The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I won an original horn for my edison triumph model b last week from Stanton's for $30.... it's going to be over $600 to ship from Michigan to Iowa. Might have to let it go anyone have any suggestions on alternative shipping companies? Thank you -- Joel

That’s crazy to charge that much for shipping a Triumph horn from Michigan to Iowa. Find another packing service if you can.

I bought a small tonearm assembly from Stanton’s recent auction and the place that has my tonearm is charging me $43 + tax to ship from Michigan to New York State! And that’s not for an expedited service.

I plugged in the dimensions of the box they are using and the approximate weight of the package (5 pounds at most) and the actual cost for either UPS or USPS is less than $10 using Pirate Ship.com.

And these packing places get a good discount from these services. So they’re making a tidy profit of around $30 or so on shipping my little tonearm. Never again. I will try to find another packing place if I can.

Where on earth did you get a quote like that?

The company they use to ship. I don't know if I'll get in trouble for calling them out so here's the e-mail I received without showing their name....

Large package shipping weights and costs are based on Dimensional weight.

That box big enough for a cygnet horn might only weigh 5-10 lbs, but the size is going to be (a guess) 20"x20"x20". To calculate the shipping weight for costs,
you calculate the volume of the box, our example, is 8000 cubic inches. Divided by the DIM factor, UPS and Fedex is 139, USPS is 166. If it is shipped by UPS then
8000/139 = 57.5 lbs, the actual weight you will be charged for. That doesn't include any costs from the company you hire to box and pack your item.

I ship with Pirate and have had additional charges after shipping because of dimensional shipping that wasn't shown on their calculator.

Chuck

I have had to let a couple go, due to shipping. Remember, this takes a very long box and shipping is not only based upon weight, but also dimensions. It is beyond standard shipping size. The last one I tried to ship from Michigan to St. Louis was $450.

Yeah I guess I'm glad i didn't pay more for it i guess. I didn't expect it to be free by any means but that caught me way off guard

It might be cheaper to go there by car and collect it yourself...!

There are those who attend the auction in person and bring their stuff back home. In my case, it takes about a week, which includes driving 1450 miles each way, several thousand dollars in travel expenses, and a lot of mental wear and tear. So, that bargain you got for $30 demonstrates how the playing field quickly gets leveled. There's a lot more to this stuff than just clicking a mouse.

Raphael

It’s a trade off. Although Stanton’s shippers are good, they are expensive. At the same time, it would cost me as much as shipping to travel in person. If we were smart, we remote bidders would work as a consortium. Have someone close by bid on our behalf and then ship to us using Pirateship and pay them a percentage of the costs.