How to ship speakers

Don't over look the special handling they will get if you insure high, say $5K plus. A few extra bucks. All such items get a special track in both UPS and FedEx. Beware on FedEx ground, in that they are 'third party' shippers and don't follow regular FedEx policies and insurance and damage claims. Agree with others, double box, no peanuts and strapping.

Having worked for FedEx for 20 years and knowing the practices and operations of most all the carriers, the advice here is good.

If your speakers are under 50 lbs, I'd ship them FedEx or UPS ground packaged as mentioned with the corners double insulated with something like ULINE and of course insure them for as much value as you can prove should an incident occur.

If they are tower speakers and weight more, I would absolutely recommend a pallet and the speakers banded together with shrink wrap. You will have to ask for home delivery/lift service unless you hae room for an 18 wheeler pulling up to your house and for you to take them off the truck. Does this cost more? Yes. Bu haing been through a few tower speaker claims myself with bothe UPS and FedEx, it is not a fun procedure. They will do evverything possible to lower the price they pay you. So, in the end, the pallet method saves you a lot of heartache, 6-8 weeks of battling with thier claims people (UPS outsources theirs) and ensures the speaker make it there in safely.

I'm fond of FedEx freight/national and they do a good job and you can even negotiate discounts with them if they think you will be sending more speakers. Most businesses get 50%-70% discounts from them on the tranportation portions of the total shipping cost.

PS-Peanuts are the worst packing filler. Bubble wrap, styrafoam, air bags etc are much better.

Remember- If one gets "lost"- you are hosed. The shipper will only pay the cost of one speaker, even if it's impossible to replace just the one for any reason.

It happened to me- the speakers I shipped arrived safely at the FedEX hub in Memphis, and only one left. The other disappeared IN THE HUB and FedEx never found it.

I could not buy one to replace it (that particular model was no longer made) so my buyer, naturally, wanted all his money back. I argued forever with FedEx but to no avail- they said you have one good speaker, and one's gone- so we owe you for one.

And no, you can't insure each speaker for twice it's value to cover this- FedEx demands receipts and checks the value, so the amount you insure it for is really not valid if it's for more than a single speaker.

I refunded the buyers total purchase price and let him keep the one speaker that made it there.

Lesson learned? Listen to FatParrot- strap them together on a skid and ship via freight.

Most important is to make sure you protect the most damage prone area on any speaker when shipped the corners and the bottom of the speaker. They are always damaged with most parts of the body not being damaged. So when packing always protect them the "corners" with the original box if no original box then make sure to add much stuffing and cut up another box and use it to wrap around corners and also using cheap 10 buck pillows from walmart on the bottom and top will cushion.

I guess I should have read the FAQ's first. Thanks for the replys.

I have shipped my Zu Definitions back and forth to the factory using FEDEX ground without any problem. It is easy to track the progress online.

Always place and stick a lot of "Fragile orange sticker" aound the box provide by Fed Ex or ask the counter.If you have a lot these Fed Ex guys wiill be more carefull all the time.I shipped a lot with this easy technique and never have a problem....always insured your item sold.Good luck.

How big are they? Always double box, and if they're bigger speakers [100 lbs each], I would use a freight company, and make sure that they STRAP BOTH SPEAKERS NEXT TO EACH OTHER ON A PALLET.

I shipped my Thiel 3.6's in their original packaging and the buyer used Fed-Ex and they arrived safely. Worked great bc they came and picked them up at my doorstep.

With your fingers crossed.