Shipping costs

[Jon]

I just sent my first guitar through the mail. I sent it via UPS. The dimensions were 40 x 12 x 8 and it weighed less than 7 pounds. It was $60! $60! What? Is that what you guys are paying to ship something? I never thought it was gonna cost that much. Is there a way to bring that cost down? Is the post office any cheaper? How can you pay $60 shipping on 150 or $200 guitar? Anyway, I need some help from you guys who have done this before and know the ropes. Thanks

[Joe Vernice]

Did you try the USPS? They are usually more reasonable than UPS or FedEx.

[Southern Ray]

 I looked closely at the USPS rates for CBG-sized shipping. It's about $4-5 an inch. Just a few years ago, there was "balloon rates". Something like at 60 inches total it would be one price, add one inch to that range and it could jump 200%. It was insane.  That's where the box resizer I mentioned earlier in another thread came in handy. Saved me a small fortune..I couldn't find any such "balloon rates" in the range I tried. 

 I tried Fed-X and UPS. Local Fed-X local shop here is incompetent and lazy. UPS broke everything bigger than a shoe-box. Had good luck with USPS overall. INSURE EVERYTHING.

[Joe Vernice]

At USPS a 6lb 36”x12”x4” box ships from NY to CA for about 28 dollars. The price jumps if you go over any dimension by an inch.

[Jon]

Thank you. All I know is $60 is out of control!

[Southern Ray]