Shipping overseas

[Dave Bagwill]

I'm going to be shipping a guitar and case to a small, unimportant and backward little country in Europe. What is the most cost-effective (cheap) way to do that? UPS store here in town is talking $250+. Is that a good rate, or would a freight shipping company be better?
Suggestions welcomed.

[Kevin in California]

No idea buddy. Mine have all gone over as luggage.
5 in India and 2 in England.

[Herman]

Shipping a guitar from here to the USA is 54 euro at this very moment.
Looking at the US providers for shipping from the US to here, the costs seem to be several hundreds.
Why??

[Dave Bagwill]

I don't know. I do know it cost me $165 to ship a guitar to Texas a few weeks ago.
Maybe I'll drive to Canada and ship it from there.

[Herman]

Forget Canada. Even expensier.
Mexico?

[Dave Bagwill]

Cost of gas to drive there and back - unimaginable. I could fly to Europe for that much money lol

[rmmottola]

Hi Dave,

Yeah, this is something that everyone runs into sooner or later. Here is some information which may help.

- Private shipping insurance. Short summary: USPS insurance eventually pays up. Your mileage may vary (a lot) using UPS or Fedex's own insurance. Private insurance is generally much better at paying up.

- Retail vs "Commercial rates". All the major shippers have walk-in-the-door rates, and lower rates for commercial accounts. You can get the lower rates by signing up for a commercial account, or you can use one of the online shipping companies. I use Pirate Ship and like them very much. So, how do online shippers make money if they are giving you the commercial rate? It is because the commercial rate is also a fake price. The online shippers contract with the shipping companies at an even lower rate.

- Freight aggregators. There are commercial shipping companies that go to certain countries that collect the packages until they have a full container or a full air freight container and then arrange to ship it. They have agents at the other end that take care of local delivery. These types of businesses will generally offer the lowest rates for a one time shipment. They don't go everywhere and you really want to have private insurance if you use them.

For years I have been shipping lutherie materials and supplies to my luthier friend Anamaria Paredes in Colombia. Even relatively small packages of about 10 lb. cost around $250 from the big companies, but the aggregator I use charges about $40. But I have to bring the box to a depot in Boston's Colombian immigrant neighborhood, and nobody there speaks English (my Spanish is barely up to the task!), and this place only ships to Colombia. The good news is, when I do this I get to have homemade arepas and Colombian coffee for breakfast at a place nearby, so there are some advantages other than the cheap shipping price!

Hope this helps. Good luck!