Melbourne - 9-12-2009 at 02:31 AM
Hey everybody....
People sell thier ouds to overseas countries all the time right?? and moreso if they see them on these forums.
Now I've got an Iraqi oud which I've had for sale on here for a frew months...and recently a guy from Sadui Arabia contacted me and asked if I can
find out the shipping rate to that country - I'm in Australia.
I contacted a couple of different couriers - and I nearly fell off my chair when I was quoted....wait...you ready for it....$1300!!!!...the other
place was more forgiving....$1200.
But surley something is not right here...My Shehata came from Egypt in a great big tank of a hard case. Ive had an ouds come from Iraq...Turkey...All
within the order of $150 for shipping...
I hope someone can share thier experience, I'm sure it's some sort of mistake....
Thanks for reading!
Melbourne
MatthewW - 9-12-2009 at 03:24 AM
Hi Melbourne. Sounds odd, those prices you were given are astronomical. Have you tried Fed-Ex or DHL or your own Oz postal service? I've had ouds come
from Cairo and Lebanon and as you say, shipping was no more than $150-250. talk about inflation! let us know how it turns out. MW
fernandraynaud - 9-12-2009 at 03:36 AM
Whoa! Well, we KNOW nobody's paying THAT!
Shipping's like a whole area of commerce. That's a little like the Chinese (pipa) lutes on e-bay. They will gladly sell them for $0.99 and
then you find out shipping is $120, and that's the profit item. I started "talking" to one of these Chinese guys (I have the feeling they all work for
the Chinese govt), and he said "congratulations" even though I hadn't even bid!
I once bid on a clavichord only to find out shipping from east to west coast was either a) impossible or b) close to $1000. But that was a 100 lb
bulky instrument, and the shipper was going to drive it in person!
For $1200 that would have to be 2 day counter-to-counter, or courier service, or diplomatic pouch 
, practically the cost of an airline ticket. Who did you call anyway and what size/weight did you provide?
I think you need to call a freight consolidator, they aggregate different customers' stuff into air containers that they lease. They have these
companies at every airport, in every country. That's probably how your ouds arrived for $150, like in under a week.
Are you sure your previous ouds didn't come by sea? Again, there are freight consolidators that pack stuff into those big 40 foot containers, and it
might take like 2 weeks on a fast ship, even with the stops. Some e-bay vendors offer free (!) shipping on a $200 oud from Israel, I imagine that's
how they do it. I can also imagine what they pay for The Beautiful Oud!
Dr. Oud - 9-12-2009 at 09:03 AM
try DHL - I've never paid more than $300 for international shipping. It sounds like a priority next day price. The Postal service is much cheaper and
no worse for handling damage - and nobody honors insurance for ouds without a prior professional appraisal, good luck.
Greg - 9-12-2009 at 03:11 PM
In my experience, Australia Post is the cheapest way. Forget operators like DHL, Fedex, TNT et al. The prices they charge are, in my opinion,
ridiculous. Sure Australia is a long way from countries in the northern hemisphere. But we are on the same planet. Their prices are not.
The wrinkle with Australia Post is that their online calculator is very restrictive in terms of size limits. You will find situations where the size
of the article is clearly not within the online specs. But if you take that same item to your local post office, they will usually take it without a
problem. In my experience, their computer systems do not apply the same restrictions as their online systems. Strange!
So pack the oud in its hard case, wrap the hard case with several layers of bubble wrap and tape and take it to your post office. Ask them for a
price, including insurance. And then you have a price to quote your purchaser.
(note: if the hard case is easily crushable, lay some strengthening pieces of timber along the outside of the case, before you wrap it with bubble
wrap.)
That's what works for me.
Regards,
Greg
Melbourne - 9-12-2009 at 08:23 PM
Thanks for your advice guys....
DHL was one of the two quoters....and yes it was $1300. But I think as Greg and oudistcamp suggest....Australia Post is probably going to be the way
to go...though when did contact them over the phone they were put off by the size of the parcel I mentioned, probably because they follow thier
computer suggestion as you say Greg...So I should probably rock up to the post office with the oud and see what they say.
Thanks again!