68" bow USA to australia for $55us shipping

[Fanto]

Gday


Update: got a package today and found that rates are down 20%. So a longbow is now $55 us to get here


First of all, please support our local bowyers and in particular the Ozbow sponsors and members.

However, if you must buy a bow from the USA, then I thought i would share my experience with a freight company called MYUS.com

you join for $10, they give you an address in florida to which you can have goods delivered. MYUS then forwards the goods to you with DHL or UPS. they have negotiated very cheap rates with these companies.

I got a pair of boots (3.5lbs) here for $69 bucks which was dearer than USPS, but the seller would not ship to australia so I got something here i could otherwise not have.

Most recently, i got a one piece 68" longbow for a "friend". he is a bow-ho. we will not mention his name here. 3.5lbs, $69 bucks. Beauty. cheapest price i ever got from UPS or DHL was $220

cheers

[bigbob]

I recently sent a 68'' bow I sold to America along with some small pieces of timber for $76, yet the same guys sent me a bow using the same company and it cost him over $200!!!

[Fanto]

Bigbob,

we do get ripped off by DHL and UPS!

now you know the solution

[Ian Turner]

Hi Fanto that sounds like the best rate I have heard of; does that cover insuring the item as well or I as I imagine that would be extra.
Cheers
Ian
PS I echo your thoughts IF you can buy local and employ Ausssies

[Fanto]

ian,

no insurance mate but DHL is pretty reliable in my experience. and ditto best rate I ever got. i didnt believe it at first but thats what the calculator said on the website ad thats what i got charged!

[Dennis La Varenne]

I have been collecting some eBay bows from the US pre-fibreglass period for quite some time now and about which I will commence a discussion thread.

In most cases, I have been able to get the seller to ship these 'over-length' bows to Australia via United States Postal Service Priority Paid International service. The costs have beetween $US65 to $US85. There has not been any problem with delivery in the least despite this so-called international restriction on parcel length agreement limiting parcels to an overall length of around 1100mm. ONCE THEY ARE IN THE POSTAL SYSTEM, THEY MUST BE DELIVERED.

At times, when I had a few bows to ship here, I had them sent to someone I knew in the US to package them together and send them as one parcel for very close to the rate of a single parcel which was very handy, especially if I bought a bow very cheaply which would otherwise not justify the even the USPS cost of delivery.

However, a lot of archery companies which high volume delivery outputs need to take on the services of FedEx and UPS which charge extortionate rates, but it is worth asking them if they will ship your parcel using the above USPS service. Some will, others won't depending upon the restrictions their contract with FedEx or UPS place upon them.

[Hamish]

Thanks, that sounds like a real winner, for us Aussies. We usually get ripped off massively.

[Goatchaser]

hi all new to the site, but I have just ran into this issue, wanted a longbow from lancaster worth $210 the $340 they quoted to ship it killed that idea quicker than a billy on a braodhead, so now I am tossing up getting a bow build kit from Bingham projects, thing that worries me though is you give your credit card details and they will charge the freight when it is boxed and ready to ship, (so no quote to decide yes or no) this scares me after lancasters quote, anyone have a ballpark figure for one of their kits to Australia??

[Stickbow Hunter]

Welcome to Ozbow Goatchaser. I think you will find that the kit from Binghams will made up of riser and half length lams and the glass will be rolled up so the freight cost will be normal postage as it isn't over length. I would check the kit out to be sure. Binghams are ok to deal with and many of us have dealt with them over the years. You could always email them for a rough shipping quote first.

Jeff

[Antonio]

Hi every one Hi Goatchaser wellcome , this is a great place for Australian traditional archery . yea I relate to that got a quote for shipping from lancaster archery USA for $335 ,and that was combined shipping .never bothered to email back to say thank you as the price scared me of .I will check out MYUS.com.
as we are excluded for some reason from normal international prices for some invalid reason .
cheaper shipping would help the company's over seas more because they would sell more .
its good that a company can figure cheaper ways of doing things and broaden the market

[Goatchaser]

thanks for the warm welcome guys, loving it here already, I think I will go a binghams kit , served a little time in a joinery and I miss it, I did message Lancaster as I was looking at a t/d recurve 6 arrows and some extras, freight for that was $40 odd dollars, with the one piece longbow added it went up to $379, so I replied "wow that has turned the $210 longbow I was looking at a $550 item, and I will have to pass", didn't get a response but I'm sure they understand.

I have also sent an email to Bingham's and am pretty sold on building my own. A lot of inspirational bows being built on here so if the missus kicks up I'll blame you guys.

[Fanto]

Dennis I've got a few in with USPS but not all sellers agree to the procedure and they do have to prepay and print labels because post offices don't take the over length packages generally. one did once for me.

[Hamish]

Just got my first bow shipped via these guys. Ebay vintage English longbow, 76" long.
It was pretty painful for a couple of weeks, due to the forwarders being worried about the nature of the horn nocks. I have never had this problem before with any other antique or new bow sent from overseas before. Apparently it might have been wild waterbuffalo horn, as opposed to domestic waterbuffalo horn. Wild water buffalo are protected. The likelihood of the tips being from a rare and endangered species were virtually nil. They ended up actually being made from cowhorn, so no problem anyway.

