Today I ordered an item from across the island continent that I live.
The item I ordered is rather bulky, but not that heavy. Just two normal microphone stands to replace my ageing budget ones.
Shipping in Australia get expensive really quickly as parcel size goes up, and often stuff shipped across Australia standard costs more than shipping from the US Expedited. So I thought nothing of it as I spent almost 15% of the item price on shipping.
I ordered this before lunch and when I got back I was strangely surprised that it has been picked from the seller and was already on the way within the space of two hours! Even when I post things into the actual post office myself, it doesn't come up in the system for at least a day or two, taking another day or two to get moving.
This would be almost on par with an order from China which arrived on my doorstep on Friday which I ordered on Monday of the same week.
Anyone else have strangely crazy speedy shipping stories to share?
I bought a SOIC8 clip (to reprogram Nangj 105c drivers) on aliexpress, the seller took 3 days to ship it (quite normal for sellers on aliexpress with free shipping) and I received it 10 days after ordering it. That let a week for the shipping, that never happened to me with chinese order, really surprised.
Get stuff all the time from Amazon the day after I place order, sometimes two days. They have multiple shipping warehouses throughout the US and one is about 70 miles from me.
Solarforce took less than two weeks. From what Ive read about China, thats a miracle. I have other stuff coming fro China, and it was ordered before the SF stuff, still waiting.
Solarforce shipping is incredible. Iirc my order just before christmas made it to me in under 10 days.
Had a china seller on ebay ship a light in 4 days.
Probably the most shocking was getting HP ink cartridges from 600 miles away, delivered via next day shipping… For free. Shipped an hour after ordered and ended up taking 14 hours iirc.
I made an order at MiniInTheBox, mostly empty P60 drop-ins and o-rings, a few lenses, on Friday, Jan. 17, shipping $.99. Surprisingly, they sent it DHL Friday night. Delivery attempted Monday morning, on a national holiday! A huge snowstorm (borderline blizzard) prevented deliveries Tuesday, delivered late Wednesday afternoon.
My fastest international order by registered airmail (HKP) was from FastTech last year. It included a Soshine charger amongst other things, which I subsequently reviewed. I placed the order on Tuesday, 9th April; was shipped Friday 12th; received on the Monday, 15th April. Four days!!!
Possibly only matched by EMS from Japan several years ago (I remember it was around seven days).
Only this week, I received some Sinkpads; unregistered post from the US took only one week! Really nice surprise. I’ve missed these shipping times from the US.
Lastly, just before Christmas, too late for mainland post, I ordered some silver mirror baubles and warm white LED fairy lights. After I placed the order I thought they may not arrive until after Christmas. I was too ill with flu to go out shopping for last minute decorations. They arrived on Sunday 22nd! I’ve never taken a delivery before on a Sunday, let alone right before Christmas!
I have gotten packages from China post to arrive in 7 days and Singapore post to arrive in 9 days, but since the battery fiasco, most everything takes 14 to 21 days.
If I email the dealer and tell them what I want, to make sure they have them and paypal them the money after they give me the price, it always takes less time than if I order through the website. I believe that is because the reps I email to, take the order directly and see to it that it gets sent out the same day, where internet orders take longer due to going through "normal channels".
I hardly ever order off an international website any more. I always contact the dealer first and it works much better for me.
A huge snowstorm (borderline blizzard) prevented deliveries Tuesday, delivered late Wednesday afternoon. 
