Official Luthiers Forum!

Here is a post from a bracewood thread after shipping was mentioned.
Shipping is expensive everywhere BUT CRAZY EXPENSIVE to and from Alaska and Hawaii.
WE at ASW As a consumer are forced to pay the high costs, or else we go without. So just our living and conducting business. it costs us more. then doing or purchasing the same products and services south in the contiguous US. I didn't write "continental" because I passed geography in grade school.

Regarding shipping to and from Alaska[and Hawaii]. Thank someone for USPS! The most economically friendly for the customer who buys less than a pallet, is the Large Priority Gameboard flat rate box[FRB]. We use it a lot, And we have our new store trained to pack flat rate boxes with products under 24" long. 6 bdft of bracewood will fit in the FRB. 8 flat top acoustic will fit. 2 archtop guitar will fit, 3 carved top Violin/mandolin/ mandola tops will fit and maybe 3 octave too. Or a combo of flat tops and archtops or bracewood. One can play with the shopping cart to find sweet combinations of quantity of products. Of coarse this is only available to domestic US customers. 12 packs won't work, because the dim. of that package/bundle exceeds the cubic volume of the FRB. But one could order 12 individual of the same product, instead of the 12 pack, and get the qty 12 discount and get them packed into the FRB. This would actually be a good topic/thread to post for everyone with interest doing biz with us.. We like to watch out for customers interest... treat others as we wish to be treated. Ya.
It's so frustrating that so many merchants south Treat us Alaskans worse than foreigners. They will ship intl, but not to Alaska or HI.
Most because they ship UPS and its' VERY CRAZY EXPENSIVE. And I will offer to send those folks a prepaid shipping label and arrange for their Postman to pick up the box, BUt with nose in air NOPE we don't do that. !
And some will even use USPS and will send the item to Washington[zone 8] but not to Alaska [also zone 8] Many times I am forced, because we actually need that part or whatever, to have the item shipped to our daughters home in Seattle, so she can then mail it to us. so then we pay shipping twice .. Another !
Enough of my whining. Lets talk how we can help you.

Clay. There is a few SKU's from the old store, still in this store; 12 pk of 2A bearclaw dreads, 12pk of #1 sitka classical size tops and 12 pk of 2A Red Cedar dreads. Those work fine for intl customers that cannot use the flat rate box.
We don't need to offer 8 packs, because you could order 8 of a product, and if it isn't from a VERY Limited Qty sort like Master Grade or other, and a qnty discount will be applied. There are 6 levels of Quantity Discounts: 3-11, 12-25, 26-52, 101-500, 501-1000, 1001-5000 in flat top categories, and 3-4 levels in carved top categories. And if we dis create 8 pks, It would complicate inventory keeping updated in a crazy way. In fact we should just omit those 6 &12 packs still listed, altogether for just that reason.

Also, Here is another tip if ordering ASW salvage sourced Old Growth Products. If the customer is ordering a mix of products, some that are under 24" long and narrower than 12", and some product that is longer like mountain dulcimer top sets or weisenborn guitar sets. If ordered together, the long box needed for the longer product is used and packed, requiring the weight based pricing schedule on all of the order. It would be good idea to make it 2 separate orders. One for long product and one for short product. That way the short product will pack in the flat rate box, and the long the weight based long box.

I need to ask a question.

I need some top and bracewood. I went on your website and ordered about 4 tops and 1 board feet of bracewood. Shipping to Taiwan was around 70 dollars.

My question is, are cheaper shipping methods available, like priority mail international flat rate box? Or some third party freight company who (if I were to order a larger quantity) can offer a better price per pound?

It makes no sense that it's like 1/4 or less cheaper to ship Alaska to Texas vs Alaska to Taiwan, considering the distance is actually the same!!! (I went on a direct flight from Houston to Taipei, mid point is exactly in Alaska).

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

Tai, We have no control on what shipping carriers charge, as much as you have. The most affordable we have found to and from Alaska is USPS. Private carrier like UPS is usually double what USPS charges. There is no longer a standard/surface mail option for Intl. destinations since soon after 9/11/01. The priority flat rate box does ship intl, but at a higher rate than domestic. I have done calculations for various intl destinations., And I find that the weighed package of wood product is cheeper than the flat rate box. The flat rate box packed full sitka will generally weigh 14 pounds or less. So it would be cheeper to use flat rate box if shipping much heavier product, but there is a weight limit for Intl. flat rate to somewhere around 35 pounds. Since we don't do hardwoods, We don't have product that heavy anyway.

Regarding the lower cost by distance Taipei-Alaska. USPS is subsidized some by US Tax money. Since USPS delivered to every household in the US, I suppose it falls under the "General Welfare" clause of the US constitution. It would be right to US taxpayers to subsidize intl. postage. Would it? Hey , And you guys are always welcome to come to beautiful Prince Of Wales Island, Alaska and pick out your own products. And do other neat stuff too.

There are some freight forwarders that offer discounted shipping between US and other countries. We have a couple customers in New Zealand that use a service like that. They subscribe to the service, We ship to an Oregon address and that company then ships from Oregon, US to NZ at domestic NZ rates. Maybe there are other companies that do that to other countries.

Thanks for your explanation.

Have you ever looked into baggage sharing services like https://www.sendmybag.com/ ? It operates on the fact that everyone flying to or from the US has a 2 bag allowance but not everyone takes 2 bags. Some one bag, some none at all, and others want to send extra bags but excess bag charge is quite high. So They offer a very cheap way to send heavy items (something like 100 dollars for a 30kg bag). I mean you can probably fit like a bunch of tops and brace wood in it.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

Tai, This would be something the customer would need to do if interested. First off, getting a package from our little island in the wilderness to at least Seattle, is the first hurdle. But that isn't too costly for packages under 70 pounds. But we will send product to whomever and wherever the customer wants it sent, as long as it's not restricted by embargo or something. And of coarse they assume the responsibility in case of loss or damage. Everything shipped from here is covered with insurance to the destination the customer has us send it to. After that, it's on the customer and who they appoint or hire.

I just signed up for MyUS

The shipping rate MyUS quotes is a lot lower than the same size/weight item quoted by anyone else.

For example a 8 pound item quotes for almost 100 dollars to ship to Taiwan, MyUS quotes 45 dollars.

They also consolidate packages to reduce weight/shipping cost. They also only charge by weight and not volume unless it's unreasonably large (like size of a large fridge).

I got some stuff from Stewmac held there that includes those large buffing wheels, and got a radius dish on the way too in addition to the stuff from ASW. Shipping altogether shouldn't be more than 100 dollars.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

Knew there had to be someone providing this service.
Glad you got something sorted out Tai.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.