Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi,

I posted this question about in an other post, but didn't get a reply, so I have some questions about the classifieds.
Do most of the people selling ship worldwide?? Because I live in Macedonia and I don't want to spent the money on the membership fee just to watch others get all the goodies

If anyone has any information buying and shipping intentionally please share your experience.

Regards, Gorjan

Welcome to the forum, Gorjan!

To your question, I think it depends on the individual, although I would bet most sellers would be willing to ship internationally as long as the item is not something that is illegal to ship outside the US, and you cover the shipping charges.

I guess I am going to subscribe, it is not a great amount anyways.

Thank you for your reply, Gorjan

i´ve bought some stuff there, most sellers are friendly guys willing to help you out - but most of the folks are in the US and shipping charges and customs are not your friends when you´re buying large items (such as tops, backs and sides or that tasty deal on a nice Lie-nielsen plane)and living far away.

still, i gladly pay the 10 bucks just to help the forum.

cheers,
miguel.

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member of the guild of professional dilettantes

Yea its one thing that kinda stumps me too because on ebay a huge majority of the sellers would not ship internationally and honestly its no more difficult than shipping in the US, with only one extra form to fill out and higher shipping cost (which the buyer would pay).

Its hard to do this in the US but in the rest of the world there are sea shipping for the larger items if the buyer is willing to wait a bit.

A tip for sellers if you are sending tops, backs, and sides overseas is to pack as small as possible to reduce shipping cost. If someone buys 4 back and side sets and 3 tops, you can bound them up all together and the whole package should cost about $100 dollars to ship to say Taiwan or Europe. Peanuts and stuff aren't needed because the only way they can get damaged is if someone drives over them with a truck, which wouldn't matter how it was packed in the first place. Size can jack up shipping cost almost as much as weight.

I ordered that much wood (plus some neck blanks and fingerboards) from espen.de and the whole package costs 50 euros to ship to Taiwan. It was fairly tightly packed though. The same shipment would have cost over twice as much coming from LMI because their packages would be at least twice as big.

For buyers just try making a larger order to make shipping cost less of an issue.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

Actually, it takes less than driving a truck over a package to damage a set of tops (or two). We have had to claim insurance on a package or two that looked as though they had something sharp-edged and heavy dropped on them. Wrecked the top two sets, in one case. Ever since, I have packed tops with something harder as the outside surface. Usually maple or whatever I have lying around. I try to keep packaging to a minimum, but a certain amount of protection is necessary.

Anyway, back to the original topic- if you're willing to pay shipping, I'm willing to ship it. Simple as that. For packages going by mail, paperwork is a lot less extensive than by courier or freight, and is almost a non-issue. (Other than things like mahogany and other Appendix II woods, of course.)

Lincoln