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Shipping a guitar


Riffster

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I sold my Epiphone V and shipped it yesterday, no case, just the guitar, super light guitar too. Less than 7 pounds.

 

Thankfully I had a box that fit right and a second box that didn't add but 3/4" of an inch all around.

 

Nashville, TN to Anaheim, CA costs a mere $95 with UPS.

 

Somebody forgot to tell these guys that gasoline is not $4 a gallon anymore.

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Apparently though they do offer a truer form of insurance. In my case it was only $500

 

I'm sure a single boxed Fender guitar would be less, one or two additional inches seem to sky rocket the rates.

 

I wonder what a 335 in a case would cost to ship.

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Apparently though they do offer a truer form of insurance. In my case it was only $500

 

I'm sure a single boxed Fender guitar would be less, one or two additional inches seem to sky rocket the rates.

 

I wonder what a 335 in a case would cost to ship.

 

I shipped a Strat in a hard case via UPS and it was $130. FedEx is similar. I've found that the cheapest USPS option is usually the best, averaging around $70 for an electric in a hard case. I've sold a lot of guitars in the last few years and I only use USPS now.

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For years I charged a flat rate for guitars. I probably started out at $25 or $30 and bumped it up as time went on and rates went up. In the past year or two it seems to have gotten out of hand. I've gone up to $50 or $60 but not long ago I sold a guitar to someone in either Washington or Oregon and it was right around $100...so I lost money on the deal. I think it was a lower end guitar so that made it worse.

 

So for several months I've entered the typical weight and dimensions into ebays's "calculated shipping" option. I usually say 20 lbs and a 50x20x8 box, which is typical. I then get complaints from potential bidders, saying I'm ripping them off in shipping. I use USPS priority exclusively because of the speed and overall good luck. Bidders sing to me that they just shipped a guitar across country by fedex ground for $25. I think they're just flat out lying and last night I entered a phony scenario into USPS, UPS, and Fedex sites. USPS was $93 while the other two were over $100.

 

I wish I could just box a guitar up and have them send a pre-paid label generated from THEIR account.

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in any given day... UPS would be the last shipper I would use.. if I was desperate.. I think I would rather hand deliver.. dont go from this this to ........

 

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To this..

 

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There a class act of there own... seems they know value.. when there in charge..

 

USPS is a good route in my opnion..

 

by the way.. the packed the above.. so... the option is yours..

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Yeah, that's why I quit shipping guitars. It used to cost around $50 to ship a guitar with a case and now it seems like it is closer to $100. Buyers kept asking me why the shipping was so high. My response was the same...blame UPS because I only charge exact shipping costs. Not just for guitars, but for most items. It just seems like shipping costs have sky rocketed the last few years.

 

Maybe shipping costs are why some of the larger guitar companies quit including cases with their guitars.

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It is quite out of control, when gas prices skyrocketed it was kind of understood that prices inevitably would go up but they simply did not adjust down.

 

It seems that a couple of inches will put a box over a certain threshold and pricing gets crazy. A Squier box is a lot smaller fir instance but I still suspect it will run at least $70

 

I think I'm done shipping guitars. On this case I actually got my money back on this guitar after eBay, PayPal and shipping but no more, hell I may post on eBay but it will be local pickup only.

 

And as for shipping with one carrier or another. There are horror stories from all of them.

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