Best Way to Ship a Bow - Private Purchase

[Hud]

Regardless of method, take pictures including serial numbers, full length, etc, and make up TWO address labels, put one inside with phone numbers. Save the pictures and insurance receipt.

I like cardboard carpet tubs for longbows, USPS Priority mail.

[barebow17]

Go to your local machine shop.They have some real nice tubes that they get there stock shipped to them in. Real thick cardbroad with wood ends.

[YORNOC]

Originally posted by 30coupe:
For hybrids and one piece recurves, I make a shipping box of 1" stock and masonite. I use pipe insulation and tape to protect the tips and to keep the limbs from rubbing. Like this:

 

Then pack it like this.

 

Screw the top and bottom on:

 

And tape the joints:

 

Overkill? Probably, but I have yet to have one damaged. Oh, and I mark it FRAGILE on every side in red.

Longbows go in PVC/carpet tubes as others have said. Three piece can usually be shipped in cardboard boxes, well padded.

USPS priority mail, insured with a tracking number. Signature confirmation is included when you insure the bow. If you have a way of weighing the package, measure it as well and order the postage online. It saves you money and time. Just print it out, tape it to the box (no tape over the UPC), and either request pickup (free) or drop it at the P.O. (what I always do).

Still, shipping is scary. If you do the best packing job you can, at least you know you tried.

Just curious about how much this would cost to ship?

[Jack Shanks]

I suppose 30coupe's method might be safer but the shipping cost has to be quite a little more expensive.I've shipped over 200 bows in cardboard boxes USPS priority mail insured over the last three years and have yet to have one damaged. Lucky, maybe but I've never won the lottery.

[MnFn]

Just some thoughts from a retired US Postmaster:

The problem with Delivery Confirmation is not what it does but what people's perception of it is.

If you want to know when it was delivered (if it was) it will do that. But remember just because it was scanned as delivered does not necessarily mean the addressee actually received it. Nobody is signing for Delivery Confirmation.

If you expect tracking info on your lost package or help in finding it, it will not do that. All it will do in that regard is tell you the last place it was scanned prior to being lost. And that could be in the same facility or hundreds of miles down the road.

I still do use Delivery Confirmation occasionally for specific situations, but your money is much better spent on insurance if applicable.

As far as Priority Mail or Parcel Post just ask for your options. Often because of oversized or non-machineable surcharges there is not much difference in the prices.
Gary

[30coupe]

The delivery signature is with insurance $300 and above.

The package cost $21 to ship as I recall. It was relatively light in spite of how it looks.

The bow came to me in this:

 

I could have shipped it the same way, but just couldn't bring myself to do it. The hassle to trying to collect on a damaged bow just didn't seem worth it compared to the minimal difference in cost.

[JamesV]

I ship USPS priority and it seems the tubes cost twice as much to ship than the boxes. A longbow shipped in a cardboard box was $11 and change, the same bow in a cardboard tube was over $28, go figure

[DeerSpotter]

I will be shipping a griffin listed in traditional bows  like this if it sells. Cardboard box goes around this so you don't see that it is in a solid case made of chipboard .  

This is the way that it was shipped to me from the maker John.

  [/url] [/IMG]


Carl

[MnFn]

Splitting hairs with 30Coupe I guess.  I was curious so I looked up the Domestic Mail Manual (DMM) on line and under 500 4.5 (I think)I found this:
The USPS collects signatures on any parcel insured for more than $200.