heymisterk Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 Hi All, Some of you probably buy and sell guitars a lot more frequently than I do, so you might be able to add some insight to this: I shipped my used MIM Tele from Cleveland to Yuba City, California after selling it on eBay. The damage: Guitar box: $26 UPS Ground shipping, insured for $300: $93(!) That obviously makes the cost of shipping the guitar about half of what it was worth. My jaw dropped. I only charged a flat $50 for shipping because I have found that charging more turns off bidders, but it seems I got screwed anyway. My question: What would you have done differently? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kidblast Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 $93? that is ridiculous... Is UPS charging you for an over sized box? Did you find the measurement info on their site? Maybe that box is just a tad too big to come in under the "over sized box" dimensions, IME that's what cranks the handling costs up. did you try USPS, or FedEx? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jannusguy2 Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 You should set a up an account of your own with either UPS or Fedex. I found that by having my own Fedex acct. the costs were reduced by around 40%. Don't use places like PKGS or the other "mail box / shipping" stores. They use different insurance than the actual shipping companies and it's more expensive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
surfpup Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 One more reason not to sell any guitars. Just buy and hold! I had a similar thing happen to me last time I shipped one UPS. Since then I've only sold them face to face. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heymisterk Posted June 19, 2013 Author Share Posted June 19, 2013 One more reason not to sell any guitars. Just buy and hold! I had a similar thing happen to me last time I shipped one UPS. Since then I've only sold them face to face. Learned my lesson! The size of the box was your typical guitar box. Since it was a Tele, I could have taken the neck off, but frankly, I was annoyed when I bought the guitar originally and I had to put the neck back on. Shipping USPS would surely have been cheaper, but like so many USPS offices, the lines are maddening. That said, if I ever have to ship a guitar again, I will indeed head to the post office. Obviously, one reason for the cost - based on how UPS calculates shipping - was that I shipped from OH to CA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaiser Bill Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 Misterk...don't feel bad my friend...I just paid $112 shipping for a '49 Supro that they say is worth $25...LOL...the joke is on me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cougar Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 Guitar box: $26 I've only bought a couple guitars off ebay lately. Shipping across the county was $30 for one and $20 for the other. They were both double-boxed. The sellers probably already had the guitar boxes. Jeez, $26 for the box seems ridiculous. I might have checked at Guitarcenter or someplace similar to see if they had any extra boxes, or at least cheaper ones. UPS Ground shipping, insured for $300: $93(!) Apparently one can choose to have an ebay program automatically calculate shipping charges depending on the zip code of the buyer. These are often up in the ridiculous range. Reasonable shipping anywhere in the lower 48 is around $30 for many of the guitars I've seen on ebay. I doubt these sellers are actually paying more than that for shipping. My ES-339 came via UPS. Shipping was 20 bucks! (I expect the guy might have paid a bit more than that.) Man, I don't know where you went wrong! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riffster Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 This happened to me when I sold a mint Epiphoine 1x12 cab, I sold it on eBay and sold well, for $20 more than new, then came the shipping. Same story, a guy in California bought it, I had set shipping at $20...it was $65. I opened an account with UPS, that did not help $2 savings. In the end after the shipping blunder and eBay and PayPaul fees I netted like $60. Trust me, I could have sold that thing on Craigslist for twice that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badbluesplayer Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 I always save all guitar boxes and I'll call around to the local mom & pop stores and get a box from one of them if I need one. They usually will be happy to give you one if they have extras. One local store has started charging $5 for boxes. You can save - I'm guessing maybe 10 or 15% - by having an account with UPS and processing the mailing labels at home and just dropping the package off the the UPS store. Typical guitar boxes are sized to be just under the "oversized package" limits of the Post Office. Not sure if that's a factor with UPS. Ninety three bucks seems a little high. The insurance was probably like $5.00 of the total. You might have saved 10 or 15 bucks if you had an account. Tough situation! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riffster Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 Apparently one can choose to have an ebay program automatically calculate shipping charges depending on the zip code of the buyer. These are often up in the ridiculous range. Reasonable shipping anywhere in the lower 48 is around $30 for many of the guitars I've seen on ebay. I doubt these sellers are actually paying more than that for shipping. My ES-339 came via UPS. Shipping was 20 bucks! (I expect the guy might have paid a bit more than that.) Man, I don't know where you went wrong! NO! the shipping calculator actually works! on the case of my cab it said $63 and I foolishly changed it thinking it was wrong. On the flip side I bought a guitar on eBay, it was a bit more expensive than I wanted to pay but the shipping was only $20...all the way from Seattle, I don't have to tell you that the seller took a beating. He told me, the $20 did not even cover the box. Me? I save every box I ever get when I buy stuff, I never buy boxes other than the USPS flat rate boxes because it is included in the price. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lazarusvt84 Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 I went to UPS last summer to have them box and ship an amp head (vintage Randall)....from WV to CA...$100! I found a box at the house, cut it down, taped it back up, padded it like crazy (used foam corner pad from another amp I bought) and shipped via USPS for $25. Arrived in good shape...customer thanked me for the great packing job. You can easily expect a guitar/case to cost at least $50 to $100 to ship CONUS via UPS (even with your own box). Distance matters of course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riffster Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 Yea, USPS parcel post is the cheapest for larger items, as long as the recipient is OK with you using that service since there is no tracking and delivery timing varies widely. In my case parcel post was $40 versus the $65 at UPS, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ksdaddy Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 First thing, buddy-up to someone in a music store for a box. I buy them 10 at a time from uline.com and they cost me a little under $10 each after shipping. add to that the scrounged ones from the local store, the average comes down to $6 or $7. I realize you're only talking about one box here, but never pass up a chance to have a few on hand...never! I mainly go with USPS standard post (parcel post). I'm in Maine so worst case scenario it goes to Washington or Oregon and it's still usually under $45 plus a few more bucks for insurance. So flat rate 50 in that case....meh, you might have to chip in a few bucks but not much. And delivery confirmation is automatically added to USPS stuff now, standard post and priority. Not sure about media mail. When I was shipping a lot of motorcycle parts, UPS was my default for the larger stuff. Not any more. They've gone ape$hit with their prices. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tazzboy Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 I know eBay and PayPal's are tied with UPS and USPS, but you can ship it FedEx as long as you provide them with a tracking number. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bonzoboy Posted June 20, 2013 Share Posted June 20, 2013 This is a problem that musicians who live outside the US have had for years.The cost of shipping and handling,taxes,duties etc. can make even the most incredible deals not be worth the bother.I have often ordered things from US dealers only having to cancel at the very last step of the order process when the true costs of the product are totaled in.The overall shipping and other related costs are often much more than the cost of the products themselves.Some companies that advertise that they welcome Canadian orders will let you go through the entire order process only to tell you at the absolute last step that the product that you ordered is exempt,but nowhere in their info do they state this. What's so galling about this is that some companies have very reasonable international rates but they are few and far between. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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