I don't know. I haven't shipped thousands of packages, but I have shipped quite a lot to Russia and its never been a big deal or took too long. Usually around a week and a half via USPS+Russian Post. Plus are we in a hurry to get this done?
As far as the boarder fee goes, IIRC you only get charged if you ship with UPS/FedEx/DHL (I've run into this problem selling stuff on eBay). So if we stick to regular post, we should be fine.
I'm just gonna say that I'm not shipping it to anyone else in the US, or country I got it from (unless we lay down strict rules against that).
There are customs fees with USPS/Postal. It is up to the receiving country to determine if they wish to levy the fee. Marking the package as GIFT does not exclude your shipment from taxes, inspection, or delivery refusal.
Couple notes regarding shipping (working on packing to move right now, so you get cliff-notes):
Shipping a 1LB box (470g-ish) is $17 to EU/AU using "Priority"/traceable in a small box. ~$12 if using first-class/non-tracked. Priority takes 5-7 days on average, First class can vary between 6 days (Germany), 14 days (UK), ~21 days (AU), and more.
Small list of countries that I have had a very unsuccessful time at getting packaged delivered in:
Bulgaria, Brazil, China, Costa Rica, Malta, Egypt, Estonia, Lebanon, Madagascar, Sri Lanka, Portugal, Ukraine..
Make sure you check the
prohibited items listing before including any items/gifts. One major items is coins-- nearly all countries have a ban on receiving foreign currency. Germany bans playing cards, Croatia has a ban on all dairy-based imports, Czech Republic has a ban on all chain-letter items, etc..
Shipping to an APO requires customs forms, and is very slow. I regularly send items to family members who are deployed, and it takes 2-4 weeks.