Well, I'm a business, but don't have a UPS account, so I ship just like
you do... just more often. You can call UPS the day before, and have
your box dimensions and weight on hand, as well as the address, and they
will come to your house to pick up at a cost that is essentially the
same as going to their customer counter. You cannot do this online
unless you are shipping by air, but call their 800 number. Fedex is not
so accomodating, but is slightly cheaper if you go to their customer
counter. USPS (the posties) is cheaper for light weight (up to 3-4
pounds) and is essential for shipping to Canada or overseas. Various
airline air freight departments (NOT air freight companies) will take
large, ungainly unwrapped things (like MGB fenders that won't fit in
bicycle boxes .... TR fenders do) and send them to your recipient's
nearby airport for a surprisingly reasonable cost. Truck freight sucks,
unless you catch the right company in the right mood. For shipping
overseas, get your friend to find an importer of classic cars somewhere
nearby (yeah, right!). You can ship to the importer in LA or NYC and
they can throw it in the trunk or whatever of some car they are shipping
to Belgium or Australia. Slow, but effective.
There. You have many years of trial and error in a nutshell! I would
in turn love to hear about other methods!
Take care,
Bill McLeod
Slightly Classics
Tucson, AZ
esheffield wrote:
>OK, I know a lot of you folks frequently ship stuff back and forth. Those of
>you who aren't a business, how do you do it economically? I just got back from
>the post office to return a defective scanner I ordered and it cost me $22 to
>ship it from VA to CA! The thing only cost $45 to start with! In the past I've
>tried shipping UPS (through one of those shipping places like Mailboxes Etc.)
>and they seem to charge about %100 premium above the standard UPS cost.
>
>What am I doing wrong here?
>
>Thanks,
>
>Eddie
>1971 Midget - "Bebop"
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