Many people make the mistake of thinking eBay is just for small stuff. We can help with the larger and heavier items too. We ship items by motor freight often and we’ve even arranged shipment for vehicles.

John Chase from Simply Sold preps an item for freight shipping

Household appliances and furniture, although large and shippable by freight carrier, don’t generate enough interest because buyers aren’t willing the pay the cost associated with freight shipments. Businesses are a differenct story. They understand the cost of shipping and use freight requently. If your business has an item that has enough of a market and people are willing to pay the freight cost, this can be a great market for your product.

Give us a call at (815) 293-0300 and let’s talk about selling your excess equipment today!

Most importantly though, it’s a reminder to us that we can reach the entire world with your products. Think about this for a minute. You can either try a garage sale, classified ad, or selling to your buddy at work, but the real questions is “what would happen if you were to reach the right sized market full of people eagerly and actively searching for your product?” We sold a large collection of Lego toy sets recently and of 20+ sets, only one stayed in the US. Many went for several hundred dollars. What would have happened if we didn’t reach those buyers?

There are some eBay sellers who don’t sell worldwide because they’re afraid of the risk, customs forms, language barriers, etc. Sure, those things can be hassles sometimes, but in the end we’re here to figure out how to get the best value for you and this is just one way we feel we can make the difference for you. Thanks for letting us help you!

While I’m at it, here’s some trivia for you:

• Several of the Lego sets went to Macau (it’s just off the southern coast of China.
• Ever watch the Discovery Channel’s Deadliest Catch? Yea, we’ve shipped to Dutch Harbor.
• The Artic Circle? Sure. We just shipped a Chanel brooch to Kotezbue, Alaska.
• Our daughters were especially excited about the country below.

Enjoy the video!

We’ve just created a video to show you an example of how we package an item.

First thing we need to consider when faced with a freight item is asking ourselves if will anyone pay the freight cost. Freight is expensive and unless the item is unique enough or the deal is going to be significant enough, buyers just aren’t going to pay the cost. If it’s the right type of item we then need to figure out the cost.

The first step is to determine the actual size of the item and how it would be prepared for shipment. Some things can just be strapped to a pallet as is. Others require crating. Still others need special size pallets or special truck arrangements. Once we’ve figured out the size, we’ll determine the weight, which can be done by either estimating or weighing the item in sections. Sometimes that means calling the manufacturer to find out the weight.

The next step is to contact one of several freight brokers to find the best price. When working with conventional carriers like UPS, all you need to provide is the weight and package size. For freight, you need to specifically itentify the nature of the product and it’s overall size. The actual product determines the freight class. There are hundreds of classes to choose from and picking the wrong one can mean extra, after the shipment costs possibly costing us tens or even hundreds of dollars. That’s where working with a quality, knowledgable freight broker is important because if we’re wrong, we eat that cost!

Freight carriers charge extra for added services too. For example a delivery to a residential location is much more costly. If we’re going to a business location with a loading dock, great. If there’s no dock, we need a special truck with a liftgate on the back to get the product off the truck. You guessed it, more expensive.

If you’ve got something that you think is a freight candidate and you’d like us to sell it, give us a call at (815) 293-0300 and let’s talk.

You can do it yourself, or you can call in the experts. We’re up to the challenge!

Too often, folks don’t think about the handling a package experiences throughout it’s journey. It’s easy to blame the carriers, but in their defense they’re handling thousands of packages and can’t care for each one with a gentle touch. It would be great, but we have to deal with reality. Secure packaging is OUR responsibility, getting it to the proper destination is the carrier’s responsibility. We have to package for whatever may occur along the way.

That doesn’t happen for free.

We use new boxes for shipping. The reason is because boxes lose their rigidity each time they’re used. Used boxes are not as strong and make a product more likely to become damaged. We receive some boxes at no cost through the US Postal Service, but they’re limited in size and in strength. They work great for some items, but not for all. We use a few suppliers for our other boxes and we carry about 30 different sizes and shapes to meet a variety of product needs.

Internal materials are next, ranging from bubblewrap to foam peanuts and heavy kraft paper. Depending on the item we might also use rigid foam or cotton batting. Occasionally we’ll add cardboard facing to a product, for example, the fronts of speakers, or even build a cardboard frame around an item to provide additional protection. For that we’ll use recycled boxes.

Our goal: Package the product so when you open the box your product arrives safely and you’re amazed at the quality and care we’ve taken to get it to you in one piece. Our extremely low insurance claims rate for damaged items proves it!

While that doesn’t happen for free, we don’t treat our shipping as a profit area. Our goal is simply to break even on the supplies and time. We believe that by providing that level of service and quality, we receive better bids, creating happy sellers and happy buyers who know they’ll receive their purchase quickly and as described.

Thanks as always for being our customers!

The machines came to us with no software and no owner’s manuals. The first step was to figure out how to make them run. We scoured the internet and found driver software and owner’s manuals. We tested the machines and created videos of them running through a complete test. You can see the video for one of the machines at the bottom of this post.

We created the listing, took the pictures, and even added links to the software and included the videos of the machines running right in the listing. We figured out how to make freight arrangements so they could be shipped almost anywhere, meaning greater exposure to a bigger audience.

We sold the first machine for $1625 and the second for $980. After our commission, they’ll still have 2 times the amount they would have had if the machines had sold for their original asking prices. That’s adding value!

We love when we can exceed your expectations. We love adding value and making a difference like this. That’s why we’re here.

Thanks for letting us help you!