Best shipping option for guitar export business?

Hi. I have shipped many products from Nicaragua. Containers is the best way for volume and weight.Try Nicaline

Smaller items, nowbody is better than AA Cargo, as low as .88cents per kg to Miami. request freight quotation for LD3 air containers also, this is more money but you will save on packaging. Good luck Roger

Some time has passed since the first post. Have you found some prices, or looked at the various options - including shipping in bigger containers?

I know someone who briefly did this, Bolivia to the U.S. You can probably guess the problems, and have assumed many or most of them. He quit mostly because doing 1-2 at a time was a hassle and very costly, but he could never swing a shipment of say 40-100, which is what he probably needed to be truly profitable. He also heard of another exporter who had used the bigger containers, and on one occasion, had a termite problem! This guy did have one idea, which worked well for him, even if it was briefly. He had the brother of the guitar-maker (also a woodworker) made wooden package boxes for each guitar (cost next to nothing to have done). They were finished, with the guitar-makers logo and art on the ends, and were signed by him. Once the lid & guitar was removed, the box served as a "shelf" for record albums, or whatever people wanted. His project differed in that the instruments were short and "stubby". As you can see, I am not a guitarist and do not know the name of the smaller instrument. However, I am interested in the costs of shipping/exporting somewhat larger, though not particularly heavy, items.

talk to my good friend Randy Morris who has an import export license his email is admin@ttrader.net i don't know if he's on this forum or not you could tell him kevin sent you if you want i just joined today how awesome! i'm also a guitarist if you want any help i'll be back in granada in a few days

A guitar in a hard case, packed with bubble wrap or peanuts in a cardboard box weighs in at somewhere around 20-25 lbs. If I'm shipping without a hard case, that knocks at least 5-10 lbs. off. The issue with guitars is the size - the box needs to be very long, which sometimes can bump you up into oversize rates. Can I ship packages through the post office here or would that be a big mistake? I'm thinking that the stuff I have sent down from the U.S. will come via USPS, just don't know if that route works or the return trip.

The guitars are very good quality - I bought one for myself and liked it so much I decided to look into exporting them. I'll probably start with a few stock guitars but my plan is to make them fully customizable, down to the choice of the exact pieces of wood used.

If you're really interested, drop me an email at harmonist34@gmail.com with what you're looking for (steel vs. nylon string, wood preferences, playing style, etc.)

I'm afraid I won't be able to find decent hard cases here at anything approaching a reasonable wholesale rate, so I'll probably have to send the guitars in gig bags. That scares me, because I don't know whether I'll be able to find good quality packing material. Would I be able to use the wood shipping crates for a carrier like UPS? That would be considerably stronger than cardboard...I just always think of cardboard because that's how everything is shipped in the U.S.

Thanks, Andrew