Hi there,
Before I finalize and upload my first post from Israel (including a description of the process of actually getting in here, which was quite painful), here’s a short update with regards to the book, as well as the charity I decided on.
Shipping
Orders are still accepted (until December 31) via PayPal; the printing prices of each edition (colour, black & white) were already posted in earlier posts—so the only thing remaining is the shipping price.
Shipping made by online retailers (such as Amazon) typically costs much less than what you or I would pay at the post office, for the simple reason of volume. Companies that ship thousands of packages per day are (justifiably) entitled for huge discounts that the typical individual sender could only dream of.
I did my best to come up with a shipping plan that makes sense and saves money. For example:
- Shipping all European orders at once, in one big box, to someone in Europe and have them ship orders from there (expecting that multiple shipments within Europe would cost much less than individual shipments from outside Europe into the continent); then doing the same for the USA;
- Shipping from Canada;
- Shipping from the USA (as I am moving to Vancouver, Seattle is pretty much around the corner);
- Using courier companies (UPS, FedEx, DHL) instead of national mail (Canada Post or USPS).
After running through all scenarios (thanks to Hadar Rymer for helping out with figuring out USPS prices), I reached the following conclusion for getting the best prices overall:
- Books sent to Canada, will be sent from Canada. I will sign & ship the books during my 3-4 days stay in Ontario, in mid-January. Shipping costs within Canada vary depending on distance; the worst case scenario (shipping from Ontario to Vancouver) costs $15.40; best case (say, Waterloo to Toronto) costs around $10. Therefore, shipping in Canada would be between $12-17 including packaging; if you live in Vancouver, shipping would be $0 for you as I can bring it with me when I move there.
- Books sent to the USA or Europe, will be sent from the USA. I will sign & ship the books as soon as I move to the west coast, on the third week of January. All books will be shipped from Seattle.
The USPS website is a bit convoluted but, from what I could see, I should be able to ship one copy of the book for around $15, in USA and internationally—perhaps a few dollars more.
If you wanna take your own time to calculate shipping prices, here are the details you’d need:
- USPS’ (United States Postal Service) website: http://www.usps.com
- Canada Post’s website: http://www.canadapost.ca
- Book’s measurements—
- Length: 28cm (11”)
- Width: 21.6cm (8.5”)
- Depth (thickness): 3.1cm (1.2”)
- Weight: 1.568kg (~3.5lbs)
In any case, whatever payment you make over PayPal and is not being used for shipping, will go to the charity, which leads me to the next part of this post.
Charity
And so, after a long process of being approved, I can finally reveal the name of the charity I picked for this project.
The SickKids Foundation (http://www.sickkidsfoundation.com) is a Canadian foundation which sets its goal at improving the lives of children in Canada, as well as around the world. Since 1972, the foundation has been raising funds on behalf of The Hospital for Sick Children (http://www.sickkids.ca) located in Toronto, Canada.
My first acquaintance with the SickKids Foundation took place a few years ago. My girlfriend at that time used to attend the University of Waterloo on a bio-informatics program (sort of a combination of biology, chemistry and computer science), and spent one term working as a co-op at The Hospital for Sick Children. The department she used to work for was, and still is, almost exclusively funded by donations; overall, the vast majority of the foundation’s funding comes from fundraisings.
Having said that, it was my own personal experience that made me pick the SickKids Foundation. I happen to have lost a 6 years old cousin to cancer, about 18 years ago (amazing how time flies). It took him a couple of years of battling with cancer before he gave up, and it’s hard to describe how painful the process was for our entire family.
Still, amidst rivers of sorrow and despair, there were islands of joy and happiness as well. Bringing a smile upon a sick child’s face means a lot to everyone who’s involved in the child’s life. Frankly, I can’t think of too many purposes as worthy as this one.
So… There you go. You should have all the information you need in order to decide on the number of books you wish to get (someone here actually asked for three (!) copies), the edition (colour / black & white), as well as the amount of money you’re interested in donating to the SickKids Foundation.
If you have any questions, please let me know.
Will go ahead to finalize my first blog post about my current visit home…
Isaac
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