Prepping a stick for shipping

[pisani34 10]

Hey everyone, just sold my stick on ebay, now i gotta ship it from edmonton to quebec.

How does everyone package their sticks? I want it to be the most cost effective, so does anyone think that just wrapping it with a few garbage bags will be ok?

also, how do you calculate the dimensions for a hockey stick? i know for a shaft it could be easier, but its the blade thats screwing me up here.

Any help from anyone here would be greatly appreciated, so thanks in advance.

PS - if anyone has any suggestions as to carriers etc etc, that would be great as well.

Thanks!

[mack 44]

Disregard any posts after this until Drewhunz responds because his system is unbeatable.

As for carriers, USPS is generally the cheapest, assuming of course you live in the US.

[McDougalfaschnitzer 32]

I would give it a bubble wrap treatment, then a plastic bag/ thick plastic wrapping. I would also reinforce the blade and butt areas a bit with cardboard too.

[mremis 0]

i just received a stick from cyclone taylor,

it was wrapped in cardboard all around the stick and then it was placed in a plastic bag and shipped like that

the invoice was wrapped around the shaft

[mickz 107]

Anybody know how the dimensions are calculated? Longest length x longest width x depth?

[Guitarmy 0]

I wrap it in bubble wrap, and then use 2 of those triangular cardboard tubes you get for free at the post office, taped together one one end slightly bent. Usually costs me around 8 to 10 bucks to ship within the US.

[Drewhunz 3]

Disregard any posts after this until Drewhunz responds because his system is unbeatable.

As for carriers, USPS is generally the cheapest, assuming of course you live in the US.

Make a triangular tube surrounding the shaft and flatten at both the butt end and hosel. Follow this by taping both of these areas. Take a 12x12 piece of cardboard and fold around the blade ensuring 2-3 layers per side of blade. Tape accordingly. Where hosel meets blade, take 3x6 strips of cardboard and reinforce this area with 2 or 3 layers. You are done. To prepare shipment, approximate the width and height (approx 2"x2") and from heel to end of blade packaging (approx 12"). Usually, this weighs about 2 lbs. and insured will cost around $15.

WARNING: If you take this to the Post Office, YOU WILL be overcharged to the point of nearly $30. Using my method however, your costs run nearly half that, and after mailing out approx. 100 sticks, I've never had one come back

with an insufficient postage charge.

Note: I've sent Mack a shipment of 3 extra long hockey sticks 2nd day air to Alaska, and this still cost less than $30. Take that HockeyMonkey!!!

[mack 44]

When I become a billionaire I'm buying Hockey Monkey; flogging all their employees and appointing you the boss.

[Drewhunz 3]

Thanks??? :( I'd just prefer some of that billions.

[hapamatt122 0]

Disregard any posts after this until Drewhunz responds because his system is unbeatable.

As for carriers, USPS is generally the cheapest, assuming of course you live in the US.

Make a triangular tube surrounding the shaft and flatten at both the butt end and hosel. Follow this by taping both of these areas. Take a 12x12 piece of cardboard and fold around the blade ensuring 2-3 layers per side of blade. Tape accordingly. Where hosel meets blade, take 3x6 strips of cardboard and reinforce this area with 2 or 3 layers. You are done. To prepare shipment, approximate the width and height (approx 2"x2") and from heel to end of blade packaging (approx 12"). Usually, this weighs about 2 lbs. and insured will cost around $15.

WARNING: If you take this to the Post Office, YOU WILL be overcharged to the point of nearly $30. Using my method however, your costs run nearly half that, and after mailing out approx. 100 sticks, I've never had one come back

with an insufficient postage charge.

