Uke/ International Shipping Info Request

bahama.blue

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Hi,
Thought this board might be the best place to ask as I've seen a lot of uke bought/sold shipped internationally.
I've had several request about a uke I'm selling and shipping it overseas (from the USA).
Anyone care to share some advice on what are my shipping company choices are? Plus the most secure, insured, confirmed delivery, cost, duty, import taxes.
Thanks for your time!
Best,
Mike
 
I would go usps priority mail international, 6-10 days transit time, comes with tracking, you don't want the package floating around out there forever. Buyer pays import, duty taxes etc.
yep, agreed! I have always used USPS to get ukes sent here to Australia (when the choice has been up to me). Never had a problem with them. Priority Mail International is always the cheapest, most efficient method and only ever takes a little over a week.
 
Pricewise the USPS is also the way to go. I also buy and sell camera equipment online and have been requested to inquire on shipping a camera to Italy. Fedex and UPS quoted me $140 and $162 respectively while USPS was a only $44 for priority mail.
 
FedEx UPS etc. also charge some sort of handling fee for taking the package over the border, so the buyer usually ends up paying for duty, taxes as well as this added fee which can be quite costly. That is my experience with ordering things from the US to Canada. I always ask for USPS or Royal Mail or Canada Post. Another advantage to the post is that if you are not home the package is taken to your local Post Office which is usually pretty close to where you live. If you miss delivery with a private courier you often have to drive to their Depot which can be quite far away depending on where you live. USPS all the way!
 
As someone who ordered quite a few items from the US in the past, I'd support the voices speaking out for USPS priority international, it's quick, safe and affordable. Also, as the "public" carrier, USPS works with similar companies/institutions abroad, like Royal Mail, La Poste, Deutsche Post/DHL, who all have a well-established tracking/delivery system. In most cases, I was able to track my goods on the DHL website even before the package entered the country.

[edit: to make things easier for the recipient, make sure to not only fill in the green customs sticker, but also stick an envelope with the invoice on the outside of the package. saves the buyer probably a trip to the customs office.
The buyer will have to pay sales tax on the total, i.e. price PLUS shipping. an additional import duty fee might be charged, depending on total value and local regulations.]
 
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I agree with everyone else. The only affordable option is the US Postal Service. Customs form is pretty easy to complete. Would only use Express Mail or Priority. I have had success mailing ukes to Canada, Ireland and Australia.
 
USPS Priority mail! I have received more than 60 ukuleles from USA and never had a problem with it.
 
Another vote for USPS.

Sent a uke to Argentina -- was it yours, Gaspar? -- FedEx: $135. UPS: $750 (no joke!). USPS: $65. Easy decision.

As an aside, I was pretty bummed out by UPS' quote. I ran packages for them for the holiday season, all through college. It was a great short-term job, and they were a great employer. I don't know how their price could be so ludicrous.
 
UPS: $750 (no joke!). [...] I was pretty bummed out by UPS' quote.[...] I don't know how their price could be so ludicrous.

The crazy price is probably a polite way to tell people to take their Argentinian business somewhere else.

On the one hand, as a "worldwide" "leading" carrier, they cannot afford not to offer shipments to countries like Argentina. On the other hand it probably just does not pay off for them to install and maintain a fully operational depot infrastructure in such a huge country with plenty long distances and relatively low amounts of parcels.
They surely have a good name and product to stand up to, so once they accept your business they need to have somebody driving maybe hundreds of miles through the jungle (in a brown box van) to deliver your ukulele in time, and it may well be the only box on that trip.
sounds reasonable to me.
 
I recently ordered a peanut from MIM (who shipped it right away) and it was shipped USPS Int'l Priority. As DHL handles all small packages in Germany, I was able to track it from their website as soon as I got the tracking number. I'd imagine whoever handles small packages in the destination country would have a similar set-up.

Anyhow, it travelled from Virginia to the Chicago export center in two (!) days, and arrived in Germany two days after that! Well, to the import center. It then took a week to travel from Frankfurt to Berlin. There's an old joke that DHL stands for Dauert Halt Länger- It just takes longer. And now I've been waiting (impatiently) since Saturday (when it arrived in Berlin) for the Customs office to let me know that they are ready for me to pick it up. It's maddening, but at least I know the uke is in the same city as me...
 
I bought ukes from USA to Brazil via USPS Priority or Express mail (U$50-U$80 soprano/tenor). The ukes arrived in Brazil in 7-10 days, but I lost 3 weeks on the customs. Here we pay 60% to 90% of federal taxes...including the shipping costs (!).
I bought many ukes with just one little problem. One time, my kamaka pineapple goes from Canada, so, we have to make a claim to USPS, and in a few days it goes to Brazil. All the ukes send by USPS comes with a traking number.
 
Another vote for USPS priority, it comes with $100 insurance and you can buy extra insurance for pretty cheap. Also USPS Express is not much more if the customer doesn't mind a few extra bucks.

Out of curiosity, what country is it going to? Some countries are kind of iffy
 
Thanks everyone. I knew you guys would know such things. The requested countries to ship to is Taiwan and France.
 
yep, agreed! I have always used USPS to get ukes sent here to Australia (when the choice has been up to me). Never had a problem with them. Priority Mail International is always the cheapest, most efficient method and only ever takes a little over a week.

:agree:
Had three or four shipped over here... Never had any import duties etc...
 
The requested countries to ship to is Taiwan and France.

Shouldn't be a problem.
I use a private carrier for some countries that have terrible postal systems or notoriously slow customs. Italy for example has a really slow processing system for customs, but with UPS it goes quicker than regular mail.
 
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