I was considering to buy


Squier by Fender
「MAMI JAZZMASTER® PEARL WHITE」
"Stratomaster"（ストラトマスター）

Because it is still going on sale in Korea in certain music shops/online.
Since my relatives still live in Korea, I was wondering to ask them to ship the guitar after buying it.
But the problem is, I'm not sure if the guitar will be damaged if it is shipped in a soft case.
Do I HAVE to buy a hard case and will it not be damaged?

I bought a couple of guitars online (one of them is the mami jazzmaster shipped from japan) and none of them had an hard case and they all arrived in perfect conditions, but maybe I was lucky.

If it's well packaged you should not have any problem, but if you want to have some more security you can find some inexpensive hard case.

Because I don't know how it will come when my grandparents are buying it.
In Korea, if you buy the guitar, it comes with a stand, lead, strap etc...
So I don't know how it will be packaged, but if it was just sending the guitar with the softcase, will there be no damage to it?

well...it depends, if it's a thin and cheap soft case it will be almost useless, there's also some really good gig bag, hard and resistant, but they'll be much more expensive.
A good soft case and a decent hard case will cost almost the same

either way, if they packaged it in a box with some styrofoam I think it will be ok.

Hyoku wrote:Because I don't know how it will come when my grandparents are buying it.
In Korea, if you buy the guitar, it comes with a stand, lead, strap etc...
So I don't know how it will be packaged, but if it was just sending the guitar with the softcase, will there be no damage to it?

If your grandparents receive the guitar in the Squier box that it came in with it should be okay but you may need to get them to send the guitar insured/with a large FRAGILE sign etc. It also depends on the reliability of the local postal service. I don't know what S Korea is like, but if you know that they are reliable, then fine - do the usual. If not, you may want to have extra packaging (my Bluetus was packaged twice - although my single packed Skullsilver was fine when Japan Post's EMS delivered them).

The original Squier packaging is pretty okay as that is they had used to ship it from Indonesia to Japan. Your query about it couriered in just a soft case - like Mentolo alluded, it's a bad idea. Furthermore, the Squier soft case that comes with the guitar is absolutely useless (as you are buying it from a shop in S Korea, I doubt it'll be the first run sold by Kitty with the padded case - and even then I won't just courier it in the soft case).

So the best solution will be to buy the guitar and a hard case, and ask my grandparents to send it with that fragile sticker thing?

Hyoku wrote:So the best solution will be to buy the guitar and a hard case, and ask my grandparents to send it with that fragile sticker thing?

Of course that is the best solution.

But, as I said you need to find out if the guitar comes with the original box/package it came with. If it comes with the box and the protective bits in the box (eg the plastic wrap/styrofoam pieces) then it can be shipped in that form. In this instance, you may choose to not buy a hard case.

If not, either they need to ship your guitar in a new box, or in a hard case (which still need to be boxed anyway).

Good luck.

Okay, so I am 100% sure that I can buy the guitar.
But I came to a problem, where my dad says that there will be this Tax (GST) added when it arrives to New Zealand, which I will have to pay a lot for?

Yup, you can expect to pay quite a bit for that tax. They judge the tax by size(/weight) as well as the original cost of the item. I believe you have to pay 3 different taxes? Customs value, GST and customs duty. Apparently if you get something worth $1000 NZD you're gonna be charged around $280 ~ ish in tax.

So if I state that the guitar was 500 NZD how much tax would I be expecting?

To be honest, I'm not a custom's officer but google helped. 

[url=http://www.customs.govt.nz/features/charges/fees/Pages/default.aspx]http://www.customs.govt.nz/features/charges/fees/Pages/default.aspx[/url]

------
I did a bit more research and found a calculator for you

[url=http://www.whatsmyduty.org.nz/whats-my-duty]http://www.whatsmyduty.org.nz/whats-my-duty[/url]

Have fun with maths :D

So it should be okay if the guitar is shipped in a Hard case inside a box without any protection>

I've had about 5 guitars shipped to me with no case (guitars shipped with soft cases generally do not come *in* them, and Scandal's guitars are no exception) - all came through perfectly.

I've had one guitar shipped to me in a hard case and it came to me damaged. The dealer had tried to put the receipt through the strings, it slipped out in transit, got stuck underneath the guitar and the staple in the receipt rubbed all over the back of the guitar, scratching the entire back and actually denting the body in several places. That could not have happened if not for the hard case.

So neither method is inherently better than the other. I'd just ship the guitar as it is. Two of my three Scandal guitars were shipped only in their Squier boxes, and they were actually shipped twice before I opened them, and they were fine.

My hardcase has a little crack due to my grandparents not putting any protection for the hardcase.
But the guitar is fine 

(EVEN THOUGH THE CASE WAS HALF THE PRICE OF THE GUITAR ._.)