What’s the best shipping method. I’ve been paying $125 for FedEx ground and am having trouble finding anything better. UPS USPS are more. That’s for horn/case in a box. Any suggestions?

USPS recently jacked their prices up significantly to ship cross country. Ironically FedEx and UPS are sometimes the same or even cheaper now.

If you are comfortable shipping without the case that can nearly cut shipping in half due to the smaller box and less weight. If you pack well its usually safer to shop without the case too!

[quote="mrdeacon"]USPS recently jacked their prices up significantly to ship cross country. Ironically FedEx and UPS are sometimes the same or even cheaper now.

If you are comfortable shipping without the case that can nearly cut shipping in half due to the smaller box and less weight. If you pack well its usually safer to shop without the case too![/quote]

+1!

In the end, it's all about box size.

12x12x40 seems to be the magic number for tenors. If you go larger, the price really goes up. At this size, UPS is typically least expensive, at least from my location.

Airbags or a few inches of large bubble in both ends of the box, crumpled shipping paper, cornstarch peanuts, or large bubble for side fill (typically whatever I have to recycle). Stuff the bell full of small bubble wrap to cushion against the end of the case to prevent crumpling. Pack bell end up, then mark "UP" with arrows on the outside of the box. Put the label on top, so if the box gets dropped, the bell will, with luck, be facing up (thanks to Benn Hansson for the tip!).

More and more often, like Mr. Deacon, I'm just shipping horns in their hard cases only, wrapped with several layers of plastic wrap. This is absolutely the least expensive way to ship (thanks to DJ for this tip!). So long as the horn is padded out REALLY well inside the case (and I spare no time, effort, or expense in this regard), this method has worked great. Leave the handle accessible and plaster with "FRAGILE" stickers. I've shipped many horns and cases this way with absolutely no damage to either. It takes a leap of faith in the beginning, but now I'm convinced that visible cases with accessible handles get handled much more carefully than generic cardboard boxes.

I shipped a 3B-F in a bubble wrapped and boxed factory case. The numbnuts at UPS must have dropped it hard on the bell end because the bell was crumpled on arrival. They denied the claim even though I paid extra for their "insurance" because I didn't have 3" of padding all the way around, something I didn't know was a requirement until after the fact. I had a King 7B bass sent to me with the only packing done being the case wrapped in brown paper - no padding, nada, and it arrived unscathed. No rhyme or reason.

The days of cheap shipping are over I think.

The best and cheapest way is to ship USPS with no case. Most of the price comes from the weight of the case.

Shipping to and from Hawaii has gotten even more expensive now via USPS. They used to be the cheapest choice (priority), but now I’m not so sure if UPS or FedEx ground would be cheaper.

USPS has to pay the cost of re-installing the machines and OT to deliver the backlog of mail. :)