Despite these hassles MYUS.COM did a pretty good job, at a reasonable price, and they were quick once it was decided they could ship it. I would certainly use them again for more stuff.
Hamish.

[Antonio]

I just got 3 69 inch longbows and a Bitzenburger fletching jig and that was $180 .dollars all up I am ok with that .will do busines with them again .got it in
3 -4 working days .considering sending a bow interstate cost a bit just within Australia.

[Fanto]

good to see people getting some mileage out of this.

I am lucky that my local archery shop prices very reasonably and I would not import anything he sells, first I wouldnt save much if anything and second Its nice to be able to see, touch and feel things.

the big BUT is that trad is small here and you cant get everything local. For every bow i buy, im in the shop buying strings, arrows, nocks, rests etc etc etc.

[CraigH]

I have been quoted for shipping longbows from the US to Aus, anywhere from $69 to $250, to even $325 (the $325 was a short 60" longbow as well)

I think some US shops aren't that interested in trying to please overseas customer. I guess the time it takes them to ring around and investigate the best shipping price for a small section of the market, may be a hassle for some.

Thanks Fanto, good to see an alternative.

[Goatchaser]

This service was great,4 days from the US to Adelaide then tracking sat idle for 3 days and now my $1000 Bingham's order has gone missing and no one is claiming responsibility at all, but they will do a warehouse search at every facility it has been through and try to keep me posted everyday.

[Fanto]

that sucks hope its found!!

did MYUS lose it ? or DHL / FEDEX?

[Goatchaser]

No no MYUS has been great and was all good, until it hit OZ, sent from binghams as 2 boxes to MYUS both arrived at same time, MYUS bundled them together and sent to OZ via DHL, tracking went to Adelaide and went cold for 3 days, somehow the boxes aren't together anymore and one box has been found here at my local courier and the other "hopefully in Sydney" in the words of DHL. Fingers crossed.
MYUS have been fine to deal with.

[Fanto]

well that's still crappy, hope the missing bow turns up

you can go into your preferences on myus and select FedEx , if you don't want to deal with dhl again.

cheers

[Goatchaser]

I think that's what I will do next order Fanto, latest update is that they both made it to Adelaide and one somehow got redirected back to DHL's Sydney warehouse, hopefully I will see it before the weekend.

[Goatchaser]

Oh my god, just got a phone call from DHL to tell me the missing parcel is on it's way to Singapore now and they won't tell me where it departed from.

[Goatchaser]

Righto it departed from Dubai but no info on how it got there. That's some well travelled laminations.

[Stickbow Hunter]

Having fun with DHL mate. Many years ago now when Aust Post stopped shipping long items I had two bows to send to Austria for customers so I used DHL. The bows disappeared without a trace. I thought this is great as I was going to have to remake the two bows. Well ten weeks later I get a phone call saying the bows were found in Ireland and were finally delivered. The bow tube was missing an end cap, the bows were completely missing their protective wrappings and both strings were missing. Needless to say I never used DHL again.

I hope it all works out well for you and you get your parcel soon.

Jeff

[Goatchaser]

So you can highly recommend them too, I feel better now they can actually tell me where it is now though, from what I understand but they do not want to admit, the parcel got to Adelaide and then went back to Sydney then to Dubai and now to Singapore, DHL were saying it is on a flight to Singapore when I asked where from they wouldn't tell me, so I rang back to make a complaint and they asked why? I told them and they said it was coming from Dubai, when I asked how it got there they say they don't know how it got there, but can guarantee me it wasn't ever in Adelaide, but the tracking says they both got to Adelaide together, local truckdriver tells me only one box was at the depot in Adelaide when he picked up and the other had been redirected back to the DHL sort facility in Sydney. Which I am guessing is where it departed for Dubai which would explain the convenience of them not knowing how it got to Dubai.

[Stickbow Hunter]

All fun hey mate!

Jeff

[Goatchaser]

would be if I was on the trip with the lams. need a holiday after this.

[Stickbow Hunter]

Jeff

[daniel boon]

Got a bow from US, a couple of weeks ago. The shipping within US was included in the price, and would have been $50 in US. The TD bow came in a SOLID Oak case, 1m long but weight 23#. not a typo, 23#. The seller went half with me in the extra shipping, and my cost was a bit over $40 US. That was USPS fully insured, and was here in 7 days. Thats a bit over $130, for a 23# box. I thought that was very reasonable. I've sent a TD bow in AUS, before, and it was something like $60-$70 insured, and insured for a lot less.
Cheers Dan

[Goatchaser]

UPDATE
got a phone call yesterday afternoon to say it was on a flight from Singapore straight to Adelaide, woke up to another phonecall today saying it is still in Singapore and didn't make the flight due to the plane being overloaded. I'm back to worrying.