Printed material from the States used to come via media mail which was less expensive, IIRC.  Don't think that there's that choice any more.  If it's a book, I'd ship it First Class International -- Priority is usually too expensive for the items I buy.  Wendy

I get this question a lot but in the most recent case it was about a very large, heavy set. Well sure, sending by "surface" would have been cheaper but now it has to go airmail! If they actually purchased it I would use M-bag airmail but that is still $$$.

When economy was discontinued, I added to my shipping section, "For international purchases please use the shipping calculator.  Unfortunately ecomony shipping is no longer available."

No one has asked me about it, so apparently it's the only part of the listing that they all read.

Last time I checked, there was not much difference in the price of using a priority box (regular or flat rate) and the Airmail M-bag.  Of course, I wasn't trying to ship a really large set - probably only a few books.

Even on the river, I've had cancellation requests right after an international buyer had made a purchase.  Many are unaware of the high postage costs, that surface is no longer an option (not just a seller's use preference). Also, I've had a few that thought that sellers were purposely over padding shipping costs - especially on thick, heavy oversized books that won't fit into a flat rate envelope. 

Women are angels. And when someone breaks our wings, we simply continue to fly...on a broomstick. We are flexible like that.