Shipping FAQ
You can contact us with any questions.
Q: Why are shipping rates so high!?
A: We're not happy about it either. When this business started, we could ship a 60" long box just abut anywhere in the world, for around $35-45. It now costs more than that just to go from the US West Coast to the East Coast. A big part of that, has been the fact that the shipping companies have decided that anyone sending a package over 48", should be massively penalized. This has been bad for a long time, but in late 2024, it became insane... UPS and FedEx added a surcharge that makes anything over a 48" length, automatically be charged as a 40 pound weight. This basically adds an EXTRA $40 fee to anything over 48". As an example... As of this writing, if you enter a 48"x 4"x 4" package at 3.5 pound... from L.A. to N.Y., it is about $15. Make the length of that just one inch longer at 49" and it increases to $78. So for anything that's over 48" length (2/3 of our shipments), you're looking at $70 to $85. Keep in mind, this is with our significant discount! Without that, it would be way more. As of right now, postal is the only remotely affordable choice left. How long they will go before they decide to follow UPS and FedEx... Who knows. But it is rapidly getting to the point where any business that focuses on long light items, will basically have no way to affordably ship those items. Luckily this length surcharge has not been added to international shipments. Yet.
Q: Why does it say there's no shipping rates available for my county in the check-out?
A: Rather than go into a giant explanation on this, the basic reason is... Shipping long items internationally is very complicated. There's some countries where Postal will work best, and some where it won't... and some where UPS will work best, and some where it won't. One issue is the max box length allowed through postal, which is different for each country. But here are the countries currently activated on the site, that have both Postal and UPS international shipping options available...
Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Hong Kong SAR, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, San Marino, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Czechia, Andorra, UK, Vatican City
Here's the list of countries where only UPS will be available...
Australia, Bahrain, Bulgaria, Caribbean Netherlands, Cook Islands, Estonia, Greenland, Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Jersey, Lithuania, Malaysia, Monaco, Philippines, Réunion, Romania, Slovenia, South Korea, South Africa, Singapore, Taiwan, Turkey, United Arab Emirates
There's also numerous forwarding services in the US that you can ship your item to from us, and then they'll ship it overseas. For customers who prefer to use one of those, contact us first, because you'll want to know the weight and dimensions of the item after packaged. Dimensions make a BIG difference, because all of the carriers charge a lot more for boxes that exceed a certain max size/girth. Do NOT just do a basic quote. You want to make sure to put the dimensions in, because that will often give you a very different price. If you do use a forwarding service in the US, you can order straight through the site, because that will just be a normal US shipping destination.
There have also been people who have traveled to the US, and we've shipped items to them at their hotel, to take home with them later. But if you're thinking about doing this, check with the airline using the dimensions of the box, to see if they'll charge you anything, or even allow the box on the plane.
So bottom line, the best thing to do is contact us if you don't see your country listed, or have some other issue. We may very well be able to ship the item to you or help you find an affordable way to do it. But due to the complexities involved, there's no way to set everything up automatically on the site.
Q: Why is shipping so much more on some items?
A: All the postal and private carriers have something called 'dimensional weight'. When a box exceeds a certain maximum total in girth or the longest dimension, they will charge a higher rate. Sometimes that rate is almost double a standard rate. The dimensional cut-off point for this was actually lowered by most of the carriers recently, meaning that even more packages will fall into a 'dimensional charge' fee rate. Even if a package is just a couple pounds, they still want that higher rate for something that exceeds a certain max dimension. Is it really that much harder delivering a long box compared to a square one? Probably not, but it gives them a good excuse to charge more. Unfortunately we have to deal with it. As of 2022, USPS added a flat $15 surcharge for anything exceeding 30 inches in any dimension. Unfortunately, this brings an end to postal being the last affordable option. It is usually pointless to use postal priority for most items now, because it's often more expensive than UPS Ground, with worse service. You may choose to use postal if you live in a place where UPS would add a significant 'broker' fee on delivery, such as Canada... but there's really no other reason to choose it, unless the item is small.
Q: Why did the cart tell me my order is "too large" to calculate.
A: As previously mentioned, shipping long items is very complicated. The ability to automatically calculate the shipping correctly, decreases as the order gets larger. After a certain point, it's better if we just calculate the shipping manually, making sure that both parties get a fair deal. So if you do get this message in the cart, please email us with what you would like to order, and we will put together an invoice.