where to buy patagonia gear (with reasonable international shipping)

Hi Ashley,
Due to licencing agreements or something most places won't send Patagonia gear to Australia. You can buy direct from Patagonia, you need to phone them up, not sure of their shipping costs, but it shouldn't be more than 80 bucks! If you find somewhere good that will ship let me know!!

Sure, Brett, will do. It would be rather good for us Aussies (and other internationals) to compile a list of stores which do a good deal on shipping.

As for the licensing thing, that seems to vary quite a lot. One store won't ship Patagonia but another will, and it's the same for a number of the big brands. I've found that it's generally the bigger stores (REI etc) that have shipping restrictions though. The smaller stores generally don't, and I think you're more likely to get a good deal on shipping (ie. 'at cost').

Some of the price variation in shipping may also be due to the shipping service used. By far the cheapest seems to be USPS priority mail international.

One other point I'd make is that not all stores say on their website that they will ship internationally. I ordered two packs from Boulder Mountaineering (on sale) after emailing them and asking them if they would ship to Australia. They shipped via USPS and it cost around US$50 for the two packs.

I've seen quite a few R1 Flashs on EBay recently – shipping would be reasonable via that route. Houdini's are harder to come by though.

Ashley (and anybody else living outside the US):

I've posted similar before, and folks here know that I am a frequent poster…

I grew up overseas and remember well the frustration (and sometimes impossibility) of buying American products from overseas.

For all fellow hikers residing overseas… if you can't buy American brands in your area, or can't get them shipped to your locale within reason, I'll be glad to help out.

If you PM me your order, I can order the merchandise for you, have them shipped first to me, then ship over to you — marking the package as "gift" which helps to minimize the chance of your having to pay customs duty. You can pay me via Paypal — denominated in US dollars. I will only charge you the actual cost, plus California sales tax if applicable, plus actual shipping, and finally an additional 5% on top to account for Paypal's cut. Should still come out cheaper, but you should do the math and compare on your own.

My three caveats to the above:

1. Reasonable quantity for personal/family use ONLY. Also, reasonable size and weight, please. I will not ship anything by the dozens, nor will I ship bikes or kayaks — you get the drift.

2. I use U.S. post office air mail as my experience is that they are the cheapest and they seem to have the lowest occurence for incurring customs duties. Once shipped and out of my hands, I obviouly cannot guarantee that the items will arrive intact — or at all. If this is a concern, factor in extra payment for post office insurance.

3. If you Paypal me in your currency instead of US dollars, be advised to tack on another 2% foreign currency exchange on top of the 5% fee mentioned above. Again, this is Paypal's fee, not mine. I just don't want to lose money while providing a free courtesy service to fellow hikers. I had to learn this the hard way.

Any questions, feel free to PM me. Hope this helps.

Ben that's a very generous offer, thanks. If I can't find a place that will ship them to me for a reasonable price I'll certainly be in contact. I've emailed Patagonia's online store to see what they would charge for shipping, so will wait to hear back from them first.

Thanks again for the offer, very much appreciated!

Ashley,

I've had about six orders sent from Patagonia to Melbourne. Their shipping rates are excellent. About half the time I've paid less than the actual cost of shipping, and the other half, slightly more. The most I've ever paid is about $6.00 more than the actual cost.

But here's the real winner! Patagonia sizes are sometimes a bit weird, especially in there women's gear. Any time I've had a problem with sizes, I've rung back and explained the problem. They have then sent replacement items at no shipping charge. Occasionally this has included two new sizes, and one time two extra items I wanted to order. These get billed to your credit card, and then credited when you return the wrong sized item. Their customer service is absolutely superb.

Add to this the prices on their sales, and the fact that we're buying winter gear at the start of winter and vice versa, and I'm really, really hoping no one starts distributing here again! (Check out the Web Specials button)

The only downside to ordering is that I've always chosen to call them, rather than email (Don't think you can Web-order to Australia) which generally takes at least 20min to do an order of 6-8 items. Have all your item numbers, colours and sizes printed out before you call. A calling card or Skype are good for this.

Rod

Ashley:

You're welcome. Reading Rod's post, it sounds like ordering direct from Patagonia is a good way to go. But if not, just let me know.

"For all fellow hikers residing overseas… if you can't buy American brands in your area, or can't get them shipped to your locale within reason, I'll be glad to help out."

Ben

That's an extremely kind offer … thank you.

Arapiles

I'll second Arapiles' appreciation. Thank you Ben.

Gentlemen:

You're welcome.

Miguel — you have made offers to us about getting Japanese (e.g. MontBell) stuff — so the above is simply a case of hikers enabling, er, I mean helping each other — and the 'generosity' is hardly unique! :)

Arapiles — you never know when I might be lusting after some gear made in the land of Oz.

Ben

In the unlikely event that there's ever any gear in Australia that you want, just let me know.

Arapiles

Thanks for the offer, Arapiles! :)

You can do what all the australians do and use a fowarding service
try http://www.shopaholiques.com , you may need to access it through answer.com
It is all explained on the site and you can get all the gear that the USPS will allow size wise
UPS shipping is a fortune, and stores charge a premium as was noted above.
i hope this was helpful to you
Miss E

Google "patagoina outlet store"