Re: question for you ebay sellers
Has the cost of shipping made shipping products uneconomical? I've been looking to repower my boat and have seen some great "bones" on ebay since I'm willing to put work into a motor that needs it. Everything I'm seeing is pickup only and it's not economical to me to travel from chicago to say tampa for a reasonably priced motor.
I owned a full service pack & ship (including freight) for the last two years...
The shipping industry has gone down the tubes
Fuel surcharges, and restrictions have gotten crazy (why I am out of business
) but, luckily its still not horrific.
It is quite easy to ship large items, if you package it correctly.
Things like motors/engines/motorcycles, etc., require all the fluids (fuel, oil, etc.) to be drained.
For an outboard you have two ways to pack it.
1. build an engine stand out of 2x4's fastened directly to the pallet to keep the engine upright, bolt the engine to the stand, then crate it for protection.
This option is a bit more costly for the packaging, but very secure. Shipping would be more because of the size of the finished pallet, but safer overall.
2. Lay the motor down on a pallet, and strap it down. again you can crate it for better protection, or just shrink wrap it (but higher risk of damage). Shipping would be cheaper because of the overall size, but risk of damage is higher.
I have shipped quite a few motors, and its not really that hard to do. Just need to have the sender find an LTL company. Look for one that offers a built in discount (can get up to 55%), or look for a company that regularly sends out items on pallets and ask them to send it for you. If a company ships a lot of items via LTL, they have whats called an FAK in place (freight all kinds), which basically means they get a specialized pricing no matter what the weight of the item is.
The funny thing about LTL shipping is, it goes by volume, and not weight. The more space it takes up on the trailer, the more it costs to ship, no matter how much it weighs.
You could send a giant pallet full of ping pong balls and it would cost you more to send then say a 2000lb block of lead that was way smaller. (I never did understand their reasoning for this but oh well)
Luckily most single pallet items would cost only a couple hundred bucks to send.
You can request the sender to have it shipped to a local terminal near you for pickup, or specify curb side delivery with a lift gate delivered directly to your house (this typically costs an additional 50-75 bucks to have done).
Basically what you have to decide is, does the driving time/gas cost more or less than having it shipped. I would say you could probably have an outboard shipped just about anywhere in the continental U.S for 300.00 or less.
Sorry for the long post, hopefully someone finds the information useful. If you find something in Florida you need shipped out, I would be happy to help you find a suitable LTL company.
Good luck with your search!
