Tips for Shipping Internationally?

mwd

Power User
You make a point to make sure you ship Internationally if you decided to sell a Fractal. I get real nervous about the prospect of sending something to another Country. Not because I don't want my musical brothers to have some of the cool stuff we have but because it just seems so out of my control.

What comfort, advice and more importantly 'instruction' can you, or anyone give, regarding shipping a 1000 or 2000 dollar device to another Country.
 
Pack the hell out of it, and pack it properly.

When my shiny new Ultra turned up here years ago, it was a box with some form inserts suspending the unit inside the box. That's a good idea, but not enough on it's own IMO. The box had been punctured, and because there were only those little foam inserts inside, whatever it was went straight through to the unit and slightly damaged and shifted the front panel. A stronger box may have helped, but if not it's the same problem. Once something gets through that wall, it's a clear path to the unit inside.

If I were sending an Axe or something similar, I'd take that box (probably fill the space with packing material) and put it inside another bigger box, with the two separated all the way around by a decent layer of good packing material. The heavier the item, the better the packing material needs to be, i.e. shredded paper can be ok for really lightweight items, but for anything with a bit of weight, the weight will crush it down and when it arrives at the other end the contents will have been freely banging about inside in the box.

Anything can be damaged if one tries hard enough (and sometimes it seems they try very hard indeed), but you can certainly do a lot to help protect what's inside. I pack and ship every day as part of my work. At an old job, we used to ship bigger and much heftier rack units across the world (4U DVRs for mass transit). Much stronger boxes, thick custom cut foam inserts, and they were shipped in quantities on pallets. We still occasionally had damaged units. Doesn't really matter how well you've packed something when some moron drives his forks straight into the side of the pallet.
 
A friend of mine in USA bought AXE-FX II for me and then shipped it to me in Hong Kong. Original shipping box from FAS worked fine. Bought MFC101 from G66 and that one arrived safe as well.
 
Not worried about packing. I'm a packing fool. Shipped an 1890 typewriter to Taiwan that survived but thing is I shipped it to California to a buyers broker (or friend) and they forwarded it. I'm more worried about customs stuff, insurance, claims, loss, etc. Mainly protection stuff from getting burned.
 
Not worried about packing. I'm a packing fool. Shipped an 1890 typewriter to Taiwan that survived but thing is I shipped it to California to a buyers broker (or friend) and they forwarded it. I'm more worried about customs stuff, insurance, claims, loss, etc. Mainly protection stuff from getting burned.
Customs will be the receiver's problem. Insurance, read up on the carrier's terms, what their built in coverage is, what additional insurance costs. Loss? Well that's what insurance will also be for. But if it's genuinely lost (rather than say, temporarily misplaced or whatever), not much more one can do about it than to just be covered for it.

A friend of mine in USA bought AXE-FX II for me and then shipped it to me in Hong Kong. Original shipping box from FAS worked fine. Bought MFC101 from G66 and that one arrived safe as well.
I dunno how the Axe II is packed. I vaguely remember my MFC being pretty well packed. I remember when my old Atomic wedge turned up, the thing was packed as if the thing was going to be delivered to my house by it just being thrown straight out of the plane. I was laughing like an idiot while jumping up and down on the triangular cardboard insert they used. You could kill someone with that thing.

But just because something arrived to you safely, doesn't mean part of that wasn't just good fortune and it couldn't have been packed better. Plenty of times I've received shipments and been amazed that given how they were packed nothing broke on the way.
 
If you are worried about shipping internationally, then I would just NOT ship internationally. Fractal can do it because they are a company and even though they are small, they should have insurance and product loss built into their operating costs as a business. You, on the other hand, probably don't.

To prevent scams when shipping internationally, standard online buying/selling tips apply (with maybe a little extra scrutiny):
* insure the item for the correct/full amount
* save all tracking numbers, pay extra for tracking if you have to
* do not ship until payment is received and verified
* use a trustworthy payment processor, or even better, bitcoin
* research your buyer. don't sell until you are comfortable they are who they say they are. check their feedback from other online transactions.
* if anything feels odd or off, DON'T DO IT.
 
Pay the extra dollar or two for signature confirmation.

Find out if they have an eBay account and if they do, read the feedback comments. Find out if they've bought/sold gear on other forums and read through the threads and follow up.

I've bought and sold a ton of gear to and from the U.S. and Europe, over the last 10 years...so far, so good.
 
I have an XL and Ultra. Time may be coming to sell the Ultra. If I did sell it most likely it would be through eBay. I see where they have global shipping options and then there are built in protections via eBay and PayPal. At the same time eBay basically clamped on sellers a few years back and sold their souls for the protection of buyers since they were losing so much business.

My main concerns are if I did sell globally thru the eBay system and get paid with PayPal how high my risk would be to have the box get snagged somewhere whereas I don't have it, the buyer doesn't have it and people start coming back at me for refunds. And how to get reimbursed accurately for shipping when you don't know, in advance, where it might be going.

Shipping to the 48 Cont. US is fairly easy to guess your way into the ballpark.
 
It's a good question. Packing is nothing... that's purely mechanical... Just do a great job. Protecting yourself against fraud is the big challenge. Beware of PayPal, which favors the buyer -- even if he or she is a crook. When I used to sell a lot (1000+ ebay positives) I required International Money Orders or wire transfers into a temporary bank account. I shipped with full insurance, paid for by the buyer. Ship ONLY certified, despite the high cost. Always require a signature for delivery. Make everything clear in auctions ahead of time with a lengthy "BEFORE YOU BID" section. Do ship internationally, but don't ship anywhere and everywhere. Avoid Russia, Malaysia, Colombia, Italy, Montreal (sorry all, this list is based on experience!). It works. I know it does, because I used to track a number of units being bought in the US and re-sold on eBay. We know there are many Axe-Fx units in markets where we don't ship or sell directly. Brazil is probably at the top of the list.

Also, I hate to say this, but people on eBay act stupidly. If an auction attracts international buyers your price will be driven higher. You'll have more WATCHERS and BIDS. Sometimes, people in the US or Canada will get caught in the fervor and outbid a foreign buyer instead of waiting for a better opportunity. Then you'll get top dollar without the International hassles.
 
Last edited:
I'm an international buyer, have PP and ebay accounts with 100 feedback, have a verified US adress in Miami where i ask all of my stuff to be sent, from there that company shipps it to Honduras and it gets delivered to my door.

I pay via paypal but some times used MoneyGram to send payment in good faith because the seller is a trust worthy person, been doing this for almost 10 years now and so far i have not experienced a fraud, maybe im looki=y or just know how to pick the right items.

Never had a problem with sellers from this forum or other 4 i deal with, so far using the forums to buy and sell feels better then ebay.

Reverb.com feel like a trusth worthy place too, at least better then ebay.
 
For me...what is totally frustrating is the ignorance of many companies not knowing that the U.S. Territories are considered U.S.A. Domestic and insist on international rates and are totally indifferent to the matter. For the U.S. Territories the USPS Postal System has been very reliable and cost effective for decades. Flat Rate Postal Rates totally apply as well.

Next Day Air options reasonably of course won't apply but all the other services do.

As an example....package sent from L.A. to NYC would be the same actual cost if sent from L.A. to Guam....or vice versa.

Many companies are joining the band wagon on this ...yet others are steadfast on ignorance.
 
Back
Top Bottom