Best way to ship computers?

[Trixter]

I'm finally getting overwhelmed by my piles of machines around the basement... plus, I'm broke :-) so I was going to start investigating selling some of my machines. I have realistic views of what things are worth (my Pentium Pro machines are worth about $1, my classic Macs are worth more, etc.) but in all cases they need to leave the house.

The only problem is, I'm dreading selling them (or even giving them away) because of shipping. I hate boxing and shipping stuff, so I was hoping I could ease those fears by getting some answers about how others handle it:


What is the cheapest solution for shipping packages of a typical desktop computer size and weight?

Where do you get your boxes and/or shipping materials?

Is there a market for "free"/"worthless" computers (ie. Pentium Pros, etc.) or should I just toss them?

[barythrin]

Actually Pentium Pro's are somewhat hard to find so those you may get a little for. Regular Pentium or 486 probably not although I did see one go for an unexplained amount ($150+) on ebay recently as a vintage gaming machine.

[vwestlife]

I've found FedEx Ground to be quite reasonable on shipping charges for large/heavy boxes, but it pays to shop around. Compare them with UPS Ground, DHL Ground, and USPS Parcel Post and see who comes out the best.

I've heard that crushed newspaper protects better than foam "peanuts," and it's certainly an economical solution. As for cardboard boxes, ask around and see what kind of used ones you can get, before you pay for new ones.

No-name clones are probably worth more when parted out than when sold as a whole, if for no other reason than lack of brand name recognition; you can't expect people to be searching for an "unbranded 486 built from computer-show parts by Joe Schmo." :) But anything with a brand name, I'd keep together, except maybe if it's a huge full-size tower that'd cost more to ship than what it's worth. Then I'd either try to sell it locally, or part it out and then take the case to a scrap metal dealer.

[MikeS]

Actually Pentium Pro's are somewhat hard to find so those you may get a little for. Regular Pentium or 486 probably not although I did see one go for an unexplained amount ($150+) on ebay recently as a vintage gaming machine.
And here I was just about to scrap a Pentium Pro; still not worth the shipping though, I'd think...

m

[Unknown_K]

I guess it depends on the Pentium Pro, single, dual, ALR 6 PPro server? The PPro 200 chips with 1MB of cache are worth saving.

Very few people will spend money to ship those old machines, try finding somebody local.

The cheapest shipping for larger heavy computers seems to be DHL.

I think for smaller items USPS will send you free boxes to use.

Shipping is not one of my favorite things to do either, but I have a habbit of saving nice boxes, foam padding, bubblewrap, and clean penuts from all the junk I get on ebay so I can send the ocasional box out without having to buy supplies (outside of packing tape).

Oh yea, and what classic macs are you getting rid of?

[Dwight Elvey]

Hi
Working 486 and above with EISA bus are still desired by
many to support various cards, such as PROM programmers,
floppy controllers, hard disk controllers and sound cards.
Dwight

[Druid6900]

Gee, just happen to have a working 486 MoBo with EISA slots. Yours, if the price is right LOL.

What I do with clone machines is gut them then sell the parts. The buyer can always get a case and P/S locally for it and it saves a lot on shipping. Who needs a clone case wrapped around the desired insides?

[amouse]

My comments on shipping methods and prices are (talking internationally mind).

For street prices, it's always a good move to head daily to your local ebay e.g. www.ebay.com or for me www.ebay.de

Goto computers, vintage computers, then select (on the left side)

"New listings in the last 24 hours". Do this daily for about 2 weeks and see if there are like items, and if so watch them, and then when the auction ends you'll get an idea of the actual sale prices (not the sometimes inflated start prices).

For international shipping the usual flow is US to US, or US to Europe, or Europe to Eurpore.

For large items most of the carriers have weight and linear dimension (length + width + height) limits which can catch you out.

In general I've found that the national carriers are the best first point of call, only using the likes of DHL if the former dont want to know.

Lastly postage from EC countries to other EC is pretty good. Postage within US is cheap (believe me!). Postage from EC to non EC european countries (e.g. Switzerland) is always a shocker, and Postage from US to Europe (EC or non EC) is always expensive.

Just to let you US folk know how lucky you are ... I'm currently waiting for 4Kg of magazines from US. 65 US dollars postage. 8 weeks delivery!

[Sharkonwheels]

I'd agree with the others - shop it around.

An option you have, if you have a UPS Store/PakMail/Pak-n-Send, is to make deals with buyers to pay for packing *AND* shipping, so you simply drop it off at the packer+shipper, and they take care of the rest.

i have done this in the past, and have had others do it for me (so I'd have a chance to acquire a machine the seller did NOT want to pack+ship), etc...

usually, for larger stuff, FedEx Ground/UPS/DHL will be cheaper than USPS, even their Parcel Post. Up to about 10-15lbs, sized about roughly the size of a MicroVax2000 (say, 12x12x18) USPS Parcel Post is an option.

USPS Priority Mail is for smaller stuff, and even though Priority Mail Flat-Rate is like $10 for flat-rate up to 70lbs, the boxes are kinda' small. Good thing is, as mentioned earlier, boxes are free, and you can order them with even free delivery to you at USPS.COM. They have 3 box sizes: FRB1-FRB3, and the largest is about 1-2" thicker than a standard binder, so they aren't huge, but you can send TRS-80 Model 100'/102's-sized stuff in them.

I think most carriers have around a 75lb weight limit, above which it is considered freight, which is a whole other arena - this might vary by carrier, though.


T

[Trixter]

Thanks very much to everyone for the advice. I'm still on the fence about it; maybe I'll try one machine and see what happens.