Anyone shipped a mandolin lately? I just sent one from West to East Coast USA and it was almost 60 bucks for the cheapest option - ouch! I think we little guys are paying for the big discounts places like Amazon get for shipping.
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Anyone shipped a mandolin lately? I just sent one from West to East Coast USA and it was almost 60 bucks for the cheapest option - ouch! I think we little guys are paying for the big discounts places like Amazon get for shipping.
Approximately 90.00 USPS with (I think) $1.8K insurance Pittsburgh to Albuquerque.
With a mandolin, cost almost always depends on the size of the box, not the weight. A half inch more any dimension can make a huge difference in cost. The guys who do the measuring always round up. I'd say $60 coast to coast is not bad if you are not getting some kind of deal with the shipper. I have seen $45 with a volume deal, no signature required, shipping box about as small as possible. I've seen the $90 one, too. Doesn't take much extra room in the box to get up to that level.
also, do check the different shippers. they can be significantly different.
Shipped a mandocello last week in a dreadnaught guitar box along with a regular mandolin to TMS on a trade. USPS said because I wasn’t Amazon they couldn’t ship the cello because of the box size. Fed Ex charged me $264-ish for ground. Second day air was going to be over 800 bucks...
Ouch.
USPS wouldn't ship a dreadnaught sized box? They're definitely unpredictable when it comes to larger boxes - I shipped a Breedlove OM to Southern California, had to make a box as I couldn't find a guitar box, used USPS, cost $75, no questions asked on their part, very straightforward. Few months later went to ship a tenor guitar, smaller box, but going across country and they were unsure because size wise it was just a shade below their size limit and they guy on the desk was worried that someone else en route might measure it and decide it was over the size limit and refuse to let it continue it's journey. Weird because the OM box had been way bigger the couple of months before.
FWIW, I live in a rural area where the "small towns" are about 8-10 miles apart from my house to the "city" where I work. I pass about 6 towns in the 50 miles to work. The USPS employees like to throw their weight around, especially when it comes to big boxes and getting out the tape measure to check for "dimensional weight" -- which is an added balloon charge and if it is too big they can refuse it altogether.......I believe it can't be over 108 inches total combined height x width x depth......
I learned over the years which employees are working which days and which tend to be "sticklers" for such details......often I will get a price, drive a few miles up the road and save $25-30 -- ALL WITHIN THE USPS GUIDELINES THAT ALL EMPLOYEES ARE SUPPOSED TO UNDERSTAND AND FOLLOW.....
I am not above asking about the employees kids, school projects, sports teams, etc. -- all pointless small talk designed to get their minds off the PRICE BUTTON!!!
Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Then there is always FedEx.........again, sometimes the package will be $25-30 cheaper than USPS.......
Did somebody mention a rigged system........?
20 years ago I worked for a store that shipped about 100 guitars a month. At the time FedEx was charging about $30 to ship a guitar coast to coast. With our FedEx discount it was $9.........
So, I'm guessing Amazon gets it for peanuts.......(and, rightly so.......!)
News Flash: I just got notice that USPS is raising their rates again, after the new year . . . don't be surprised if all the others follow.
Individuals listing on Ebay from all over the U.S on shipping on items of the same Are all over the map. I think most feel the can charge a extra huge amount for there time to box a mandolin or guitar and have plenty left over to make on there selling fees without hurting there selling profits . And in most cases they have a account where those shipping costs are never shown on the waybils at delivery.
As for UPS there just plain crooks quite similar to that Global shipping program from ebay. Shipping costs keep going up here and the rules change daily .
Just shipped a mandolin about as far as you can in the lower 48, from 80 miles west of Seattle to Savannah GA. I used a canvas covered styrofoam case for light weight, wrapped it in plastic and then double corrugated cut and wrapped to get the smallest possible package size. USPS 5-7 day was less than $30.
A friend just bought a used mando online. It arrived in just the case - no box! The case had tape around it, but that was it.
I'll bet the shipping price was right.
I posted a rim and a neck via USPS internationally to Italy about a month ago and cost was $24.. a few days later I posted to Oregon and it was $27..... both boxes were exactly same size...
I’ve pretty much given up on shipping mandolins or guitars because of the cost.
It is bizarre. I sent a sixty pound telescope via USPS to The Netherlands for $80 then when I bought my first mandolin on ebay the seller wanted to cancel the sale because she took it to a UPS store and they were going to charge her $128 for midwest to Washington state. I told her I'd cover her shipping if she went to the Post Office. With a big box and heavy packing materials it was $85; and that was the same case I used to send another mandolin from Washington to Georgia for less than $30.
Put bubble wrap inside the case to keep the mandolin immobile. Cut down a box to flat cardboard and wrap the case with an intervening layer of foam or plastic. You want minimum cubic inches.
The other thing I've been noticing about USPS is the amount of "upselling" the counter personnel have been "coached" into doing. A lot of small packages can be sent first or ground and they always say something like, "for $1.18 more you can go Priority and it includes $50 insurance...." Things like that bug me, not that Priority isn't a great service, just that they do it -- kind of like saying, "did you want Fries and a Coke with that?" Anyway, it puts nothing extra in their pocket, but somehow they have this blind allegiance to that civil service position.......?
Another example from USPS........I send a lot of old records which can legally be sent USPS as Media Mail (used to be called book rate or Special 4th class...) anyway, on a package with several LP's or books that savings can be $8 or 9 dollars over Priority -- anyway, the lady who works at our local post office always states (like a robot) "well, sure, you can send them that way, but they will be the last to be loaded and have to go by truck the whole way, might take 2 or 3 weeks....." -- basically, making it seem like good advice. Experience has shown that the medial mail packages if going to a nearby state will show up just as fast and yes if going across the country might take a couple days longer.......
Another lazy USPS employee even told me, "I don't think we ship to Canada" when I showed up 15 minutes before closing and he didn't want to do "that" much paperwork...............jeesh!
Like I say, there are only so many choices, none great, but a necessary evil if you do eBay or any kind of online sales.......
FYI, I have used sites designed for shipping bicycles and parts to ship instruments and saved some money. They’re used to larger packages. I don’t know if it’s strictly allowed but it’s easier to get forgiveness than permission. Try shipbikes.com (my favorite) or bikeflights.com. My $0.02.
Steve
Good example of what I call "false economy." Whatever they saved in shipping could have caused a nice instrument to be ruined, IMHO. Instruments need to be double-boxed with peanuts, bubble, etc......yes, it costs more, BUT -- good packing is the best insurance.
Are you all not insuring these mandolin? Using a rider from another company? Anything under $100 is a steal!
Exactly. Insurance is another matter entirely. You are best to go with a separate policy, such as Heritage. If you insure with USPS or UPS the rates are quite high, over $300 value, the insurance is priced at $.90 per $100 with USPS or $1.05 per $100 with UPS, for example. You can see insurance will quickly double the shipping cost or more, if it is a boutique mandolin. Plus, there are a lot of things the insurance doesn't cover -- which has been the subject of many previous threads.....and, in general, it is hard to collect on a claim.