$135 for Shipping from Hawaii? Ridiculous!

I couldn't believe this one and the seller implies that ebay and Paypal requirements justify the high shipping costs. Not true.

See it here-
http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-KOALOHA...tDomain_0&hash=item3f00608f76#ht_14281wt_1139

Sellers like this really make us appreciate sellers like MGM.

Jude

heyjude said:

I couldn't believe this one and the seller implies that ebay and Paypal requirements justify the high shipping costs. Not true.

See it here-
http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-KOALOHA...tDomain_0&hash=item3f00608f76#ht_14281wt_1139


Sellers like this really make us appreciate sellers like MGM.

Jude

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It's also a "KoAlana" soprano, the budget brand for KoAloha. I believe that ukulele retails $145.

I sent a 1974 Fender Precision bass in its original case to Switzerland for less than that, fer cryin' out loud.

I believe that eBay sellers only pay eBay a commission on the sale price. Aside from whether this particular ukulele is worth $785 ($650 + $135), this seller may be trying to reduce the commission he or she has to pay by essentially moving a big chunk of the total $785 purchase price to shipping.

$135 is about what I paid for my KoAlana sapele soprano. My KoAlano sapele concert was $165.

I ship via USPS Express Mail. It's pretty good service and it costs $75 including insurance, not bad for an instrument that can cost a few thousand bucks. It generally takes 24 to 48 hours to anywhere nationally. Money back guarantee if not delivered on time. I will trust no other carrier to handle my work.
I have been quoted similar prices to what you mentioned from UPS. They are absolutely the most expensive. I will not do business with them.
Shipping is the highest cost of my doing business, even higher than the wood I use. Anytime I buy anything to be shipped into Hawaii I look at the shipping cost before the actual cost of the item itself.
Sometimes the merchant gives me no choice however. Recent examples in this past month alone:
Spruce brace material from California cost me $35. Cost to ship via UPS Ground--$120
Shop light from McMaster-Carr (East coast) $98. Shipping (USPS Priority) --$102
Respirator from Washington state cost me $379. Shipping via UPS Ground----$224!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sometimes it seems that the prices these merchants charge is simply arbitrary.
I'm not saying that the ebay merchant is justified charging that amount for shipping, it does sound out of line. Some merchants will roll in their packaging materials cost and labor as well and call it "Shipping and Handling". I would question the seller about it.

I just sent this message to the ebay lister, and will let you know if I get a response. I find this stuff so annoying:

The photo is of a KoAlana ukulele, as plainly shown by the soundhole label, and not a KoAloha. KoAlana is KoAloha's "budget" line, made of mahogany (rather than koa, as KoAloha's are). KoAlanas retail for less than $200, and have been made for only a few years, so this cannot be a "vintage" instrument.

You can buy a brand-new solid-koa soprano KoAloha for less than the $600 you are asking here for this KoAlana mahogany.

Also the $135 you are asking for shipping is quite a bit more than others on ebay ask.

You probably should correct this listing, or people may get the impression you are trying to pull a scam.

That is outrageous, I've paid a lot to ship in the past but I've shipped guitars for about $80 in the past. According to eBay, "Sellers can charge reasonable shipping and handling fees to cover the costs for mailing, packaging, and handling the items that they sell. However, charging excessive fees for shipping violates our selling practices policy."

Sometimes I think eBay doesn't take proper actual costs in consideration, as I've lost money on shipping items to eBay buyers in the past (some categories have maximum set prices but they don't always take into account practical costs properly), but I'm not sure how they are getting away with charging that much. That is just so they don't have to pay a final value fee on that money and they can skim the profit off the shipping costs. Boo!

Run............

As an occasional seller on Ebay, I will say that I usually end up eating a few dollars on shipping when I sell an item. I set what I think is a fair, flat shipping rate, and it usually comes in over what I charged.

I have a guitar on Ebay right now that an interested party in Hawaii asked for a shipping quote, and I was floored when I ran it through UPS and it came back with just about $165 for ground service. Second day air was about $75 more than that.

The seller just replied to my message, and said he'd cleared things up. It is now listed as a KoAlana, priced at $150, with a shipping cost of $35. Here is the link to the updated listing.

Who knows what the source of problem was, but I'm impressed with how quickly he made the fix. He may not be famailiar with the distinction between KoAloha/KoAlana. He still calls it a "vintage" KoAlana, which is an odd thing to call a brand new instrument that has only been in the market a few years (if i have my KoAlana history correct). His other items seem all to be antiques or otherwise "vintage" items, so maybe labeling things that way is just a reflex.

As for the shipping cost, I'd guess the initial $135 shipping charge just reflected the $600 asking price. Now he's reduced his asking price by 75% and reduced the shipping charge by a similar amount.

eBay will spank a seller if they are reported for "excessive shipping", tells the seller to roll all the shipping fees into the start price, and punishes the seller by lower rankings in the search listings if they don't offer free shipping. And yes, they take a cut out of shipping too!

