Local pick up only…

Just mailed out a phono stage yesterday using UPS.

I paid for $2k insurance, was told that they would not be responsible for any damage incurred during transit and the item would have to be lost or stolen or whatever in order to file a claim !

The insurance alone was almost the price of shipping !

Fuel surcharges were added plus tax and something else, don`t remember.

Ridiculous 

Some years back I had a pair of Klipschorns for sale, local pickup only.  The buyer ended up being a guy in Chicago who sent two of his employees down to Georgia to pick them up.  I can't even imagine what would have been involved in crating them and shipping them by common carrier, but it would have more hassle than I was willing to undertake.

I'm selling a fairly large equipment rack right now. The rack doesn't break down and is a three leg steel based piece. To ship this is just really not that feasible. Not only would the cost be fairly prohibitive, but the shape makes it a tough ship. I did get an inquiry from France to ship it there, but after some communication, the buyer figured out the shipping issues..and that was that! 

Some things in our hobby lend themselves to easy shipping, others---not so much.

Only if people are smart. 

I’ve sold quite a bit of my audio gear over the last couple of years - speakers, DACs, turntables etc.

I always try to sell locally first (canuckaudiomart) saying local pick up preferred.

I'll usually get a range of offers, many who want shipped, but usually there is a local person or 3 who can pick up so I sift those out of the offers.

I’ve had a fair amount of success with local pick up. Sometimes I have to ship but since that’s usually within Canada I’m not dealing with border hassles.

One thing for sure: I’m very happy with my decision to have always kept all my boxes. Fortunately we have a crawlspace with room for my empty boxes (and there are a LOT of them!). Sales are always harder, and you usually have to knock the price lower, if you don’t have original boxes. I’ve sold items in a day near the price of others that had been listed on the same site for months - the other guy didn’t have original boxes; I did.