Shipping a board
 

What's the best/most cost effective way to ship a board?

Friend wants to send me a board - and was quoted a REALLY high amount to pack/ship it.. curious how others have done it.

I have used UPS in the past. Think it cost me something like $20, maybe $25.
It's been since 2012 that I mailed a board.

I just mailed a surfboard this week. 56 bucks for an IS Blue Lake. Smaller boards are cheaper.

I used to be able to send them for $25-30, but shipped UPS ground a couple months ago and it cost me upwards of $50. Going to try FedEx next time.

So he had it quoted to have it packed as well (not just shipped) and it was north of $200.. which sounded nuts. I'm thinking even a local pack & ship would do it a fair bit cheaper than that, right?

OH jeesus, that's stupid high.

I have the ability to ship through work and they have a really good corporate discount with FedEx. In fact, I was able to cover shipping of the TRANSMISSION from my direct drive to/from the Midwest for a total of under $100.

I recently sold a kneeboard that was made of ABS plastic (so It was pretty heavy at 17 pounds for the whole package), and I'll try to find what my shipping costs were for that.

The biggest thing is that with boards, you get into the problem of dimensional weight, where they upcharge the "weight" of the package based on the box being larger than normal. It really screws ya.

UPS added a $10.50 additional charge for everything over 48" long a couple months ago. The cut off was 60" before.

UPS is still less expensive that FedEx overall in the US. FedEx is better for international shipments.

Both like to loose and damage boards.

"Pack and Ship", this is where people tend to get screwed. Go to home depot spend $5-10 on bubble wrap and insulation tubing. Use the foam tubing for the perimeter of the board, pack in the smallest box possible, try to avoid going over 5" in height/thickness.

Should be less $60 to ship.

Nick

so the kneeboard I shipped was 48" x 21" (with the box being a bit bigger than that). The shipment weighed 17 pounds and I was able to ship it through my work's fedex account for $28 from WA to NC. That was on May 5th, so I don't know if it was affected by the abovementioned surcharge.

Account discounts make a huge difference versus your average person going into a ups store or fedex retailer.
If you do not have a business account with the courier you will pay higher prices. We build discounts based on volume and based on the types of packages we send out.

Nick

If he walked into one of those retail shops like postal annex then prepare to bend over.