Still seems pretty high to me since MGM had the concert size of that same uke for about $160 with free shipping a few months ago.

kenikas said:

Still seems pretty high to me since MGM had the concert size of that same uke for about $160 with free shipping a few months ago.

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Of course MGM sells a high volume of instruments, and probably makes up his free shipping elsewhere. $150 + $35 shipping doesn't seem TOO unreasonable to me. Of course, I hadn't ever even HEARD of a Koalana before this thread.

for light but large packages, you can get hit with the "balloon rate" charge, this frequently applies to ukes and guitars. Ukes usually come for me inside a pretty big box, and Priority Mail for that size is $50.00 from Hawaii. If you use a box just a few inches smaller it might be $30.00. So it's worthwhile to use the smallest box you can for the item you have.

csr5z said:

The seller just replied to my message, and said he'd cleared things up. It is now listed as a KoAlana, priced at $150, with a shipping cost of $35. Here is the link to the updated listing.

Who knows what the source of problem was, but I'm impressed with how quickly he made the fix. He may not be famailiar with the distinction between KoAloha/KoAlana. He still calls it a "vintage" KoAlana, which is an odd thing to call a brand new instrument that has only been in the market a few years (if i have my KoAlana history correct). His other items seem all to be antiques or otherwise "vintage" items, so maybe labeling things that way is just a reflex.

As for the shipping cost, I'd guess the initial $135 shipping charge just reflected the $600 asking price. Now he's reduced his asking price by 75% and reduced the shipping charge by a similar amount.

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That is much more in line and for what it's worth my KoAlana soprano is a great little uke. It's well worth the $135 that I paid for it. Loud, responsive, really nice. It's not a KoAloha or a Kamaka of course.

clayton56 said:

for light but large packages, you can get hit with the "balloon rate" charge, this frequently applies to ukes and guitars. Ukes usually come for me inside a pretty big box, and Priority Mail for that size is $50.00 from Hawaii. If you use a box just a few inches smaller it might be $30.00. So it's worthwhile to use the smallest box you can for the item you have.

Click to expand...

So true. When I bought my used Ohana soprano off eBay, the guy quoted it with a reasonable fixed shipping fee (around $30), which of course I factored into my bid. I still went a bit over what I should have bid, but what the heck. Then after I won and the guy shipped he wrote me and said the shipping was almost twice what he estimated, and he thought maybe I should pay the difference. When it arrived it was in a box large enough to ship a large guitar and not packed well at all. It was just sort of thrown in with almost no padding and nothing to keep it from banging around. I politely declined the extra cost, and explained why. I checked the weight and used to online calculator to see what it would have cost if he had shipped it in the right size box, and his original estimate was a just about right.

Size does matter in shipping.

I have a ups store one block from my house it's so easy go there However their pricing is nutz

I worked in the shipping and packing business for 11 years (as Mail Boxes Etc owner then brand changed to The UPS Store). I am very keenly aware of the requirements and the costs to pack and ship items. I have bought and sold many ukes inn the past two years, including packing many for shipping within and outside Canada. I've bought a goodly share from MGM in Hawaii, too, so I know his prices.

The main cost when shipping ukes is the box size. The dimensional weight is far larger than the actual weight, so you pay more for the size. Insurance is a small add-on (UPS charges $3 per $100 in value, postal services charge less).

Mailing a tenor uke in its case outside Canada is usually $35-$50, depending on weight, size and amount of insurance purchased. Within Canada, it's less ($20-$35). Packing materials and box can be another $10-$30 depending on materials used and whether you do it yourself. So a reasonable range for shipping a tenor from Hawaii should be $45-$75. It will be less from within continental USA because you have the option of ground service. My experience is that tenor ukes mailed from the continental USA are around $30-$45. I just mailed three ukes to the USA in a box 32 x 13 x 12 for roughly $45, plus insurance.

Elderly Instruments quoted me $70 to ship a tenor uke - no case - from continental US to Canada - double what MGM charged me for the same uke (with case) from Hawaii. Guess who I chose to deal with?

Soprano ukes should be less, too, because they're smaller. Packing is greatly simplified if the uke comes in a case (not just a gig bag) because that provides a lot of protection, so it can lower the packing cost by a few dollars.

$135 strikes me as excessive for mail, even from Hawaii. It is probably fair for UPS or Fedex shipping, since these services are much more expensive than postal services. You can figure out the costs yourself by going to the USPS, Fedex and UPS web sites. Measure your uke case - height, length and width. Add 4-6 inches to all measurements to account for packing (add 6-8 inches for a uke not in a case). For weight, say 3 or 4 pounds (less without a case).

Heck, if the shipping charges get much higher, it will be more to your advantage to just go to Hawaii and get your uke yourself, hang out on the beach and play!!