Shipping Costs

[340Challman]

What is everyones opinion of shipping costs these days? Am I the only one that thinks they have gone into the realm of price gouging. I was planning to send my grille to Bill at Special T's Unlimited this weekend. I fell over when I found what the cost was going to be. Both FedEx and UPS were $700 one way from Boise to Chicago.    That's $1400 round trip! Yes the box is big, but it only weighs 12 pounds. That is just stupid expensive.     I was expecting $300 not $700. I can drive there and back staying in hotels and food for about $700.

Meanwhile, my grille is still sitting here while I decide if I'm going to attempt the restoration myself like @Brads70 did his. With the cost of shipping, it puts the package deal at $5000 for my grille. It seems like I could do a pretty decent job myself for half that.

Thoughts?

[70vert]

My wife opened an account with Pirate Ship, it's free and you get discounted rates from USPS or UPS. We use it for sending presents, her stitching stuff, and parts that I have sold. It is generally a pretty good discount! You put in all the shipping info, then print out a label, then drop it off at any UPS location (they accept pre-paid USPS). It also supports international shipping.

Check it out https://ship.pirateship.com/

[cuda hunter]

Shipping is absolutely out of control.
I live in the middle of the mountains and everything has to be shipped in or out and the prices have definitely changed my buying habits.  Less of them actually.
Gonna have to drive it or do it yourself.

[340Challman]

My wife opened an account with Pirate Ship, it's free and you get discounted rates from USPS or UPS. We use it for sending presents, her stitching stuff, and parts that I have sold. It is generally a pretty good discount! You put in all the shipping info, then print out a label, then drop it off at any UPS location (they accept pre-paid USPS). It also supports international shipping.

Check it out https://ship.pirateship.com/

Has she had good luck? I checked reviews for them and it came back 57% negative. That scared me off. Glad you guys are in the 43%. 

[Jay Bee]

Is USPS not an option due to size, reliability, confidence, or whatever. Be glad you don't live outside of the USA, shipping really gets ridiculous then.

[340Challman]

Shipping is absolutely out of control.
I live in the middle of the mountains and everything has to be shipped in or out and the prices have definitely changed my buying habits.  Less of them actually.
Gonna have to drive it or do it yourself.

Yeah, I'm seriously leaning towards doing it myself. It's not really in bad shape. There are a few places that will need to be straightened, but I think I can make that happen. My biggest hesitation is on the anodizing. Not sure how I'd accomplish/get around that. I'd thought about polishing the aluminum and then clearing it, but unsure if the clear would adhere decently to polished metal.

[340Challman]

Is USPS not an option due to size, reliability, confidence, or whatever. Be glad you don't live outside of the USA, shipping really gets ridiculous then.

Yeah, unfortunately the USPS won't touch it due to size.

[pschlosser]

I just estimated your shipment, and its under $100 for me. But USPS was closer to $250.

Package Type: Box or Rigid Packaging
Dimensions: 50x16x16
Weight: 12 lbs

Ship From Address
foo
10400 W Overland Rd
Boise ID 83709-1433

Ship To Address
301 W Grand Ave
Chicago IL 60654

1 × UPS® Ground @ $75.81
1 × Peak Season @ $0.25
1 × Peak Surcharge - Additional Handling @ $7.75
1 × Additional Handling @ $12.95
Total $96.76

1 × Ground Advantage @ $214.03
1 × Non-Standard Fee – Length Fee > 30" @ $8.40
1 × Non-Standard Fee – Cube Fee > 2 Cubic Feet @ $18.00
Total $240.43

[Brads70]

Give it a go yourself, what is there to loose? $100? in materials? Worse case is you buy another one restored? On the anodizing , mine was dull and I found well worn fine grit sandpaper with acetone and lightly polishing it brought it right back up. With mine is was mostly 50 years of road grim that was dulling it.
On my S/E tail panel I did have to remove some pretty nasty dents and the anodizing did get removed. I polished it up with various levels of fine sandpaper then used Brasso for a mirror like finish, and its held up just fine IMO.

[340Challman]

I just estimated your shipment, and its under $100 for me. But USPS was closer to $250.

Package Type: Box or Rigid Packaging
Dimensions: 50x16x16
Weight: 12 lbs

Ship From Address
foo
10400 W Overland Rd
Boise ID 83709-1433

Ship To Address
301 W Grand Ave
Chicago IL 60654

1 × UPS® Ground @ $75.81
1 × Peak Season @ $0.25
1 × Peak Surcharge - Additional Handling @ $7.75
1 × Additional Handling @ $12.95
Total $96.76

1 × Ground Advantage @ $214.03
1 × Non-Standard Fee – Length Fee > 30" @ $8.40
1 × Non-Standard Fee – Cube Fee > 2 Cubic Feet @ $18.00
Total $240.43

How did you arrive at this? USPS wouldn't touch it. