orders sent to Canada or elsewhere outside the US.

Shipments to Arizona: Mindbird Maps & Books is in of Arizona, and any methods of shipping will get to Arizona addresses about as fast as any other.  The default shipping rate collected for lightweight items totaling 0.8 pounds (13 ounces) or less is First Class Mail.  First Class usually takes just one day in transit within Arizona, the same as Priority, but could take two days.  This being the case, if the item has a drop-down menu selection, I ignore your selection and send the item the cheapest way.  If you really, really need the item as soon as possible, give me a call during store hours and place a phone order, and request Priority shipping.  I will then let you know what the shipping charges will be for next day service.

Shipments to remote parts of Alaska and Hawai'i: If the total shipping weight of the items you ordered is over 2.0 pounds, the shopping cart may not collect enough to cover the extra expense.  For Hawai'i, the shopping cart rates will work for urban addresses of O'ahu, but not for the other islands.  For Alaska, the shopping cart rates will work for Fairbanks, Anchorage, and cities and towns near Anchorage and the more northern parts of the Kenai Peninsula; the rest of Alaska (even the capital, Juneau!) is considered remote.  If you are wanting something sent to a remote address in Alaska or Hawai'i, email me for a shipping quote.

Shipments to Canada: There are some kinds of items I don't ship to Canada, namely rolled wall maps, raised relief maps, and anything published in Canada.  The shopping cart will not prevent you from ordering these things; however, if you do, I will refund and cancel your order.  Also, if you are ordering any item that has a shipping speed option, you can ignore this, since all orders to Canada go by air (for lightweight items) or by UPS Ground Service (for heavier weights).  The shipping fees to Canada also cover the extra time I need to spend on completing customs forms.  Your payment does not cover any taxes, duties, or fees imposed on the import by the Canadian or provincial government.  You must pay them yourself.

Shipments outside the US and Canada: There are a limited number of countries I ship to, basically, western and most of central Europe, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Australia, and New Zealand.  The PayPal shopping cart will let you place your order to countries I do not ship to, but you will know this is the case because it will charge you a $500.00 default shipping fee.  If anyone actually completed an order and let their credit card be charged at this rate, I would refund and cancel the order.  Even to countries I do ship to, I will not fill orders for rolled wall maps which have a shorter dimension of over 24 inches, nor any but the smallest raised relief maps.  I also will not ship anything published in Europe back to Europe, nor anything else back to its region of origin.

Shipping weights: For the benefit of the very curious who like to know about such details: The shipping weights provided with each item description on the website are solely for the purpose of calculating a fair shipping fee.  While the "shipping weight" is approximately the weight of one of the items plus packaging, it is not necessarily the actual weight of your package.  The shipping weights for items which require packaging that is more expensive than average (such as the large boxes used for raised relief maps and the long sturdy mailing tubes used for large wall maps) may be set at a higher amount so that the shipping rate table will collect enough to reimburse me for the extra costs.  The PayPal shopping cart allows me to set only five weight classes, though I'd really rather have seven.  But I've managed to come up with a shipping table for each region of the country that for the most part manages to avoid huge jumps in shipping fees from weight level to weight level.

Tell me your timeline!

If you are unsure what shipping speed is best for you, help me to help you!  Communicate to me how fast you need the item, and I may be able to refund part of the default shipping fee if I can get it to you in time at a lower rate.

To do this, when you check out with the PayPal shopping cart, type in the comments or remarks box:
"I want to have the order by _______" (fill in a date).  But the shopping cart will not prompt you—just remember to communicate your needs!

If you forget to do this, immediately email me and tell me your needs: "I just placed an order for two road maps to be sent to Mary Jones and need to receive it by May 30th."  No need to provide a detailed explanation or an order number—keep it simple!

See the How to Order page for further details and offline ordering options.



Original content copyright © Lee Dittmann of Mindbird Maps & Books.
Images may be copyright © by the creator of the items depicted.
Essential ordering details, including phone, fax, mail, and online options, shipping fees and delivery times, returns, special orders, privacy policy, and more are described on the How to Order page.