Shipping Prices...ouch...

[Dan Schultz]

I've had very good luck with Greyhound. Insurance is available depending of where you are shipping to. In some cases the liability limits are only $300. The bright side is that the cost of shipping a sousa cross-country will probably be less than $50.

[Joe Baker]

Cesar, one thing to be sure about with UPS is that you go to an ACTUAL UPS shipping center -- not a Mailboxes Etc. or other "Authorized" UPS place. The "Authorized" places have a huge markup.

I had one really, really, REALLY horrendous experience with Fedex Ground when they had just acquired RPS (7 or 8 years ago). It was so bad I haven't been back. But another frequent poster here, who ships things all the time, has sung their praises to me to the point that the next time I ship a package I'll use them. FWIW, he just sent me an extremely well-packed trombone slide -- smaller than a tuba, of course, but in a box 13"x5"x46", about the length and 1/3 to 1/4 the girth of a typical tuba carton. It cost him about $7, including insurance (he didn't say how much insurance -- probably $400 or so). I don't know EXACTLY how that would translate to a tuba, but I'll bet it would be less than $209.

BTW, the really horrendous experience all those years ago WAS shipping a small tuba -- and I remember the charge was less than $50.
_____________________________
Joe Baker, who is very much enjoying the trombone slide.

[Dylan King]

I recently sent my York sousaphone to France FedEx for $1200 shipping. YIKES!

[JayW]

greyhound all the way.... only down side is there is a limit as to what you can insure it for.... but the cost is much much less...and I have had good experiences with them....cost for an average tuba in hard case is probably about $50....and it usually arrives within a week.

[Rick Denney]

Well i shipped off my sold Horn today. Man it was expensive...

I shipped a Conn 20J in two boxes last year. I had to have the boxes custom made so they would be big enough to hold the body and bell parts with sufficient room for padding but not too large for UPS. The boxes alone were $70. Then, I had to buy packing materials. I used $25 worth of bubble wrap, and $10 worth of packaged paper towels (I found that paper towels, still in their plastic wrappers from the supermarket, worked well to isolated the instrument in the space of the box without leaning on the tender parts). Then, shipping with $1000 of insurance was $54 for one box and $36 for the other box, to get from Virginia to Maine. That comes pretty close to your $200.

I have also shipped an instrument in a Walt Johnson case from coast to coast using Amtrak, for $70 with $5000 of insurance.

Most dealers use truck freight for big tubas in their factory boxes, near as I can tell. Factory boxes are the way to go, if you are close to a store and can get them to give you or sell you one. I suspect the truck freight is cheaper, but it's harder to find someone reliable for a one-time use.

By the way, "The UPS Store" is just the renamed "Mailboxes, Etc." and they still charge a hefty markup. You will get better rates at the UPS depot. The biggest markup is in packing, though. I would have paid an extra hundred bucks to have them box up my 20J from scratch, and it would not have been done as well. I once was quoted $50 by a UPS Store to ship an empty, folded gig bag from coast to coast. I bought a standard box and mailed through the Postal Service for less than $10. But they won't take anything as big as a tuba.

Rick "who would trust Greyhound only for direct, station to station runs" Denney

[Matt G]

I've shipped tubas twice with Amtrak and received one once from Amtrak.

The cost is very low, and the risk of damage is even lower than Greyhound, due to the fact that they will handle the instrument only a few times, sometimes only to load it on and off. Plus, the train is much quicker than the bus for many obvious reasons.

You would definitely have access to a freight terminal in Miami, but they person on the other end must have access to a freight terminal as well. This can be hundreds of mile for some folks.

I have also received a horn via FedEx Ground (RPS) with good luck, but I had it dropped off at a warehouse where I worked during that time. The horn came quickly and with no damage, but was packed in the factory packaging, which is superior to anything else.

All in all $200 isn't all that bad. You can save more money, but expect more personal investment.

[Captain Sousie]

Yea i went to the actual UPS Store here in town

"The UPS Store" around here used to be a mailboxes etc. It is the same place, same markup, same bad service, just different name. What I think Joe means is did you go to the main shipping center in town, they tend be a huge warehuse-ish looking place and to only be open about 4-6 hours a day, but it is about 1/3 the cost of the place named "The UPS Store".

Hope this helps.

Sou

[Captain Sousie]

Oops, sorry Rick, I should have read all of your post first.

[Rick Denney]

Oops, sorry Rick, I should have read all of your post first.

That's too much to expect of anybody.

Rick "who has often repeated what has already been said as a result of inattention" Denney

[Tom]

Based on my experience buying a tuba from an east coast retailer and having it shipped to me in a carton (as detailed below), $200 is a pretty average price.

I've done a lot of my own tuba shipping...here's a redux of what I've done and about how much it has cost.

1. UPS from Dallas, TX to Baltimore, MD: F tuba in an Anvil trunk. Cost was c.$120 shipped and insured, as I recall. Horn was damaged in transit due to poor handling, I made an insurance claim on it, and after a lot of phone calls, faxes, and inspections, they paid up.

