Shipping within the United States

For those of you with some experience shipping instruments around the United States:

How do you ship (Postal, UPS, FedEx, etc.)?
What is the approximate cost?
Do you ship with the instrument in a case (extra weight/cost) or 'naked' with a lot of bubble-wrap?

Wrap your instrument in as much protection as you can, including a freakin case .

if you get a fedex account, its a bit cheaper

As Beau mentioned having a FedEx account makes it cheaper. I have found FedEx is generally better than UPS at the moment. (Although I'm a little pissed that prices of either company haven't dropped since gas has become cheaper, they tend to raise prices anytime they can justify it). We always double box and use very strong cardboard.

ive cut and pasted this form elsewhere

"FedEx has a program called 'great rates' that is almost too good to be true...they offer 50-80% reductions on normal retail ship costs. I've shipped guitars to UK for only about $100, and to Japan for not much more. They do it to fill in partial containers. WAY worth looking into.

this service buys down the cost of regular FedEx air - you can even pick from the usual raft of service levels (Intl. Economy, Intl. Priority). The funny part is that Priority is often comparable in price to Economy, or occasionally even a bit cheaper (!). The restriction is that the package must be over 11 lbs actual or dimensional weight - easy to accomplish with a guitar or even a uke-sized package. Delivery time is the same as retail-priced FedEx air service. There are also certain days which are most discounted for certain countries - i.e. Japan might be cheapest on a Monday ship date, whereas UK might be cheapest on a Thursday (these are just "for example"...those are not the actual days for those countries). I have had amazing results with this service. We shipped a large box of hardware to Korea for Veillette's offshore guitars, and retail rate would have been over $250. The Great Rates cost us $65. Same delivery time.

Great Rates phone number. 877-463-7408. Just call and they will walk you through the paper work as well. Typically the savings are 60-70%. A guitar to Kasakstan or Hong Kong from the US runs a couple hundred dollars and takes 3-4 days or less sometimes."

Most of the time I use USPS priority mail. I always double box the uke and ship with insurance and the price for shipping in the lower 48 states usually runs from $25-$40. A more expensive uke can cost more because of insurance.

1. Always use a hard case
2. Pack the case in a strong, sturdy box with plenty of support and cushioning around the case
3. Use a new box, they are stronger and will resist crushing
4. USPS Priority Mail

I buy hardshell cases and they come professionally packaged extremely well with heavy-duty cardboard boxes and with bubble wrap and the whole deal already done. All you have to do is slit open the tape, open the case, insert uke and carefully retape. New label over old. Done. Ship UPS.

BlackBearUkes said:

Most of the time I use USPS priority mail. I always double box the uke and ship with insurance and the price for shipping in the lower 48 states usually runs from $25-$40. A more expensive uke can can more because of insurance.

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sequoia said:

I buy hardshell cases and they come professionally packaged extremely well with heavy-duty cardboard boxes and with bubble wrap and the whole deal already done. All you have to do is slit open the tape, open the case, insert uke and carefully retape. New label over old. Done. Ship UPS.

Click to expand...

I keep all the boxes and packaging my ukes come in and when I sell one, I use one of those. I've only used USPS Priority, which has worked out very well.

Rule of thumb- Even the CHEAPEST hard case (about $30) is cheaper then ANY repair.