@lonemountain re "Pallet Freight is the only way to do larger/heavier speaker, especially anything that is floor standing. I highly recommend to have anything large or heavy crated."
Vandersteen ships their speakers in factory boxes, vertically on a single pallet, and that's what they recommend. Using a freight company or FedEx Ground. A crate would be idea, but more expensive. In my case, shipping $2000 speakers on a pallet and spending $800 to do it didn't make sense. I got lucky and a local buyer wanted them, so I gladly delivered them to him 2 hours away, and set them up. If they were $20,000 speakers I would have crated them for sure. I note that some really high-end $$$$$$ speakers are shipped by the manufacturer in custom reusable shipping cases, like rock bands use to move their concert gear.
SHIPPING speakers?
Y’all, HOW do you ship speakers that you have sold?
I just a like-new pair of Vandersteen Treo CTs to replace my super clean Vandy 2CEs. The DILEMMA is shipping them! I have listed them online, and got a query from WI who asked me to check on shipping them from here in WA. I called Vandersteen and they say they ship all their speakers strapped to pallets, with the boxes in vertical orientation. They use freight companies including FedEx Freight, but told me nightmare stories of speakers getting damaged in transit, including a new pair of Sevens ($70K) that a forklift driver punched a hole through with the fork on his machine. WTH? They said that their price increases in the last 2 years are in large part because of big increases in shipping costs.
I called FedEx, and was told that the closest freight office is 2 hours from me, and the speakers have to be dropped off already on a pallet, ready to go. That’s 200 lbs of speakers! I have no way to do this—no van or pickup truck, nor a forklift. Plus, I can imagine that if something goes wrong and the speakers are damaged, they will weasel out of it saying that I packed them on the pallet and surely didn’t do it correctly.
I got a freight quote online from another LTL freight company and it was $800! For a $2200 pair of speakers. So, I am trying to sell them locally, within a 4-5 hour drive (I will deliver or meet halfway).
I don’t ship gear often, especially speakers, and it’s a real hassle for larger speakers. Someone I know who builds great amps etc (you’d know his name) bought a used pair of big Borresens (250 lbs each iirc) and rented a van and drove from the Midwest to TX to get them, because shipping was going to be a small fortune.
Thanks.
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FedX ground does not take pallets, nor does UPS ground. As an importer for ATC, I deal with this stuff daily. Crates are preferred as they are cheap and you don't have to get them back. cardboard still needs a pallet so big boxes still mean truck freight. Crates don't need an additional pallet as the crates have a pallet built in. With road cases, which cost at least $750 each and up, you just doubled the freight bill when you have to get them back (empty case is the same cost to ship as a full one) Plus the investment in road case inventory (that you never sell) is a lot of extra $. So built on-site crates is the way to go with 90% of big or tall speakers shipped new. BTW "Ground" does not mean truck freight, it means "small package" freight. |
@lonemountain I remember your connection to ATC. Curious how those are packaged coming over the pond and say for example..on to TMR ? It’s a serious inquiry.. @patrickdowns So glad you got a local sale…. I’m praying for that in the Spring…. Best in music to all. Jim
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Re: "FedX ground does not take pallets" - CORRECT! I misspoke. I was talking about FedEx Freight and I spoke to them several times. Unfortunately, their closest outlet to me for them was two and a half hours away. |
Depends on what it is. Smaller to medium speakers in cartons (shipped on pallets), larger speakers and subs in crates. All of it is air freighted to me then shipped to TMR or? We occasionally do containers (sea freight) but this takes a lot of extra time. This is more useful to the high volume brands. ATC is all custom built to order.
Brad |
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