Is there a better way to ship?

[fatbasta]

Does anyone have any experience shipping large items (arcades) across country (usa)?  I'd like to find some way to ship other than UPS or FedEx ground, both are really expensive.  I've heard of people shipping stuff by train and the receiver would just pick it up at the station or a trucking company that would deliver from hub to hub.  Does anyone have any experience with this?
Any help would be appriciated.
Thanks,
fatbasta
Wow! my first new topic.  I hope I did it right... I'm sure you guys will let me know if I didn't

[MonitorGuru]

If you're talking about entire games, UPS/FedEx/PostOffice can't even ship them. They're too big and too heavy for their services (in other words, they dont accept them)

Air Freight or Truck freight are the ONLY options in shipping entire games, however be prepared to see a $250 to $350 bill PER GAME--INCLUDING COCKTAILS since you are an individual without any types of shipping discounts.  If you are a large shipper, usally you can get those rates down to $125 to $175, but it's not common to see that unless you ship multiple items out daily for a long time to negotiate that good of a rate.

Now if you're just talking large/heavy items like monitors that still could be shipped by UPS/FedEx/PO, then you're likely going to get a better deal as a single consumer off of one of them than by using Air/Truck freight services.  If you ship enough, you can get about 20-40% discounts by signing up for daily pickup (at a cost of around $10 a week) through UPS/FedEx's advertized "counter" prices.

[owj]

North American Van Lines is a popular option with ebay sellers, I have received many shipments from them.

The down side is the typical cost is about $275.  The upside is they pick up and drop off at residental addresses with a lift gate, usually will ship two normal sized games same price as one, and blanket wrap so you don't have do deal with crating.

[DreamArcades]

Try forward air. You drop off and pockup at a terminal, so you save over standard truck shipping. I think they run around $150.Try forward air. You drop off and pickup at a terminal, so you save over standard truck shipping. I think they run around $150.
I

[dirt]

you can also use erics shipping at machinemover.com i used him to ship a mario bros from ohio to my home in so cal. he is a good guy and the game got here in perfect shape he even brought it into my game room for me. he also blanket wraps the games so no need for boxing them up.


dirt

[Kayday]

You can try DHL.  I think they ship up to 150 lbs.  My arcade cab was shipped through them.