Shipping an Arcade Cabinet

[Pauly]

Hey Guys,

I am planning on building a cabinet for someone out of state and wanted to ask anyone out there who did you use to ship your cabinet? This will be an assembled box. No coin door, glass, tv or PC inside. Control panel will be built as well. Trying to also get a guesstimate on cost.

Trying to get a ball park.

[pbj]

Not worth either of your time.

[Pauly]

Not worth either of your time.

I am guessing because you know Judgement Day is around the corner or it's either too expensive.



If the latter, do you mind sharing the cost and whom you used?

[Phreakwars]

I think oops (UPS), will do it. They delivered my Boxflex and that thing came in several HUGE boxes and was quite heavy. I also recall a price estimate on a few of them from eBay a couple years back of around $150 for shipping. These were complete cabinets though, so it might be less.

Hopefully someone else can give you a better, more specific answer.

[CheffoJeffo]

My recollections will be dated as I haven't even considered shipping a game since I realized it was too big a hassle and too damned expensive.

IIRC, the old go-tos were Forward Air and NAVL (Michelle). Pretty much everywhere other than NAVL required you to palletize the cabinet. Forward Air required drop-off and pick-up at air terminals. Costs started around 300 dollars and went up from there. I expect they would be higher these days. Also important to consider the "last 100 feet" in your delivery options: curbside drop-off, liftgate/no liftgate.

Having said that, a basic box will likely be cheaper, but possibly more fragile (old commercial cabs are heavy, but typically very solid).

[Locke141]

You'd probably be better off having them look for a used cab locally, setting up Mame on an old PC, then going to visit to do a simple set up.

[DeLuSioNal29]

This may be helpful:

https://www.uship.com/

[Jamesbeat]

 John from John's Arcade has a YouTube video in which he has a cabinet shipped.
I can't remember if he mentions how much it cost, but it might give you some insight into the process:



The cabinet in the video is a Computer Space, so I can definitely understand why he would go to the trouble and expense.

[lamprey]

It's not cheap, but there are a couple companies that ship games. One of the more popular seems to be NAVL or, more specifically, Precision Transportation.

Here is a thread from KLOV about it:
http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=339464

[behrmr]

My recollections will be dated as I haven't even considered shipping a game since I realized it was too big a hassle and too damned expensive.

IIRC, the old go-tos were Forward Air and NAVL (Michelle). Pretty much everywhere other than NAVL required you to palletize the cabinet. Forward Air required drop-off and pick-up at air terminals. Costs started around 300 dollars and went up from there. I expect they would be higher these days. Also important to consider the "last 100 feet" in your delivery options: curbside drop-off, liftgate/no liftgate.

Having said that, a basic box will likely be cheaper, but possibly more fragile (old commercial cabs are heavy, but typically very solid).

I sold a missile command and asteroids deluxe uprights to a collector in TX (and those are two freaking heavy cabinets).  He used NAVL and said it was about $300 for one game and the price improved with more than 1.  E.g. Two would be about $250.  That's from PA to TX.  NAVL send a local shipper to my house and all I had to do was point to the two games and they took it from there.

[paigeoliver]

Find a local customer and don't deal with the hassle. There are people building mame cabinets all over the country, find a local to build him the same thing and take a finder's fee. You DO NOT want to ship one to some clueless buyer (as most of them are) and then get stuck with tech support issues on an out of state cabinet.

[yotsuya]

Find a local customer and don't deal with the hassle. There are people building mame cabinets all over the country, find a local to build him the same thing and take a finder's fee. You DO NOT want to ship one to some clueless buyer (as most of them are) and then get stuck with tech support issues on an out of state cabinet.

I kinda agree with this. I don't think the shipping cost will end up being the issue here, unless you are 100% sure about the competency of the end user and what the expectionations of where your support ends.

[big10p]

pjb, do you work for the diplomatic corps, perchance?

[behrmr]

Find a local customer and don't deal with the hassle. There are people building mame cabinets all over the country, find a local to build him the same thing and take a finder's fee. You DO NOT want to ship one to some clueless buyer (as most of them are) and then get stuck with tech support issues on an out of state cabinet.

