Shipping aio units, best way?

[luckybob]

I'm looking to sell my mac plus, color classic, and SE. title pretty much says it all, what is the safest way to ship these units and have them arrive intact? I'm going to take a shot in the dark and guess bubble wrap and peanuts are not desirable. Would some stiff closed-cell foam work?

 

[uniserver]

the best thing to do is double box…. and dump peanuts in the bottom first box, and then all around the second box… wrap what goes in the second box with bubble wrap sides and top/bottom, then close second box making sure the item is snug tight in it. dump peanuts on the top, make sure you put enough peanuts when you close the first box its also tight when you close and tape the flaps.

-- this is what mcdermd does all the time when shipping something out.

unless they drive over it with the delivery truck… it will probably arrive flawlessly.

 

[luckybob]

what does that usually cost you? I have a supply of packing peanuts and bubble paper but I don't think enough to ship 3 machines.

 

[uniserver]

mcdermd usually gets his boxes at UHAUL. i have as well.

- i like sending stuff out in a new box, instead of a reused one.

peanuts and bubble wrap, if you are in a pickle and need to buy some… i found that walmart was the best.

you can get a huge roll for under 20.

the only other thing you can drop it off at kinko's / fedex and they would box it up there, for 10 bucks per compact. all though i would wait and watch them…

make sure they use bubble wrap.

they got me good, they sent up 6 compacts from flordia and 2 of them got smashed.

they double boxed all 6, but didn't use any bubble wrap around the unit its self!

 

[Unknown_K]

You will have issues with using peanuts with anything that large and heavy. The cardboard walls will flex allowing the peanuts to flow around and the AIO unit will bounce around. I suggest you use thick double walled boxes and foam padding (plus bubble wrap for the computer itself).

 

[mcdermd]

I have shipped a ton of them using a Uhaul small box inside of a Uhaul medium box. Both boxes together cost maybe $2.50. Like uniserver said, I wrap the compact unit in bubble wrap and put it snugly inside the small box. The sealed, small box then gets nested into the medium box where there is still enough room to place the bubble-wrapped keyboard and mouse to one side. Contrary to Unknown_K's experience, I have found that filling the small voids left with packing peanuts keeps anything from shifting around too much. I have literally shipped dozens of compact Macs this way and always hear they survived shipping superbly (even overseas).

 

[luckybob]

those uhaul boxes sound perfect. i have one near my house, should be easy. the ups store wants almost $10 a box so f-them.

 

[jwse30]

I have also had success with the double box trick. For the inner box though, I use a banker's box. I used to get a lot of them slightly used for free, and a Plus or SE wrapped in bubble wrap fits perfectly. Then that goes in a larger box with a minimum of 2" of packing peanuts on each side, top, and bottom.

As for cost, the last one I shipped was around $30 via USPS parcel post. If I remember right it was going to California from Chicagoland. That was about a year or two ago though...

J White