The Most You Have Paid For Shipping


A co-worker of mine frequently sells items on Ebay. He told me that he has recently been getting frequent inquiries as to whether he is willing to ship overseas. I was surprised when he told me that the cost to ship a single shirt overseas is about forty dollars. Wow! I immediately thought of the heavy audio equipment that many of you here on audiogon have shipped great distances. What is the most you have ever paid for shipping? Where did you ship from and to?
mordenmail
I recently sold a very expensive power cord on AudiogoN. One potential buyer asked for a shipping quote to South America. The shipping cost was around $350 but the transaction still made sense for him due to the high cost of the cable, good price and low dollar exchange rate.

Problem was, on this shippment, like most overseas ones, you cannot get delivery confirmation. I told him that without some type of delivery confirmation, I was unwilling to do the transaction. He then got angry and rude, telling me that he had done many transaction and never had a problem. I told him there was no way I was proceeding.

Anyway, if you want to ship something like an amp overseas, the cost will be astronomical.
Try shipping 2,000lb pair of speakers to Australia. Now THAT was expensive, about $4,900 - discounted!
1,200lbs pair of speakers to Russia, $6,800 (didn't happen - too pricy).
Triad Platinums to the North Pole - $4,100. Told him to wait for Santa to bring them back with him.
Large amps coast to coast in the US have been between $190 and $275 (Plinius SA 250, Levinson ML336).

My Martin Logan ReQuests came from LA -> Phila, 235$.

....and that was at least 4 years ago.

Shipping ain't cheap.
Shipped a crate with Avalon speakers to Italy from Oregon- $450!
Shipped a box of LPs (50) to Thailand- $150!

Felt bad in both instances, so I sent them a couple of their favorite LPs as a surprise. Now I have open invitations to visit both places.
Could be a trap though???