I kinda agree with this. I don't think the shipping cost will end up being the issue here, unless you are 100% sure about the competency of the end user and what the expectionations of where your support ends.

From the OP it sounds like he is making a cabinet. Not a complete system.  So given that it would be a pretty straightforward thing. And if the buyer is willing to pay stupid money for it then why not? 

[yotsuya]

Because if the cabinet is kind of wobbily, or the glass the buyer picked up doesn't fit, or the material gets cracked when the buyer tries installing a marquee, or the t-molding slot gets cut wrong, or a hundred other that a buyer can complain about occur when the cab is miles away out of the OP's reach... that's why those expectations should be made very clear before anything gets shipped. Sometimes stupid money isn't worth the headaches.

[harveybirdman]

Not to mention that anytime a "buyer who just wants it and doesn't care about the expense" gets into this hobby bad things can happen

*Classic cabs maimed
*Market Prices for other enthusiasts artificially inflated because
*New entrepreneurs think they can sell 60 in 1s in prefabbed particle board with LED's and character collages for 2000 plus on Craigslist

[Pauly]

Find a local customer and don't deal with the hassle. There are people building mame cabinets all over the country, find a local to build him the same thing and take a finder's fee. You DO NOT want to ship one to some clueless buyer (as most of them are) and then get stuck with tech support issues on an out of state cabinet.

I kinda agree with this. I don't think the shipping cost will end up being the issue here, unless you are 100% sure about the competency of the end user and what the expectionations of where your support ends.

Fair enough! Any builders looking for work in Boise, Idaho? I can send someone your way.

[paigeoliver]

Find a local customer and don't deal with the hassle. There are people building mame cabinets all over the country, find a local to build him the same thing and take a finder's fee. You DO NOT want to ship one to some clueless buyer (as most of them are) and then get stuck with tech support issues on an out of state cabinet.

I kinda agree with this. I don't think the shipping cost will end up being the issue here, unless you are 100% sure about the competency of the end user and what the expectionations of where your support ends.

Fair enough! Any builders looking for work in Boise, Idaho? I can send someone your way.

Be sure and post this on one of the facebook mame groups too. They are a lot more active these days than BYOAC is.

[yotsuya]

Find a local customer and don't deal with the hassle. There are people building mame cabinets all over the country, find a local to build him the same thing and take a finder's fee. You DO NOT want to ship one to some clueless buyer (as most of them are) and then get stuck with tech support issues on an out of state cabinet.

I kinda agree with this. I don't think the shipping cost will end up being the issue here, unless you are 100% sure about the competency of the end user and what the expectionations of where your support ends.

Fair enough! Any builders looking for work in Boise, Idaho? I can send someone your way.

Check with brother FrizzleFried.

[yotsuya]

Btw, I wouldn't discourage you from the deal,  but just consider all the angles.

If you said "it's for my brother", then that would be different. But any time you build something for someone you don't know, anything can happen. I've seen it enough times.

Behrmr's prices on shipping was pretty much what I have seen myself.

[h1gg1n5]

Not the cheapest but they will blanket wrap your cabinet and it does not have to be on a pallet. Glass/marble box in the shipping quote must be checked just in case.

Also free shipping quote on their website.

https://www.plycongroup.com/

I have used them many times for furniture across the country and never had any problems.

[Xiaou2]

I had a cab shipped to me, from Pilotair.

 Cost was something like 200 to 300$

This was many years ago.

 Came strapped to a palette, in shrink wrap.   The seller probably was responsible for that.

 They dont deliver door to door.  Must pickup at location, which was near the airport.

 Ive heard Countless horror stories about NAVL  (and know of one person locally who received a damage game from them).   Stay away from them, unless you dont care if the thing survives working, and in one piece.

[bdn103]

The last 2 cabinets shipped were in the $300 (pilot air single cabinet) to $600 ( for a sit down monster) range.  Shipping costs are base not only on the weight, but the type of goods and the volume (pallet) size /stackability. While distance has some bearing on price, it is not twice as expensive to ship something twice as far...maybe only 40% more. Sometimes, there are nearly no additional cost to ship two machines over a single machine.

I have shipped a bunch of machines over the years (purchased)...and I am always surprised at what the costs are (high and low).

Thanks
Brian