Hi,

There is an occasional problem importing items here to the UK
from the States. Although the current GBP to US Dollar exchange
rate makes prices quite attractive, the postage often charged
doesn't. Recently I was quoted $64 on a single $19 integrated
circuit. The reason for this being that the supplier would only
send items overseas by what amounts to a courier services and not
by the good old US Mail. I think this is because they are tied in
to contracts with certain companies to handle their outgoings and
cannot deviate from them. Perhaps it is also this that limits some
of them to the lower 48. The postal service on the other hand may
absorb part of the cost in delivering items to Hawaii and the like
whereas the private companies may not.


Cheers - Joe