# Time to mail a package via Royal \[British\] ground mail **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 17, 2004, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-mail-a-package-via-royal-british-ground-mail/245601 "2004-05-17T14:11:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2004, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-mail-a-package-via-royal-british-ground-mail/245601/1 "2004-05-17T14:11:20Z")
How long would a package take to get from, say, London to middle America? I don’t know where the seller is, but the package is being sent on Royal ground mail, standard mail. Its a small package, not too heavy or anything; its smaller than a Harry Potter book, certainly. ---
**Author:** ![Martiju](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e8c25b/32.png) [@Martiju](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martiju)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2004, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-mail-a-package-via-royal-british-ground-mail/245601/2 "2004-05-17T14:13:54Z")
A small package from the UK normally takes between a week and 10 days to get to the US. More than two weeks and there’s a problem. J ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2004, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-mail-a-package-via-royal-british-ground-mail/245601/3 "2004-05-17T14:24:04Z")
According to [www.royalmail.com](http://www.royalmail.com): > [@](#): > > We aim to deliver Surface mail within two weeks to Western Europe, four weeks to Eastern Europe, and eight weeks to the rest of the world. Since the USA is part of ‘the rest of the world’ in this definition, it could take eight weeks or more (the figures quoted are their _intention_). I’ve sent a few small ebay items to the USA by airmail ‘small packets’ - it takes a week or so and is actually surprisingly inexpensive. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2004, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-mail-a-package-via-royal-british-ground-mail/245601/4 "2004-05-17T14:41:14Z")
I’ve mailed things from the US East Coast to the London area several times. If I send them air mail, it takes less than a week. If I send them “surface”, I’ve had them take 3-4 weeks. These were boxes just slightly larger than HP/Order of the Phoenix. /hijack - I ordered HP/OP from [amazon.co.uk](http://amazon.co.uk) w/o paying for air mail, and it arrived just about 5 days after the book was released. Then again, I believe [amazon.co.uk](http://amazon.co.uk) may have “sprung” for upgraded postage. ---
**Author:** ![Martiju](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e8c25b/32.png) [@Martiju](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martiju)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2004, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-mail-a-package-via-royal-british-ground-mail/245601/5 "2004-05-17T14:45:16Z")
> [@Mama Zappa](#): > > I’ve mailed things from the US East Coast to the London area several times. If I send them air mail, it takes less than a week. If I send them “surface”, I’ve had them take 3-4 weeks. These were boxes just slightly larger than HP/Order of the Phoenix. My bad on this one then - I was talking about airmail which is also surprisingly cheap. In fact, if we’re talking small packages with no letter inside (ie. you actually put small package on the parcel) the increase in cost is negligible. Sending video tapes, for example, costs less than £2 - about $3. J. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2004, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-mail-a-package-via-royal-british-ground-mail/245601/6 "2004-05-17T16:27:55Z")
This is smaller than a video tape and cost me 3.50 GBP shipping. So, I can expect it in June?