GitHub lost $15 to send me stickers

Among the many products sold at the Github Store, the Octodex Sticker Packs are probably some of the most popular items. Each pack contains 10 different Octocat stickers and costs $5. If you’re a lover of the mascot (who isn’t?), you’d probably be inclined to buy a pack or three.

I purchased 3 packs a couple weeks ago, for a total of $15 plus $5 to account for shipping to Brazil. When the package arrived, I noticed the USPS label said the shipping cost $35.65. I was intrigued by this: did Github really lose $15.65 on this sale?

I enquired about the situation by email and got this response from Amber:

It does cost us quite a bit to ship internationally, so that price you saw is probably what we had to pay to ship your package. Glad to hear your stickers arrived though!

It seems Github is willing to lose a few dollars on each sale in exchange for being able to expand their branding to countries like Brazil.

As for the stickers, I’m very satisfied with their print quality and overall awesomeness. I’ve already glued some to my laptop and gave some others to friends.