First i thought i will have to ship to 260 or so different people. Now it looks more like its 2 hand full of target addresses only because 98% of the chips will go to burnin directly. I thought it will be spread way more. Maybe you should start receiving target addresses too. Its something that can be done beforehand and there are a good chunk of assemblers to chose from at the moment. (see my sig for a list). Of course no proofed miner concept yet. But better being prepared beforehand than having to wait later i guess.
Well, I hired someone to develop a web-site for address signed chip-claims and shipping address collection, which will be online by end of June. Now if it turns out that 95% of my orders are going to 3 major manufacturers, it will be a big project for a small purpose. But after the sleepless nights manually fixing wrong orders and explaining for the 10th time why not use MtGox addresses for sending coins, I decided it is a good investment.
One should consider that the chips are really tiny and could be shipped safely in an bubble envelope.
I sent 1 chip each with certified mail to germany for 2.18€. It has tracking and is ensured till 20€. The same international costs 2.80€ only. When i want higher insurance it costs 1.5€ per 100€ more insurance. Up to 5000€ possible. Pretty cheap i think and it includes insurance and tracking. Plus, the chips are really tiny... i could ship a lot chips in an envelope safely and its ensured. A packet wouldnt even be needed.
But if i have to use a packet to thailand for example the price for 35 cm x 25 cm x 15 cm weight: 0,25 kg would be 61€ with DHL. To USA 51€. Not cheap anymore and insured only till 500€ but with tracking.
Two issues here: a) I hope the final chips will arrive in some containment that is easily dividable - and not as loose parts in a box, which is a PITA to re-pack. b) should my batches arrive at the same time, I am considering driving to Germany and shipping chips from there as a viable alternative (given that majority of chips go to burnin worth the effort to significantly reduce shipping costs).
I'm glad that after the past weeks of uncertainty and doubt we can now deal this luxury problems of reducing expensive re-shipping costs
Yes, how to sign is the biggest problem in my groupbuy too. Its a bit less since i tried to explain it as carefully as possible in the first post but its still the biggest problem it seems.
Since i got contact with the support very fast i opened a second ticket to ask some questions about the shipment, including how the chips are delivered, the size of the trays/reels or tubes and how many chips are contained. I didnt get an answer yet but i hope support will answer soon. Would be one of the middle important questions.
Yes... i feel a lot better now that i got an answer from support at least so that the smaller problems can be addressed... ill be really happy when all is done well till the end result.