About 2 years ago I found some really nice sweatshirts on sale. I was going to purchase a few of them, had them in the cart and the total was something like $24. Shipping was around $30! And then there's duty to contend with, and if they ship it by UPS you have their ever-popular "brokerage fee" too.
I ended up placing the order and having the stuff shipped to a friend in the US, who then sent it to me for much less.