Shipping a 36er

Unicycles and Equipment
1

Just a heads-up to anyone who may sell or ship a 36er…

I just sold my old Radial 360 on eBay. I live on the east cost of the US and the buyer (Tyler_N on this forum) lives in California. In my auction I put $50 shipping cost, but I badly underestimated.

It turned out to cost $97 to ship via FEDEX Ground in two boxes, though if I stuffed everything into one box, it may have been a bit less. Since I included two pairs of cranks, I wanted to keep them separate, in case they rattled around too much, damaging the frame of the Radial.

UPS and USPS both cost more.

2

This is somewhat upsetting news. Is that really the cheapest price possible for shipping a 36er? Where did you get the box?

I cringe to think of what a bike would cost to ship.

3

I’ve shipped a road bike before. It was in the $80-100 range in one box with UPS. A 36er weighs about the same and requires a similarly large box.

4

I used the box my Coker Big One came in. It had such great foam and stuff, I was going to use it as is, but the shipping for that box - 42 x 42 x 13, was going to be like $130+ :astonished:

So I cut the box down and made one 36 x 36 x 9. That box cost about $90, and the other $20, and I got an eBay discount.

5

Yeah I had a similar experience.

To ship a 24 dx from PA to NM it was going to cost $41 to ship. So he is bringing it to TX to cut the shipping price in half.

6

Coker charges $65

Coker charges $65 for two day FedEx shipping. One big box. You are probably much better off pricewise sending one big box rather than 2 smaller ones…you could use your Coker box…tom

7

wow did it really cost that much to ship? I bet it has something to do with gas prices.

8

Doh!

I didn’t read all the posts…never mind. I guess rates are based on distance…makes sense…tom

9

I actually called Coker about this very thing, since I recently dealt with them and thought they’d tell me how they did it. They said they use FEDEX Ground, too, and that they eat a substantial amount of the shipping cost. As I said, the one big box 42x42x13 would cost $130+ for coast-to-coast.

10

I shipped mine to Washington state from here via UPS, and it was about $79ish. This was about a year ago, so things may have changed.

11

The shipping guy I talked to said the rates have gone up recently due to gas prices.

12

Remind me to use Craigslist next time I sell something big, and keep it local…

13

I seem to remember, too, that UPS gives better rates to business customers, and that you can make a “business” account on their website for free. This is a bit fuzzy (from last summer), but for a package of old B&O speakers I sold on eBay I was told something like $70, both by my local UPS counter (not one of those price-gouging retail mail places) and the eBay UPS calculator. My brother gave me the business tip thing, and I made an account and it cost less than $40 for the same package.

So, if your place of business has a shipping dept, you could always give them a try. But that’s not to say that any of this would have made a difference in your price this summer. It’s just a “worth checking out” tip for anybody’s future shipping.

14

my goodness, something that’s actually cheaper in the UK. I just shipped my N36 and a 29er together the length of the country for £7.

15

We’re in a bit of a smaller country though.

Rob

16

sorry for the hammering with shipping but thanks for the post. now we all know what coast to coast cost is to ship a coker so all ours should be under that.