$850 isn't bad until you add the shipping cost of $114.
We all know shipping everyday shipping costs for UPS Ground are anywhere from $25 to $40 in most cases. I seriously wonder at time what sellers are thinking, or where they come up with these shipping prices.
Shipping prices is the second thing I look at, even before the description, because being in Hawaii, that can make or break my decision to to buy an item I'm interested in. I am also able in most cases able to convince a seller to ship to Hawaii, even though the they say Con-US only, after I show them that the additional amount is usually only about $10 to $20 more.
I once had a heated discussion with Kurt from Rondo that his shipping calculator was charging way too much to Hawaii, and that I couldn't justify buying from his website because of it. Since then they've changed it, and the SX fiver I just bought for $99, and a set of strings, are being shipped for about $54, which is OK with me.
I also just bought an Omni 10.5 BFM cab through Talkbass that's coming from Connecticut. Through USPS it's only $38 for a 27lb cab, plus whatever the seller put it in. I sometimes think sellers still consider Hawaii a foreign country when factoring in shipping costs! But I can usually persuade them to ship here when I show them it doesn't amount to much more than $20 extra on average, and I'm willing to pay for it anyway.
