Ralph, the guys at your Post Office must like you, or they don't know what they're doing and you got lucky. The max size for Priority Int'l is 79". The limit goes up to 108" with Global Express Guaranteed (GXG), and the price of shipping a 58cm frame by GXG would be about $400.
Looks like your Post Office gave you the GXG size restriction, but at the m uch lower Priority price.
I helped out Greg Softley a few times by receiving bikes from US sellers wh o didn't want to ship outside the US. I would tear the bike down and re- package it to make it as small as possible and then ship it via US Postal S ervice. It was never less than $300, not including the wheels!
This is what the the last re-packaged box looked like:
http://www.raydobbins.com/
This is the inside of the box:
http://www.raydobbins.com/
This particular frame was a 54 c-c, and it still was over the 79" size limi t. I don't believe you can box it any smaller than this.
Maybe next time I can send you the box and you can ship it through your pos t office? ;)
Ray Dobbins
Miami Florida USA
From: Via Bicycle <viabicycle@gmail.com> Subject: Re: [CR] shipping frame from US to Australia. To: "jeffrey piwonka" <jmpiwonka@yahoo.com> Cc: "classic rendezvous" <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org> Date: Thursday, February 19, 2009, 10:04 AM
Jeff,
I recently(jan. 2009) sent an on-topic frameset to Australia US
priority airmail for around $80, i think. it may have been less, but I
know it was not more than $80. It was just a frame and fork(58cm), so
the box was able to be smaller as the fork was not installed. I had no
size restrictions problem. Just look on the USPS website, I think the
max girth is 108" and that is easy to do a frameset under that. A lot
harder to do a complete bike with wheels, but is possible.
joel ralph flood
http://bikeville.blogspot.com/
On Thu, Feb 19, 2009 at 9:48 AM, jeffrey piwonka <jmpiwonka@yahoo.com>
wrote:
> I've got some parts on ebay, one being a frame.
> I've had a question about shipping the frame to Australia and I think
there is no possible way to do it at a reasonable cost.
> USPS being the only possibility and they have some size restrictions that
aren't generous enough for a frame and fork...
>
> Am I correct?
>
> some on topic parts that the US guys can see.
> http://ebay.com/
>
> Thanks,
> Jeff Piwonka
> austin, texas usa.