I’m in the process of unloading a couple bikes this year. While I’m going to start w/ the local pop. via Craigslist, I may consider listing here and other non-local bike forums. That being said, can anyone provide a good cost estimate for having a third party (e.g. bike shop) pack and ship a bike to somewhere in the lower 48? I’m in MN. I also have a couple bike boxes already that could be used to actually pack things up. I’ve never packed up a bike before, so unless anyone has some good tips for doing that, I may feel better just having someone else do the deed. Thanks.
Well you may want to talk to some of the bike shops specifically and see if they do any type of special rates. my last LBS had a deal where they charged $25 to box the bike up and they’d ship it themselves with their shipping service “be it fedex or UPS” which was about $35-$40 cheaper than if I did it myself.
I’ve shipped a bike from Kansas to Virginia myself. I disassembled it but ended up having to pay like $80 to ship via UPS. At the same time, I’ve shipped a full suspension mountain bike from Kansas to Texas and that cost me $60 through Fedex.
All in all, you’re probably looking at a packing fee of $30-40 with another $70 for shipping.
I sold a bike on ebay and shipped it from Texas to Virginia. I estimated 100.00 to ship and the actual cost of shipping from the UPS store was 95.00 with insurance on 1000.00 for a 60 CM aluminum bike and wheels.
I’ve found that costs for both packing and shipping vary widely. Some LBSs quoted me $100 to box a bike, I found one that did it for $50 (note: I live in a high rent area, so all the costs here are on the high side). For shipping, the dimensions make a big difference (i.e. one extra inch of width on the box can kick you to the next price tier). I’ve had good luck with these guys: http://www.shipbikes.com/ (pay them, then just drop the bike at FedEx/Kinkos); I think it cost me ~$75.
I am in MN too and was wondering if you were able to make it out to the annual bike swap up in Blaine by the big sports complex and Velodrome? If not you missed a good opportunity to sell your bikes or other used gear to a large crowd of people.
Craigslist is a hit or miss. It took me a awhile to sell my older road bike that I don’t use anymore (listed it in Nov and it sold yesterday finally after a couple of price drops). But it is winter though.
I think there is another one or two coming up in the next couple of months somewhere in the Twin Cities area though too.
You can also list the bike on bicyclebluebook.com and they have LBS partners who inspect the bike for potential buyers and also ship for you.