You ought to see the tiny, incredibly complex form I need to fill out/sign for an outside the US shipment. This form arrived about a decade ago and replaced a very simple form. It must have been designed for pixies, as I cannot write that small with a ballpoint pen. Its designed so several government agencies can see and search your shipping data, that much is for sure. Fedex, Postal, UPS, doesn't matter, similar horrible form. After FEDEX got "burned" by a domestic terrorist type using their services, its a **&^%##&*ing inquisition by a non techie counter person to ship anything, and international is even worse.
You might understand that it is now a royal pita to send technology goods outside the country, and the lookup of the data required takes a lot of time, even for a sample packet.
So what your seeing is the charges of 1. Greed, 2. Avoidance, 3. Profiteering, 4. Legit sellers using customs brokers /shipping services for shipping ANYTHING . Etc,
Really takes the fun out of anything Ebay as a seller, unless you have some form of "trusted shipper" status, etc...
I used to be able to go to the local airport, pop something on Delta Air Freight, and get modest size lab gear across the country or to Canada, at say 35$ + 67 cents a pound, no more. A modest security inspection might occur, but it just would be a delay. If I want to do that again, I have to arrange a visit by Homeland to my house and undergo several interviews/background checks. Then pay serious fees for a professional security inspection of the package. Its just NOT worth it.
Shipping anything over a few ounces is no longer a service, it is a greedy virtual TAX. This is one of the reasons Amazon has their own aircraft and trucks...
RANT over...
Steve