OT: Shipping Furniture?

[smontanaro]

My wife has a sofa listed on eBay (http://www.ebay.com/itm/291683544924), marked local pickup. She's received a couple inquiries about shipping it. Part of the reason for the local pickup restriction is we have no idea how to ship furniture. Is there a furniture equivalent of bikeflights.com?

[AJM100]

usually "freight". I believe Greyhound is one option, I am sure with a weight limit. Check other eBay furniture listings for companies/options. If you think shipping wheels, bikes is a PITA - I wouldn't even attempt a large sofa!

[smontanaro]

Cool, thanks. Will check it out...

[Dead Man]

Is it woven from unicorn mane? What the heck could be so special about a couch that people would want to ship it??

[bobswire]

I can see the appeal but my Man Cave is too small.

http://i63.tinypic.com/2a5m51z.jpg

http://i65.tinypic.com/2gwb6n9.jpg

[smontanaro]

Is it woven from unicorn mane? What the heck could be so special about a couch that people would want to ship it??

(I know nothing!)

It was apparently manufactured by a company in the 30s which has a following. The sofa has the original upholstery, which to me looks like it would have belonged on a bedspread when I was a little kid (late 50s). I guess it appeals to some people. There is also a matching chair, which was recovered before Ellen bought it. Unfortunately, that probably killed most of its value.

[yngpunk]

My wife has a sofa listed on eBay (http://www.ebay.com/itm/291683544924), marked local pickup. She's received a couple inquiries about shipping it. Part of the reason for the local pickup restriction is we have no idea how to ship furniture. Is there a furniture equivalent of bikeflights.com?

Might look into one of those pod/cube companies as well, where you load the sofa into one of their pods/cubes and they move it for you. They're a couple of them out there, but PODS and Upack (ABF) are probably the most prominent

[Dead Man]

Seems to me the solution is for the buyer to arrange a hauling/freight company to come pick it up. Theres a bunch of em out there... Probably best for the buyer to google offices in their locale

[dave thompson]

I wouldn't deal with the shipping at all. If someone from outside the local area was bidding, I'd instruct them that 'local pickup' as stated and if they're really interested (it looks like you have a terrific piece of furniture) they will have to come get it or make the necessary arrangements to have it shipped.

You may be surprised at the interest your piece is generating.

[Birddog]

Cool sofa, Monterey and A Brandt Ranch Oak are very collectible. I think it is harder to find Monterey stuff. Anyway, look up "craters and freighters" for your needs, they do this all the time.
https://www.cratersandfreighters.com/freight-shipping-solutions/?gclid=CI7i57XPmMsCFYsCaQodopYJFQ

[11.4]

Freight is not difficult. FreightCenter.com can help you through the process. Just get a big enough pallet to put the sofa on. For a sofa you can usually get discard cardboard or wood pallets from motorcycle dealers -- bikes get shipped on pallets and they throw the pallets away after. Don't worry if it seems a little ratty -- many expensive motorbikes get shipped on cardboard pallets -- since it just has to give the furniture some room during shipping and gives a fork lift a way to pick it up. Get some inexpensive 1" nylon straps from Amazon and get a shipper's blanket or two. Wrap the blankets over the sofa and then wrap the hell out of it with the plastic wrapping film. The blanket(s) protects from bumps and the plastic film keeps water away. With the sofa completely wrapped, put it on the pallet and strap it down with the 1" nylon straps. Those straps are only $2-3 apiece, so use plenty of them so it won't shift.

You can ship it at this point, or you can get a few bike boxes (or even better, a couple cover boxes for Vespas (super heavy duty cardboard), cut them apart, and wrap the cardboard around the sofa. It doesn't really do much more than you've already done and cardboard won't stop damage that gets past the blankets and plastic film. Up to you. I'd prefer to have the sofa visible and not under cardboard, because it's easier for the freight company to watch out for damage -- cardboard is an excuse to bash something in ignorance.

If you have a pickup or van, you can strap the sofa onto the pallet inside the vehicle so it's not hard to do. If you don't, you can have the freight company pick up the sofa with a truck with a lift gate. That usually costs me about $40 extra. It'll cost the same extra on the other end, but I'd let the buyer worry about that.

You can get full insurance through FreightCenter (they're really just an intermediary for low-volume freight shippers) and I'd recommend it. It's not expensive.

In an hour, you can have the sofa packed and ready to go. You get a bill of lading from FreightCenter online, and it only takes a couple minutes to drop it off at the freight depot. You can pick the freight company you want -- prices vary slightly but I'd just pick one close to you. UPS Freight isn't usually the cheapest but is within $10-30 of the cheapest, and they are more friendly than many. When you pull into their lot with a pickup or van, a guy will be pulling out with a fork lift, take your bill of lading, and take your sofa. It's really that easy. So absolutely, don't be intimidated by shipping a piece of furniture like that.

I recently shipped a large pallet that weighed about 200 lbs from Dallas to the Northeast and paid $239 including a lot of insurance. Standard pallets are 40x48 inches. If you ever ship something, try to work with that dimension. For anything else, you'll want to stick with the 40" width as much as possible, or go narrower. You pay more if you go oversize.

There are firms that do all the packing for you and will actually manufacture a complete wooden crate. That's a great way to go if the value is really up there -- I shipped a donated Philadelphia highboy for an auction once and spent $3500 on shipping this way, but the highboy was worth $500k. If your sofa is worth, say, $10k, you should be able to do this yourself.

Hope that helps.