International Shipping of guitars (UK to USA)

[snakehips]

Hi there !

OMG ! I just sold a Kay dreadnought acoustic guitar to a buyer in the USA. I packaged up the guitar in a hard case, then in a shipping box.
The shipping box was literally only about 10cm longer than the guitar case, so I’ve made sure I’ve used most of the 10cm packing space in the bottom of the box, where the end-pin end of the guitar will be.
The box is nice and deep so plenty of space in the front & back of the guitar case to cocoon the guitar safely.

Took it to my local “Parcels” postage centre, who use all the relevant shipping agents.

I was told the “dimensional weight” is over the maximum for Fedex and Parcelforce.
Only UPS will ship my guitar in the current box dimensions, and will cost £660 to ship, plus another £60 if I want to insure it to the guitar’s £1400 value.

OMG !

The maximum box dimensions I could go to, at the same length of box, is 52cm x 26cm x it’s 112cm length, and that will cost £350 to ship to the USA, excluding insurance.

OMG, the prices have gone way up and the maximum dimensions must have been reduced too.

I don’t feel I can reduce the dimensions all that much without compromising the safety of the guitar during international shipping.

Any suggestions, anyone ?

[Michael Messer]

I ship MM Guitars to the US all the time, dimensions 116cm x 47cm x 25cm - weight 10.5kg on all instruments. I use UPS and pay around £170.00. I do not insure any guitars that I ship around the world, no matter what its value is. I recently shipped a vintage guitar to the US with UPS valued at £4000.00 and did not insure it. I have shipped dozens of guitars to the US with UPS. I forget the exact details now as it was a while ago, but I made sure my shipping boxes were within a certain size specification to avoid much higher costs.

Shine On
Michael

[littlebobby]

Have a look at overland express. They specialise in shipping guitars and insure as part of the deal at a really good price. Easy to work with too.

[mitchfit]

buyer may get injured by USA import duties. have bought numerous items from UK before that weren't taxed, but around march of 2024 an MM blues '36 guit was do-o-o-died. spent the night in jail also, 2 nights would have required extra bail money.

will bypass my snotty remarks about all the new protections our govt has saved us with...

you may also need to have proof the woods used for construction of the guit aren't toxic**. don't know if older instruments get "grandfathered in" around this new-ish rule or not.

mitchfit

**if i had just made that up, NOBODY would believe it.

[Michael Messer]

The USA import duties are usually 10% of cost of everything including shipping. So if a guitar is sold for £100 and the shipping is £50, the import duty will be calculated from £150. There will also be a small handling charge. I have never understood the handling charge because I just paid UPS a chunk of money to ship the item!

Then there are the Importation of Toxic and Sustainable Materials. The LACEY form and the TSCA form (Toxic Substance Control Act Declaration) - These requirements vary from state to state. Sometimes when I ship a guitar to the US nobody asks for anything, and sometimes they want all the documentation filled in correctly.

Here are samples of those forms.....

I have left one part of it filled in to show what information is required about the materials. And all in my best Latin!





Shine On
Michael

[snakehips]

Hi again !

Many thanks for all the advice.
I was able to send the £1400 guitar from Edinburgh to Colorado, fully insured for £268, with Overland Express, using UPS as the shipping company.
I did cut the box down though and double-box it, with packaging material under the bottom of the inside box.