I have been charged unbelievably large sums to ship swords, for exchanges, repairs, and now a sword that I have sold. I see that sword makers charge about $28 to $30 for shipping, but I am getting chagrd twice that. Any advice on how to keep shipping costs down?

Who do you use?

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I'm afraid I'm not much help with shipping costs, but I'll be watching this thread with interest.

When I sold my Gallowglass, a 48" (ish) long sword, I shipped it to Canada (the part that's on the opposite side of the continent from me, in Maine) for around $20.00 . This was through my local post office, and I packaged it before bringing it to them, and declared it as "handmade decorative metalwork". I also did not insure it. I was quoted around $150.00 to ship it by FedEx or UPS (I don't recall which), but this may have been because I didn't package it before bringing it to them and they declared it as a weapon or something.

Yeah, I've considered selling a couple of my swords but I always hesitated because I didn't know if it was best to buy a box and package it myself and then bring it in or just bring the sword in. That'd certainly raise some eyebrows, right? :eek: Also, I had no idea what the rates were betweeen UPS, going to the post office, etc. I always wonder what others do. :?: Good topic!

If you want to ship USPS internationally and get a tracking number you will have to ship it Global Express Mail, this comes with tracking. It is expensive but still cheaper than UPS or Fed EX, it is the only way we ship internationally. The first $100 of insurance comes with it, additional insurance is extra.

I once tried to ship a sword at USPS, and they were going to charge me around $150. When I asked why it was so much, they told me it was because of how I put the shipping information on. Apparently, if your shipping information is put on so that it implies that the box is to stand tall, the shipping is vastly more expensive than if the writing is put on to imply that the box is to lay horizontal.

I just shipped a sword from Maine to Wisconsin using USPS Priority mail. Cost me $22.50. It was ain a heavy wooden packing crate covered with carboard. Because it was a single hander it did not go over their standard size limit.

Thanks for all the help. I just shipped a CS Grosse Messer for about $30.00. I used USPS, and made the package as compact as possible. Fedex, and UPS were a lot more expensive. Just be efficient in your packing is my advice.

I have heard that DHL is trying to compete with fedex and UPS and has more reasonable rates.

as much as we like mr brown around here, I have to say this past year three different swords have been damaged shipping with UPS. the first was one I shipped out that arrived to a customer with a bashed in box and a break in a scabbard. box looked like something heavy was dropped on it. second one was shipped to me from NY, antique arrived with a cracked ivory handle and again box looked like it had been in a NHL game. and then to top it off last week, a sword arrived here from texas with a cracked saya. meanwhile I have had zero problems with the USPS.

Unfortunately its not a statistical fluke.........we ship sensitve electronic equipment out of here and have had to stop using UPS for the same reasons.

I am not sure what is going on exactly, but I am concerned with UPS ground logistics that as a package moves from one sorting center to another stuff is getting really thrown around. Interestingly, we have not had as many problems with UPS second day air.

just my $0.02
tr

I ship swords often and I've discovered:

If it is is domestic shipping within the United States, you should be able to ship pretty much anywhere with insurance for around 30 dollars. I typically use Fedex because they have better tracking then USPS and don't typically employ the winged monkeys that UPS does.

If it is international shipping the shipping is often 5 times that cost using Fedex.

Assuming that you are talking about domestically within the United States your shipper may be charging you 30 dollars in actual shipping charges and another 30 dollars for the shipping container. Depending upon what that container is, that may be entirely reasonable. I typically ship back in the box that the sword was shipped to me in so I do not incur that charge. If someone wants a new case there is an additional 25 dollar charge.

I just picked up my package from Albion today and their shipping cost was $17.84 plus insurance via USPS. It was taken to the post office in New Glarus on 30 Oct and it arrived here in Portland, OR on 19 Nov. Not bad at all!