2. Amtrak from Baltimore, MD to Dallas, TX: CC tuba in aluminum case. Cost $50 even shipped and insured. Tuba arrived with no damage in 3 days. Amtrak has cut its shipping (package express service) way back and many stations don't offer shipping at all these days...really too bad since this way by far the safest and most economical way to ship a tuba in my opinion.

3. DHL Trucking from Baltimore, MD to Iowa: CC tuba in factory carton. Shipping cost was paid by sender, but was likely in the c.$200 range. Arrived in 4 or 5 days without damage. Expensive, but the carton was far too big for FedEx, UPS, and the like.

4. Greyhound from Dallas, TX to N. Michigan: CC tuba in wood case. Shipping was c. $85 or so. Got there in about a week with no damage. The downside is that they do not offer insurance and limit liability to something like $50 or $100 as I recall.

5. UPS from Dallas, TX to Iowa: Empty aluminum tuba flight case: Shipping was $38 with insurance. Arrived in a week with no damage. This particular case was originally shipped to me via UPS as well with no damage, but it took them 2 tries to get it to me (seems as if they drove the case out to the middle of Ohio before returning it to the sender on the first attempt ). UPS Ground seems to be a pretty safe way to ship things for a pretty low cost. They also have a "high value system" for stuff insured for $X,XXX+ that gives it a little more care.

6. UPS from New Jersey to Iowa: empty tuba case:
Shipping was c. $100 because it was packed in a carton. Arrived in 3 days (!!!) with no damage.

[tubafour]

Here's a shipping horror story:

I get my new horn from Tuba Exchange. I'm only 400 miles out, so it should only take 2 days, right? So I'm sitting here on the third day, but no tuba. I track it, and it was last checked in Kansas. I'm in Tennessee, and TE is in NC, and last time I checked, there is no Kansas in between. I wait one more day, and it has found its way all the way to Portland, Oregon. This is all between Roan Mountain and Durham, I suppose. By this time, I'm furious, with the biggest investment I've made in my life just floating around the country. It takes me a whole week of speaking with customer service reps to see why the heck my horn is in Oregon, and not Tennessee. They finally find it, and it's on its way back to me. Come to find out, the shipping manager at TE had gotten my zip code wrong (put 87687 instead of 37687--a little bit of difference). The day it finally arrived, I left school early to go meet my new beauty. It was worth it, but did it ever give me a heartache waiting on it. Hopefully next horn I buy WILL NOT be shipped, just because I now distrust shipping a tuba at all levels.

Josh "I have my tuba and haven't let it go since it went across the country and back" Stanley

[Chen]

I didn't read through all the posts, so if I someone has already mentioned this I apologize.

When I sold my Miraphone 186 CC (with MTS hard case), I did the whole thing online. I did not even have to step out of my door. And here's the best thing: I only paid about $60 total.

I went to UPS.com and scheduled a pick up, (UPS come pick up the tuba at my place). I just paid online, and printed out the label provided by UPS online then put it on the case, and wait for the UPS guy to come knock at my door. It was really no hassle at all, and I shipped the tuba in a hard case, without any extra protection. It arrived safely.

[Rick Denney]

Looking at these post here... I bet some of you guys or gals would love to have that big coffin to ship your tubas. But, what would the recipient do with the coffin when he gets his horn????

The manufacturers would rather ship the instruments in such a box than in the case. In fact, my understanding is that the cases are often shipped separately.

You can go to your local packaging shop or even a manufacturing facility that packages product for shipment, and they will probably be glad to take your foam peanuts. They store them in huge hoppers made of plastic sheeting, and drop them into their boxes from overhead. They always put peanuts they get from their suppliers into the hoppers so that they are recycled.

Rick "who hates the damn things" Denney

[MaryAnn]

[ Greyhound Package Express.

What about that guy who shipped his $10k tuba via GPE a couple years ago and never saw it again? There was considerable commentary on the old tubenet. I guess he had no applicable insurance.
MA

[Lew]

...

The manufacturers would rather ship the instruments in such a box than in the case. In fact, my understanding is that the cases are often shipped separately.
...
Rick "who hates the damn things" Denney

To reinforce the idea of shipping the case and horn separately, when I received my King 2341 (old, 2 piece version) in 1993 it was drop shipped from the factory. It arrived on an 18 wheeler (truck freight) in 3 boxes. There was one box for the tuba and 1 for each of the cases. The tuba was shrink wrapped to a sheet of cardboard in a huge box with cardboard stiffeners keeping it isolated from the edges of the box. This prevented any damage that could have ocurred from the horn banging against the case in transit. There were no peanuts or other packing around the horn. I guess they figured that they didn't need it because of the large air gap protecting the horn. I have no idea what this cost them, because I didn't pay separately for shipping due to a mix up with the first horn they shipped.