Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Guys,
I just sold a bass to a guy in Turkey. Never shipped there before, and the rates I am getting back from FedEx and UPS are astounding, $250-ish. Not to mention the guy is a Zero feedbacker and signed up yesterday. I'm very worried that it might be a scam. I already emailed him and asked that he somehow verify himself and how he is going to pay for it. Anyone have any experience on shipping overseas and the best way to go with it? Thanks in advance!

i wouldn't get too deep until you have the cash in hand.

I'm not, believe me. But I wanna give a realistic estimate so I don't get burned on shipping.

Like Sean said, don't send the instrument until you've got the cash in hand (or the bank) for it.

I've shipped instruments to various countries around the world without any problems. Make sure the instrument is very well packed to start.

If you use UPS, you might be able to ship the instrument "Freight Collect". This means, you'll ship the instrument to the guy and he paids all shipping related charges at the time of delivery to the driver. And of course you won't ship until you've received full payment for the instrument first.

This way you don't have to guess up front how much to charge.

Just a suggestion and perhaps worth looking into.

Steve, you know the obvious... Check out USPS - most times the rates are much cheaper. The only drawback is to certain countries they limit the insured amount.

Good luck!

My understanding with USPS is that once it leaves the US, It's not insured. They buyer should have checked out the charges with you prior to bidding. Personally, I don't allow out of the country bidders. This can be blocked using your preferences.

If he doesn't pay, you can always "second chance" the next highest bidder

I had an amp cabinet shipped to me from the US to Israel with Bax Global and it was relatively cheap. Check their website.

When I've shipped to Europe, I've used USPS. They have the best rates by far. The drawback is as Any mentioned, but most people don't want you to claim much anyway since they don't want to pay the crazy amount of customs import tax. So, then it ships at their own risk. Thankfully I haven't had a problem when shipping to Europe.

Steve,

I have my fingers crossed that you are not going to get stiffed by this first-time bidder.

Last week a new "zero feedbacker" hit the Buy It Now button on my Gibson Firebird auction, despite the "no zero feedback" warning in my listing. He never responded to my emails and was "no longer a registered user" within 24 hours.

I still have the guitar of course, and eBay credited me with their commission fee, but here I am a week later having to start the auction from scratch again.

I've bought (from the US) and sold a number of guitars to buyers in Ireland, Germany, US, Canada, Thailand etc and I've found Fedex to be quick, reliable but expensive. The item can also be tracked online at any point of the journey.

Good luck....I hope you get your payment OK.

USPS has a total length limit and I don't think they'll ship basses out of the country. $250.00 isn't bad to ship a bass to Turkey. I got quoted $400.00 or a little more from UPS to ship a bass to Peru, the more they ship to a certain country the less they charge. Just get the shipping fee first and add it to the total and get the money in hand as in all auctions, ship it and don't worry about it. UPS will tell you upfront how much it will cost, I've shipped two basses, one to England and one to Swedan, had no problems with either, just got the total fee before it went anywhere. Who cares how he gets you the money as long as you get it? I wouldn't ship "freight collect" if the guy doesn't like the price what happens to the bass? I'd get it all upfront.

I'm going to get it upfront, I am taking the box (minus bass) to UPS tomorrow and making sure they can ship something that size to Turkey, what the costs will be, and how long it will take, along with the insurance issue. Thanks everyone for their input!! It sounds like the guy is legit, he tried to get one from Music123 and Musicians Friend and they wouldn't ship there.

I sold a bass to a guy in Italy ... I got quotes from 3 different shippers and let the buyer choose ... The guy in Italy didn't have paypal ... so he sent a check in the mail ... it took about 35 days to get to me ... the bass got to him by fed ex in a few days ... for a few hunderd dollars ...

Steve, I shipped 2 Rics overseas. One to England, and one to Italy. The one to England was for Robbie, alias Snakesound. Great guy, he has a Ric business in the UK. With Robbie, all he did was paid me using PayPal, and he prepayed UPS, and emailed me the shipping label and custom forums. All I had to do was slap a label on the box. Piece of cake.
The other that went to Italy was a bit of a pain. I waited until the bank transfer was complete, than I sent USPS, declared as a gift, and I think the charge was $110 bucks, not bad. The only thing is check first for weigh and size limitations. I had the bass double-boxed for Italy, and when I got to the post office it was too large, so I had to remove the outer box much to the disappointment of many impatient people waiting behind me.
BOTTOM LINE: MAKE SURE YOU GET THE FUNDS FIRST including the correct shipping charge.

BOTTOM LINE: MAKE SURE YOU GET THE FUNDS FIRST including the correct shipping charge.

Bob... your funds (for the C64S) are on the way, by the way.

Start packin'!

Hey wait...I thought Bob was just raving about how great his C64S is and how much he likes it?