Whats the deal with CONUS only?

[laklandfan07]

I get it, mailing a rather expensive piece of gear across a border may seem intimidating to a degree. But if a buyer is willing to pay the shipping and obviously accepts duties, why are so many reluctant? The buyer accepts all the risk and Im just in CANADA haha

I inquired on a bass on Reverb and they stated CONUS only, only to further drop the price a few days later. Even still, they said no dice when i followed up. It’s dropped 30% since it went up originally so i assume they want it offloaded.

anyway, just venting haha. Is there like an extra charge or some kind of additional liability Americans take on when shipping to another country?

i just want to give you money for your bass, but you would rather drop the price than ship within the same continent?

 

[matti777]

I can only assume there is some fear of the unknown. As a Canadian I have shipped and bought from the US countless times. Usually all that is involved for the shipper is providing a little more info about what is being shipped and its value. Obviously its going to cost a bit more too. All the potential extra expenses will be for the buyer.

 

[5StringPocket]

I’d ship from the US to Canada, but overseas gets more expensive and complicated.

 

[punkwithflats]

Every single time I've sold to someone in a different country they've asked me to say I sold it for a much lower price than I actually did. Every. Single. Time. I'm not 100% comfortable with that and since selling is such a PITA anyway.....

 

[Bruce Johnson]

I get it, mailing a rather expensive piece of gear across a border may seem intimidating to a degree. But if a buyer is willing to pay the shipping and obviously accepts duties, why are so many reluctant? The buyer accepts all the risk and Im just in CANADA haha

I inquired on a bass on Reverb and they stated CONUS only, only to further drop the price a few days later. Even still, they said no dice when i followed up. It’s dropped 30% since it went up originally so i assume they want it offloaded.

anyway, just venting haha. Is there like an extra charge or some kind of additional liability Americans take on when shipping to another country?

i just want to give you money for your bass, but you would rather drop the price than ship within the same continent?
View attachment 5444265

A solution to your immediate problem is a company called BonVu (Bonvu.com). They specialize in exactly what you are asking for: Handling shipment of individual items overseas. They built up their business to help Europeans buy items on US Ebay. But now they provide the service almost worldwide, either direction.

It works like this: They are in Austin, TX. When you buy the bass, you have the Seller ship the bass to BonVu in Texas, which they should be willing to do. BonVu checks the packaging, does all the Customs paperwork, and books it on a plane to your country. At your end, you can pick it up at the airport, or they will have your local delivery service take it to your door. You pay BonVu for the whole deal, including any Customs or Import Fees. They will tell you the total price up front, before it ships, and you can do quick estimates right on their web site.

This service sounds expensive, but amazingly enough, it's usually less expensive overall than if you process the shipment yourself directly through one of the shippers (UPS, FedEx, DHL). They work with all the shippers, and have good rates with them.

And, most important, they know what they are doing handling all the paperwork through Customs. They do it all electronically, and it's all cleared through Customs at the other end, before your shipment leaves Austin. If there's some hangup, your bass sits in BonVu's warehouse while they clear it up. It doesn't disappear into a Customs dept forever. They ship a lot of individual musical instruments, and are completely familiar with all the rules and laws and import fees, etc. You'll get a straight answer up front from them on the total cost.

I've used BonVu's service maybe ten times to ship basses to England, Germany, Spain and Japan. Very simple and trouble-free, and not expensive.

Also, if you are selling a Bass in the US, and get an inquiry from a potential buyer in Europe, you can quickly get a quote on the full price to ship it to Europe. Let the buyer make the arrangements with BonVu and pay for it. Then you just ship the bass to Austin.

 

[jd56hawk]

Hmm, I might ask what's the deal with Long & McQuade refusing to ship to the States.

 

[ThinCrappyTone2]

I get it, mailing a rather expensive piece of gear across a border may seem intimidating to a degree. But if a buyer is willing to pay the shipping and obviously accepts duties, why are so many reluctant? The buyer accepts all the risk and Im just in CANADA haha

I inquired on a bass on Reverb and they stated CONUS only, only to further drop the price a few days later. Even still, they said no dice when i followed up. It’s dropped 30% since it went up originally so i assume they want it offloaded.

anyway, just venting haha. Is there like an extra charge or some kind of additional liability Americans take on when shipping to another country?

i just want to give you money for your bass, but you would rather drop the price than ship within the same continent?
View attachment 5444265

For me it’s an irrational concern that Canadian money is not real, is in fact just colored Monopoly money, and I will only be able to spend it on hockey equipment, Rush tickets and Poutine.

