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Hope this is the right thread to post.

Im trying to order lots and LOTS of art supplies from dickblick.com. I was recommended to them from members of this site. You pro's should know them for their inks, Liquitex mediums (flowaid) and squeezy paint bottles.

Problem is their postage is like a "million" dollars (give or take a few cents). My order is just under $100US. The postage is between $50-60US. I live in Australia but still the sites I buy from are usually about 15US postage or under.

Despite the good products Im tempted to pee on the order and not bother with them.

Is this normal to be charged so much?

Is there another website you know of where I could go to to buy art supplies?

I get alot of my brushs and stuff from a site called Cheap Joe's, I'm not sure what there international shipping rates are.

Alternitvly, I recently set foot into a Michel's craft store (not sure if you have them in Austrialia) and they had a large selection of acrylics and brushes so you may want to try a local big box craft store, because I was plesantly suprised. I found alot of stuff to make sceneray out of to.

Im familiar with the art stores here. We have nothing like the US unfortunately.

I just wanted some good inks and even more so the flowaid which I cant seem to get here. Blink has some popular mediums which a lot of people here use.

Darn postage.

I would shop around at some other sites. While the prices might be slightly more expensive, you might save enough in shipping to make it worthwhile.

You could move....lol

There are always very good alternatives to the US brands. Royal Gold i believe makes brushes where you are. They are high quality acrylic brushes. Just be sure they are made of quality hairs and made for acrylics and you should be good.

What brands other than that are carried there?

I have found that if US companies, (and ebay sellers) are shipping within the US their postage is very cheap. As soon as you ask them to cross a border, the postage goes through the roof.

I don't know if this is a peculiarity of the US postal system, or they just hate the rest of the world.

One thing I would suggest though is to contact the actual manufacturers of the products you are looking for and ask them for local retailers.

If your primary need is the flow aid, i know eckersleys has some of it, comes in 300ml tubes that are orange, usually with the acrilyics or primer.

Dont listen to me, i didnt read it correctly im sorry. Inks im not sure about. You could make your own. Using matte medium, paint, and a drop of alcohol.

I believe DB uses UPS for larger orders. UPS is astronomical when it comes to overseas shipping.

I know when I order they use Fedex. You could always email and see if they will ship at a cheaper method.

I don't know why there is such a discrepancy with international (to Oz) shipping between UPS and FedEx - I mean, they use the SAME aircraft to get stuff here (FedEx and UPS share a fleet).

Over here, it's the reverse. Fedex charge more and UPS less. UPS pays out less on insurance jobs also (used to work for their operation here.)

Eckersleys (or similar large stationery/art suppliers ) should have stuff similar to what you are after if not the same stuff (just different brandings).

I found a fix for this shipping issue.

Wait for one of those deals to come to your email (if you register with such sites, they send you codes to save on buying products from the site).

Purchase your stuff, enter a code and this will reduce the cost by a %. I did this with blink which saved me about $22US. So, in my mind, thats half my shipping. Im pretty happy about that.

Its normal, stuff from them tends to be heavy, especially if you are ordering serious amounts of mediums, flo-aids yada yada.

I ordered from them and had a fairly hefty shipping charge too, remember though, its not minis, big box, big weight, big price!