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MAILING BOXES OVER SEAS

I have been trying to get an idea of the cost of mailing boxes to different countries form the U S and WOW it looks like it would cost around $40+. Does this sound correct? Has anyone done it?

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Permalink Reply by Mortimer Snerd on October 3, 2009 at 4:09am

Probably the USPS will be your cheapest carrier Paul, UPS international is overnight only, so they got you by the wallet.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Doug on October 3, 2009 at 4:36am

USPS is what I was looking at. I went to there rates calculator on the internet. It was pretty hard to understand, for me anyway so that is why I'm asking. The only overseas mail I have ever done is to military APO or what ever it is.

Mortimer Snerd said:

Probably the USPS will be your cheapest carrier Paul, UPS international is overnight only, so they got you by the wallet.

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Permalink Reply by Mortimer Snerd on October 3, 2009 at 5:16am

Their shipping calculator isn't always correct, my brother works for the USPS, a big wig, and he found that it is best to box up what you want to send, take it to the post office, throw it on the scale and get a hard quote. I paid $20 to have a guitar neck shipped fom China, slow boat, took 10 days via USPS.
How many boxes are you wanting to ship Paul?

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Permalink Reply by Josh Gayou (SmokehouseGuitars) on October 3, 2009 at 10:27am

The first couple of times I shipped a guitar I got soaked. It's because typically a box that's big enough to fit a guitar is WAAAAY too big for it, which triggers some sort of price threshold and murders you in fees. I don't know if you're doing this or not, but take a new box (one that hasn't been put together yet) and cut it down to size so that it fits your guitar exactly. You don't want the dimensions to go any higher than about 39" x 12" x 4". If you can keep the dimensions of your box at those numbers or lower, you'll be in good shape and you'll find that the prices are a lot more manageable. If you're selling on eBay, enter those as your package dimensions for a large shipping box and set the weight at no heavier than 10 lbs (most of the guitars we build are easily lighter than 5 lbs).

Also, I used to offer UPS as a shipping option but really, I've never had a problem with USPS and they're priced much better.

For me, shipping within the US usually hovers between $15 and $20. Overseas varies but it can get up as high as $46 or $50. People outside of the US understand that there's going to be a hefty shipping fee, though. In most cases, if you go 50/50 with them they appreciate it a lot. In my case, any guitar that I sell for more than $500 gets free shipping automatically to anywhere.

Hope this is helpful to you.

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Permalink Reply by Greg on October 3, 2009 at 6:29pm

Perhaps some day the number of cbg builders in Europe will be high enough, so that it would be cost effective to ship containers of empty cigar boxes from the US to Europe. Meanwhile I'll try to get in touch with some local "cigar smoking clubs". Maybe they can help me... In Europe it's really hard to get these fine boxes for a good price that I always see on the photos. I'm a bit jealous, but probably I only have to try a little bit harder...

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Permalink Reply by Neal Daniel on October 7, 2009 at 11:24pm

I just bought 2 boxes from NY at about US$6 each. Shipping for them both in a shoe box to Australia cost me US$29.95. Unfortunately there's not much choice for boxes here and it's a long ways from the States. Only took 4 business days to get here tho' and customs didn't interfere at all

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Permalink Reply by Norm Nyburg on October 8, 2009 at 12:18am

Sounds like you need to open a cigar store ;-)

Neal Daniel said:

I just bought 2 boxes from NY at about US$6 each. Shipping for them both in a shoe box to Australia cost me US$29.95. Unfortunately there's not much choice for boxes here and it's a long ways from the States. Only took 4 business days to get here tho' and customs didn't interfere at all

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Permalink Reply by Neal Daniel on October 8, 2009 at 1:26am

Yeah, I used to smoke 'em...til I got married and had a son...real strong anti smokin attitude here in Oz over the last 20 years has meant the old style tobacconists are few and far between. I've just got to get out there and find 'em now I've got this new hobby :)

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Permalink Reply by Wichita Sam on October 9, 2009 at 4:49am

Just got an estimate to ship two boxes from Kansas, USA to the UK..... $ 20.30 for 1st class (6-10 days), $ 36.90 for Priority International (3-5 days).... When I'm only asking $ 3 a box, it must feel to the buyer like someone's getting rich, but I don't get a kick-back for the postal service..... When you have to go to the post office twice for a $ 6 transaction that will have PayPal fees eating up any "profit", you have to be doing it to help out your CBG "brethern" in cigarbox challenged countries.....

the best,

Wichita Sam

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Permalink Reply by Roosterman on October 9, 2009 at 8:23am

Ah, it was just the 2 Ots, but boy was I happy to have them! :o)
Cant remember what it cost in dollars, but it worked out at £15 - and I gotta say, when Im used to paying £5 each for our smaller boxes on ebay, £7.50 for a big ass American box delivered to my door is superb!