International shipping question

Email rec'd:

Hi Chris

i was thinking about doing another order but i believe the US postal have made some changes to their overseas deliveries and was wondering if this would make it a lot more expensive for you to send a parcel overseas. Therefore i was wondering if you could let me know what you currently charge for sending a parcel to the UK.

best wishes
[person in Scotland]

My labored reply:

Yes, the postal service in their Bushian obliviousness has done away with Book Rate and surface shipping, making overseas cultural exchange something only for the rich, like many other basics. Everything has to go First Class or Priority, best as I can see. This will, one should think, speed up deliveries, but it will make things cost more to send than they might actually be worth in the first place.
There are different ways to go with shipping. There are the flat rate Priority mailers that may hold one or two books. These cost $11.00 to send to the UK (and western Europe). First class mail international to the UK would be between $10 and $30 for 1 to 4 lbs (a light-weight book to three or four books depending on the weight of the books [1 pound = 453.59237 grams, rounding off to the fifth decimal place].) Larger shipments would go first-class M-bag which costs $31.35 for 11 lbs. with $2.85 per pound additional. As an example, I am sending a box to Sweden right now that contains eight heavy-ish books and 17 CDs that will cost (if my scale reads correctly, as it usually does, give or take a pound) $37.05 to send (14 lbs). The goods being sent total about $200 in value, so the postage amounts to 18 or 19% extra tacked on. I’m not sure how typical that is, but it doesn’t seem too atypical. There is a donut hole between 4 lbs and 11 lbs where it costs the same to send anything between those weights, so it is more cost-efficient to send enough to at least get the full 11-lbs worth--once you reach the 4 lb threshold. These costs do take away from the discounts I give, I know, but I should think that with the discount, if it is something you want, the increased postage cost shouldn’t be an absolute deterrant. And with the US dollar becoming increasingly worthless, maybe it isn’t such a bad deal after all, considering the supposedly expedited delivery.
(Here is where I was looking at the rates: http://pe.usps.gov/text/imm/fh_014.htm)