Shipping Costs

[MochaFiend]

I recently had an idea to sell my Kala solid body bass to someone who I thought would make better use of it than I had been. We agreed on a price but neither had any idea about shipping costs so I went to UPS, FedEx, and the Post Office (USA).

The prices were absolutely eye-watering.

A Kala Ubass is small and light, and the whole thing double-boxed was less than 13 pounds. For ground shipping, slow crawl, with no other features, this is what they quoted me:

UPS: $88
FedEx: $114
USPS: $129

I guess this stunned me because I was paying $85 to ship bicycle trainers that weigh about 70 pounds from NY to anywhere in the US in 2021. Has shipping really become that unaffordable over the past few years? It makes me wonder how luthiers or even sellers here or on Reverb are adjusting to the costs.

I'm asking because I was thinking about selling my Fender Jazz and Precision basses, but given that they're in OHSC, longer, wider, and significantly heavier than the Kala Ubass, I don't see how I can price them. I mean, if someone was selling me a bass and told me it'd be $200 for shipping, I'd pass... but now I'm thinking maybe that's reasonable.

Anyone else have similar recent experiences with shipping costs?

 

[climber]

prices have gone up for sure and Fed Ex and USPS are more than UPS. check out PirateShip.com. I ship a lot of stuff on Reverb and it always has teh best prices

 

[secondbestcody]

Use PirateShip.com. I ship basses, in cases, using the FedEx guitar boxes for $65-$75.

 

[DrBnz]

I'll 2nd the PIRATE ship.... I ship a lot - all across the country. It's a big savings to me.

 

[J-Bass RMR]

so I went to UPS, FedEx, and the Post Office (USA).

OOPS!
PIRATESHIP!
UPS.

It will be there on the day they say it will be there.