How To Safely Ship Cartridges For Retip

Bonded courier. With handcuffed Halliburton. Private jet.
Kidding.
I shipped various things back and forth with Steve L at VAS (I’m in Texas now) without a problem. Ditto Peter L at Soundsmith. Probably used Fedex or Priority.
But, I’m a little wary of USPS these days- have gotten a couple of records that were trashed in transit (I buy a lot of records, used, from all over)- and short of using DHL Express or equivalent for overseas (a vintage rectifier from India took only 7 or 8 days), I’m not sure what the best option is. I think UPS really gets you on the insurance charge last time I used them.
When I was shipping stuff back and forth with Franc Kuzma in Slovenia, he used TNT (I think they got bought by Deutsche Post?). He’d ship and I’d get it next day in NY metro. Crazy.
I know some folks that were shipping cartridges to UK for work-- they’d choose super speedy over high dollar insurance- it is a calculated risk. The less time the object is in the system, the less opportunity there is for bashing, smashing and crashing.
For what it’s worth, I did try to find someone to ship a safety deposit box of jewelry from NY to Tx. Impossible. There were/are companies that handle stuff for the diamond trade but nobody wants to take the risk for high value stuff short of a dedicated truck which in my case was unnecessary.
On the other hand, I had a friend in NY who would have vintage cars palletized and air freighted abroad-- I think back in the oughts, it was 5 grand one way. Which is actually pretty reasonable when you are dealing with something of extremely high value.
Good luck. I’m sure you’ll be fine. You definitely want signature and tracking, as well as expedition. Insurance too, if it isn’t crazy money.

I shipped my cartridge via USPS Priority.  Went from East Coast to West Coast in 2 days.

Hard case the cartridge against possible crushing or flattening. Lots of padding. Make the package a lot larger than it needs to be. Less chance of it looking like it could be insured jewelry or something that could get "lost."

@chakster

Yeah that sounds good and all. Until I remember my last order for a Dynavector headshell that came to a USPS facility about 30 miles from my home and never left it. Went to the post office three times to try to use the tracking number to locate it was fruitless. One time I spent 30 minutes waiting for a supervisor who never came out of the back room. I finally had to give up and leave. Fortunately it was an eBay purchase, so my money was returned to me. Your suggestion of shipping with the post office without insurance is idiotic. The only way I would consider it is if I use USPS registered, which has a tighter chain of security.

At this point Fed Ex super saver air is probably my best option at this point.

I have had some recent bad USPS experiences so +1 on something weird going on in that organization
I have also had a hard time collecting on ahipping insurance so now consider it of little value...

get a cheap 'flight case' from say harbor freight that can hold the original box. then put that into a padded cardboard outer box and send overnight or three day max.