Collaborative shipping–an Amazon book should cost 6 cents

When I moved home from the States in 2009 we brought all our stuff over from the US in a 40ft container fro $3500. Two lounge suites, California king, motorbike, side tables, everything. But for me to get some books from Amazon cost me $75…
Whaaaa?
At the same rate as I paid it should have cost me $0.06 cents!

Are my facts wrong? Don’t think so. So what do we do about it… this is my idea:

• Get a consignment quote for one container to be shipped to your neighbourhood.
• In my case it would be consignment at an address in LA (where we have our stuff sent to).
• Then get a quote for customs handling (every package must be under $1,000 AUD in value.
• And a shipping truck rate from the port to your location ($300 from Brisbane to Byron Bay)
• Then get your neighbours to put the dimensions of the products they want onto a website that calculates the total volume and as soon as it makes sense everyone puts in their orders and waits for the shipment to arrive…

Yeah. Go the Aussie dollar. What do you think? Would you do something like this if it was available… please make comments below.