Note: I've sent Mack a shipment of 3 extra long hockey sticks 2nd day air to Alaska, and this still cost less than $30. Take that HockeyMonkey!!!

ok, I'm trying to visualize this, but finding it pretty hard. I usually receive sticks that have the cardboard encircling the shaft, and then some more reinforcement of the blade to what u have described, and then just in some sort of plastic sleeve.. and is FedEx a better rate or the USPS? i hate the USPS with a passion, I know for packages like boxes and whatnot (lets say to send gloves, shouldies, skates) fedex will be cheaper in most cases (and faster than usps parcel post, cheaper than priority). but I've always ran into snares when sending sticks and end up going to one of those mail boxes etc. type places and they always charge about $35-40 to send sticks.

[CTHockey 2]

Ship all our sticks in a custom 2x2x68 box.... Have only had one in about 400 come back broken and the box looked like Jaws had gotten a hold of it so i dont think anything could have saved that one from being broken. Bubble wrap and plastic poly wrap is the easiest way. But when the stick has 400 pounds of boxes on top of it, sometimes theres no way to save it from being broken during transport.

[TBLfan 25]

I've recieved everything from a big box to a make-shift folded box, to just bubble wrap(taped heavily)... To plastic on the shaft with a box around the blade. The only one that saw any damage was one of the two wrapped in bubble wrap, one of the two in the bubble wrap got something through and scratched it a bit.

Personally, the preferred is the large boxes from HG or HM but just about any of those that I mentioned will work fine... Dont kill yourself trying to make it work.

[lockitup 0]

ok, I'm trying to visualize this, but finding it pretty hard. I usually receive sticks that have the cardboard encircling the shaft, and then some more reinforcement of the blade to what u have described, and then just in some sort of plastic sleeve.. and is FedEx a better rate or the USPS? i hate the USPS with a passion, I know for packages like boxes and whatnot (lets say to send gloves, shouldies, skates) fedex will be cheaper in most cases (and faster than usps parcel post, cheaper than priority). but I've always ran into snares when sending sticks and end up going to one of those mail boxes etc. type places and they always charge about $35-40 to send sticks.

yeah a step by step pictorial would be amazing

[mack 44]

I think he had one up before. On the converse of good shipping, I had one stick come in that was a garbage bag wrapped around the stick--no bubble wrap--then completely candy-caned in tape.

[Monty22 833]

Make sure you insure it, this time of year it's an even better idea.

[pisani34 10]

okay, little bit of an old thread, but heres an update on 2 sticks i was going to ship.

When i called one office here that deals with multiple shipping companies in one place (ups/fedex/canpar etc.) they said that they've done many stick ships before, and you calculate it by taking the length of the shaft which is about 60", the width of the blade about 12-13" and then the height of the blade at about 3". I knew this would make costs run wild so i made this thread, and drewhunz threw me the shipping idea.

I took his advice and prepared my shipping label online, for the first stick from edmonton to quebec, i used 2" tubing the whole way down the shaft, followed by covering the blade with cardboard.

After pondering what to insert for dimensions, i thought, hey ill try and enter what "I" think should be the dimensions, not what the computer thinks (60x13x3 - this would be a large rectangular box, which a stick is not). Anyways, i decided to add the length of the blade on to the length of the shaft. This turned out to be about 72" for length, about 1" wide for the shaft, and another 1" height for the shaft. This came out to be $21 domestically. That stick got shipped and arrived at its destination just fine.

Today i sold my other stick on ebay, and was about to prepare the stick for shipping the same way, when i decided to give drewhunz's method another chance. He said to use dimensions of about 12x1x1, but the minimum dimensions for a package in my service from CAN to the USA was 8"x5"x5mm....so i had to use something that was equivalent in volume, which im assuming is basically what they do with a package with huge dimensions but very little weight (volumetric weight). I then proceeded to enter dimensions as 13x6x0.5. Doing so will hopefully work out, and the service came out to being $14 total. I hope that this doesn't come back to me with insufficient postage, but i've got my fingers crossed, and i will let you all know within 2 weeks how this works out.

