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Shipping Fees = Prohibitive

Have shipping fees impacted your ability to buy/sell?

  • Yes . But I deal with it

    Votes: 77 50.0%

  • Yes. So much so, now I'm just a window shopper

    Votes: 31 20.1%

  • No. I found a trick to ship without losing my backside

    Votes: 32 20.8%

  • No. I'm screwed by the inflated shipping fees, but don't care

    Votes: 14 9.1%
  • Total voters
    154
#102
nozkcb said:
I know the cost of everything is up, but I just (almost) sold a bass on Reverb and after entering the box info was given prices by FedEX and UPS ranging from $932 - $234.

This is for Ground Shipping! Not overnight, not priority, not pick up, just the same type of shipping I've used 100+ times in the past, where it used to range between $40 - $100 (on the high end with insurance on an expensive bass).

How do people sell stuff now and eat the shipping without going deep underwater on the sale?

Interested in some input
Click to expand...
I shipped a bass from North Carolina to California and it cost $568 through Fedex(This included $5000 insurance). This was my first time shipping an instrument and I was quite surprised by the cost. It's incentive to sell locally if possible.
 
#103
If possible shop local. And I know that it's not always possible to shop local but if you can support your local mom and pop music stores or a local person that's selling pretty much what you're looking for... it's probably worth it. That is to say if it was priced fairly to begin with. And if it has a nice hard shell case? That sweetens the deal even more.
 
#107
Minimalist said:
That's an early AM Saturday delivery. Those have always been expensive. Completely unrealistic and misleading to use this as an example. I recently shipped a bass from GA to New England and it was like $75. I find that rather reasonable for a large box.
Click to expand...
I just shipped a bass from coast to coast, 2-day Air (insured $5k) with UPS/Pirate Ship for $200. Ground was around $90. FedEx would have been $400+.
 
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#108
As packages get larger in total inches (L+W+D), prices do seem to go up exponentially, even if the weight doesn't.

Last fall, a blown tire destroyed a tandem axle plastic fender skirt on my travel trailer. The replacement skirt had to be shipped in a box that was about 80x15x5, yet extremely light. The $92 (retail) piece of kiddie pool plastic was $108 to ship UPS Ground from Indiana to Connecticut.

My small local dealer and I even thought of having the factory toss it inside a new unit for a future delivery, but she didn't expect any deliveries from that factory until this spring.
 
#109
I hadn't sold a bass on TB in at least five years until recently. Sold the bass for $525 and it cost me $130 to ship from CO to CA via USPS. That's a lot but also seemed like a bargain after I talked to UPS who wanted $360! Same bass, same box, same packing materials, same insurance. UPS prices are ABSURD.

The cost of shipping has definitely cut down on my buying and selling. Reverb prices are just ridiculous. Everyone is getting hit with the shipping. I get it. But selling a used item with shipping for the same, sometimes more, than the same item brand new from Sweetwater with free shipping just doesn't work. No wonder so much used gear is just sitting right now.
 
#110
Plain Old Barry said:
As packages get larger in total inches (L+W+D), prices do seem to go up exponentially, even if the weight doesn't.

Last fall, a blown tire destroyed a tandem axle plastic fender skirt on my travel trailer. The replacement skirt had to be shipped in a box that was about 80x15x5, yet extremely light. The $92 (retail) piece of kiddie pool plastic was $108 to ship UPS Ground from Indiana to Connecticut.

My small local dealer and I even thought of having the factory toss it inside a new unit for a future delivery, but she didn't expect any deliveries from that factory until this spring.
Click to expand...

It's called dimensional weight. I forgot the formula, but at a certain point the dimensions are more important than the weight.

Felix1776 said:
I hadn't sold a bass on TB in at least five years until recently. Sold the bass for $525 and it cost me $130 to ship from CO to CA via USPS. That's a lot but also seemed like a bargain after I talked to UPS who wanted $360! Same bass, same box, same packing materials, same insurance. UPS prices are ABSURD.

The cost of shipping has definitely cut down on my buying and selling. Reverb prices are just ridiculous. Everyone is getting hit with the shipping. I get it. But selling a used item with shipping for the same, sometimes more, than the same item brand new from Sweetwater with free shipping just doesn't work. No wonder so much used gear is just sitting right now.
Click to expand...

The published rates are crazy. Almost no business that ships at least 20-30 packages a day is paying those rates. Sweetwater is paying just a small fraction of those rates.
 
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#112
nozkcb said:
I know the cost of everything is up, but I just (almost) sold a bass on Reverb and after entering the box info was given prices by FedEX and UPS ranging from $932 - $234.

This is for Ground Shipping! Not overnight, not priority, not pick up, just the same type of shipping I've used 100+ times in the past, where it used to range between $40 - $100 (on the high end with insurance on an expensive bass).

How do people sell stuff now and eat the shipping without going deep underwater on the sale?

Interested in some input
Click to expand...
I noticed the same thing this week when I loaded up a guitar to sell on my account. I don't sell guitars frequently but I've had a Reverb account for well over 10 years.
 
#114
Minimalist said:
It's called dimensional weight. I forgot the formula, but at a certain point the dimensions are more important than the weight.

The published rates are crazy. Almost no business that ships at least 20-30 packages a day is paying those rates. Sweetwater is paying just a small fraction of those rates.
Click to expand...

Agreed on both. A 17 pound road bike is another great example with the skirt.

I have a corporate account and rates are often 20% of retail. Not 20% off, 20% of...
 
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#115
It’s not just the high fees. It’s the frustration of paying the high fees, and then having them damage or lose the item. Or take weeks to deliver. I once had an order delivered by USPS three months late. I had given up and ordered another. And forget about filing a claim. It’s futile.
 
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#116
Stevorebob said:
Well, er…
Click to expand...

GOOD NEWS!!!! The price for GROUND has dropped from an absurd Saturday shipping rate for GROUND of over $200 to a bargain of only $170 on Monday.

For those who actually offered advise and didn't make the decision to jump into this post just to stir the pot, sling snark and vitriol, thank you!

(BTW, I was sure to capture the whole price range for MONDAY)

The point was and still is, it used to be a lot more reasonable, and it's disappointing that between the selling fees, the payment fees and shipping, it has become very difficult to not lose a lot of money on a piece of gear, which makes it hard to try different gear. For context, I've been buying and selling gear on-line since the 90's and this is the worst it has ever been.

Sorry my highly controversial posting made so many people so crazed.

CAShipping.JPG
 
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#117
nozkcb said:
I know the cost of everything is up, but I just (almost) sold a bass on Reverb and after entering the box info was given prices by FedEX and UPS ranging from $932 - $234.

This is for Ground Shipping! Not overnight, not priority, not pick up, just the same type of shipping I've used 100+ times in the past, where it used to range between $40 - $100 (on the high end with insurance on an expensive bass).

How do people sell stuff now and eat the shipping without going deep underwater on the sale?

Interested in some input
Click to expand...

Yes! You got me. Because I was bored and wanted to get a bunch of people to attack me with insults and gotcha replies, I admit it! I tried to trick everyone so they would pile on snark and insults, because as you can see in that second line, I carefully crafted the works to intentionally omit (what seemed obvious) "$234 was for .... the Ground Shipping".

For my malicious attempt to lie/trick/mislead people, along with my insufficiently long screen capture, all I can do is beg for your forgiveness.
 

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