shipping furniture?

[Jim Barstow]

I've got a crib I need to ship back east. I packed it myself. I contacted a local antique shipper and they
quoted a price of over $600. I tried the shipping auction site UShip.com and got zero bids. (Not sure why
since I know people who have had success with this site.) Any advice on how to ship furniture too big
for UPS/FedEx at a reasonable price?

[Justin Coon]

Depending on the size of the box and how well it is packed, you might consider shipping via Greyhound bus. My wife ships chairs that she's re-upholstered that way and it is way cheaper than the other ways we looked at. The downside is your customer has to go pick it up from the closest Greyhound station instead of having it delivered to their door. I think the last chair she shipped was from Dallas to somewhere in Wisconsin and the cost was less than $100.

[Mike McCann]

Talk to a moving company. If they have load going in the direction you need to go they can add it to t he back of the truck.

[Garth Almgren]

Shipping via Amtrack may also be an option, but it's more cost effective if you have enough for a pallet.
http://www.amtrak.com/express-shipping

[Roy Harding]

I ship chests (from a semi-isolated location in Northern BC in Canada) all over North America using Greyhound. It's the most economical method I've found. In SOME major centres, for an extra charge, you can have it delivered right to the door.

[Mark Bolton]

You could trying freight quote dot com. They will usually have the best rates in our experience. The trick will be picking the right class for the shipment. I would guess about the lowest you may get it somewhere in the 180-280 range regardless of weight. With accurate measures of your crate and class you should be in good shape.

[Erik Loza]

Jim, do you know the crated size and weight? Ballpark? Basically, if it's palletized (or requires a pallet jack to move it), it's going to have to be shipped via commercial LTL (less-than-truckload). In that case, the quote you got was not unreasonable. If a human being can lift the box and fit it onto a dolly, you could probably ship it via Greyound, as Roy suggested, and save quite a bit of money. Good luck.

Erik Loza
Minimax USA

[Michael W. Clark]

You can pay extra for oversize and overweight at UPS. If you can divide it into multiple smaller packages, that may save you some money.

If you are shipping it assembled, it will be expensive.

[Mel Fulks]

From that price I would guess that the crib is not knocked down. Even if it is antique there might be a way to partially disassemble it.

[Jim Barstow]

It is knocked down. In fact, the quote was for just the rear panel of the crib. I talked to UPS today and if I redo the packing, I can just get by their size limits. That will bring
the shipping cost down to about $170. I'm also going to contact greyhound. Greyhound seems to have a very low insurable limit; I interpret that as not putting a high priority on damage free shipping.

[fRED mCnEILL]

I build fancy tack boxes and ship them back east (in Canada) all the time. They weigh 150 lbs and dimensions are 26"X 35"x45. It cost about $150 and I use regular freight carriers. I build a pallet that is about 1 " larger all the way around,wrap it in heavy carboard (that I get free from a local glass importer) and then shrink wrap it. Haven't had any damage to date.If you ship it business to business it is quite a bit cheaper than to a private home (about 30-40% cheaper). When it is on a pALLET they move it with forklifts so there is less handling and the oversize pallet protects it from an overzealous forklift operator.