[Yakus 0]

I used 2 packing tubes (duct-taped together) and piping foam to ship a shaft. The foam fits almost perfectly around the shaft and it fits perfectly into the packing tubes.

[Drewhunz 3]

I usually average stick dimensions for shipping purposes at 65x3x2. Never had one come back yet.

[bbruins8 0]

What's the cheapest service from U.S. to Canada? Also, Drew is there any way you can give me a visual of how you package these because after reading your post, I am completely lost.

[Rustpot 1]

What's the cheapest service from U.S. to Canada? Also, Drew is there any way you can give me a visual of how you package these because after reading your post, I am completely lost.

Basically wrap the shaft in cardboard down to the hosel. Double or triple wrap the blade in another few pieces. Reinforce the joint as needed.

When I just shipped a stick to cougarscaptain87, I extended the shaft wrap all the way to the heel, used a couple 12x12 panels folded over to the wrap the blade. I cut a slot out so the blade box would slip over the shaft, cut the excess triangle off the heel, cut down to 1-2" past the toe, taped like mad. Had a nice 3-layer overlap at the heel, 2 layers all over the blade, 1 the length of the shaft.

My mistake was letting the post office measure. They got me for $19 after insurance since he approximated a 70x14x2 inch box. Bastard Montreal stick was really long.

[bbruins8 0]

Well I consider myself pretty good at wrapping shit in cardboard, but I still need to know what the cheapest method is to shipping to Canada, Halifax from FL to be exact.

[Rustpot 1]

Well I consider myself pretty good at wrapping shit in cardboard, but I still need to know what the cheapest method is to shipping to Canada, Halifax from FL to be exact.

Post office. Pre-measure the stick as if the blade was straight, print the label at home. You can get shipping quotes from FedEx, UPS, USPS, DHL, or others from their websites too. Avoid UPS for over-the-border shipping as they like to tack on bullshit charges. Not sure if FedEx does that at all.

USPS turns it over to Canada Post at the border, I've shipped and received a few packages between the 2 countries and all were USPS/CP shipped for under $15 (blades, gloves, not sticks)

[bbruins8 0]

What do you mean as if the blade was straight? Do you mean the overall length x width of shaft x thickness of shaft? So like 63 x 1 x .5?

WARNING: If you take this to the Post Office, YOU WILL be overcharged to the point of nearly $30. Using my method however, your costs run nearly half that, and after mailing out approx. 100 sticks, I've never had one come back

with an insufficient postage charge.

So how do you avoid actually taking it to the post office once you have pre paid postage online? Do you drop it off somewhere or something?

[Rustpot 1]

What do you mean as if the blade was straight? Do you mean the overall length x width of shaft x thickness of shaft? So like 63 x 1 x .5?

WARNING: If you take this to the Post Office, YOU WILL be overcharged to the point of nearly $30. Using my method however, your costs run nearly half that, and after mailing out approx. 100 sticks, I've never had one come back

with an insufficient postage charge.

So how do you avoid actually taking it to the post office once you have pre paid postage online? Do you drop it off somewhere or something?

Take the measuring tape and follow the stick down the shaft, along the heel, to the toe. I think Drew might be saying ho goes down halfway to the blade (averaging stick size). You are, in essence, shipping a "bent" box that is 1.5x3x65 or however long. It already gets the oversize charge, so I don't think they'll quip about the exact 63" vs. 67" if they even measure.

I usually average stick dimensions for shipping purposes at 65x3x2. Never had one come back yet.

Pay for it, take it to the post office. You tell them this package needs to go out, you need to fill out the customs forms. They'll check to make sure you're not using an old sticker and that it's been paid for, then you fill out the customs sticker, they set it in the outgoing pile, you're all set.

You get raped with over-charges when they measure it themselves. My $20 stick was going downstate 500 miles. Texas to Michigan would be substantially more, as would Florida to Canada.

[bbruins8 0]

So just do the 12 x 2 x 2 like Drew does, not including the shaft length in the dimensions?