 

[KenD]

Many Americans seem to be unaware of the fact that the USA, Mexico and Canada have entered into a comprehensive free trade agreement (USMC) that makes cross-border commercial transactions between those countries must simpler and less cumbersome. In addition, because of USMC the USPS and Canada Post are tightly integrated.

Many of those American sellers that are willing to ship to Canada insist on using a third party "shipping partner" for such shipments. The customer is charged USPS first class rates - the "shipping partner" provides third class bulk mail service. Global Post is far and away the worst at that.

 

[buldog5151bass]

Shipping a cross borders is a PIA, never mind figuring out currency differences. Some people don't want to go through the hassle, just like some people do their own setups, and others would rather pay someone to do it.

 

[KenD]

Shipping a cross borders is a PIA, never mind figuring out currency differences. Some people don't want to go through the hassle, just like some people do their own setups, and others would rather pay someone to do it.

Since you get paid in US dollars, currency differences are the buyer's problem. Just saying.

 

[buldog5151bass]

Depends on how you get paid. Either way (as someone who sometimes ships over the border, it's more of a pain.

 

[KenD]

Depends on how you get paid. Either way (as someone who sometimes ships over the border, it's more of a pain.

Such an unbearable pain - fill out a Customs Declaration. One form.

 

[Lance Bunyon]

CITES restrictions.
Russian scammers.
The inability to legally follow up on any international scammer.

 

[el murdoque]

I've shipped to Japan, which was quite the adventure. The address was nothing like an address is supposed to look like in my book. I was totally unsure where to put all the data on in form that is clearly designed to accept a different kind of data.

But that's where the weird stuff ends. The buyer paid a fortune in shipping, so did I. But in the end, I carried the parcel to the post office, dropped it off and that was it from my side.

I do think that people fear all kinds of possible scams and want to deal with fellow countrymen only, where the payment comes in in their own currency from a source they understand, and shipping is easy, too.

 

[micguy]

Hmm, I might ask what's the deal with Long & McQuade refusing to ship to the States.

Dealers often have agreements with certain manufacturers that they have to sell on their turf only. If they violate that, they can lose their dealership for that manufacturer.

I worked for a company who's gear is sold pretty much everywhere in the planet. Trying to control distribution and protect dealers in 270 countries is a tall task. Parallel imports are a real issue - if someone somewhere in the world can get something for a few dollars cheaper and send it in big lots, avoiding tariffs to someone half a world away, suddenly you have a dealership in a town with 100 people who buys 10,000 units a month from you, and ships them overseas (without paying tariffs, etc). Raise their price $5, and suddenly those orders stop. A couple months later, you see someone in Vietnam or wherever buying...10,000 units a month. Oh, that's where they were going. Your distributor in Vietnam is working hard to get sales going in his or her country, they want credit and their cut of the sales. Making sure that stuff isn't resold across borders is part of supporting your dealer base.

 

[g-dude]

You guys know what you did, and apparently so does the seller.

 

[Discount Bassy]

I was in negotiations for a sale to a customer in last summer. The shipping to just inside the US border was about half of what it was to 50 miles further, just across the border in Canada. We opted to ship to an intermediary in the US who was willing to drive 45 minutes for a meal with a friend. This was not a large or expensive item. The shipping price to Canada was initially a deal breaker.

 

[KenD]

I was in negotiations for a sale to a customer in last summer. The shipping to just inside the US border was about half of what it was to 50 miles further, just across the border in Canada. We opted to ship to an intermediary in the US who was willing to drive 45 minutes for a meal with a friend. This was not a large or expensive item. The shipping price to Canada was initially a deal breaker.

I have always found USPS costs to be reasonable and would specify them for smaller, less expensive items.

 

[Discount Bassy]

I have always found USPS costs to be reasonable and would specify them for smaller, less expensive items.

My listing offered three shipping alternatives including USPS, UPS and FedEx. None priced to a number the seller was accepting and I was at a price that was not able to be adjusted without loss.

 

[jnewmark]

There's also the probability of the item getting hung up in customs in the country you're shipping to. I have no experience with musical instruments, but, in another life, I was a shipping clerk that did alot of international shipping of different items. Canada wasn't too bad, but other countries would keep things in Customs for weeks sometimes, for no apparent reason. Customer wants to know what's going on, then gets more impatient, then demands a refund. Meantime, you have no clue or point person to talk to in the destination country. Admittedly, this was years ago, so maybe things have changed, but it was a big headache when I was doing this kind of shipping.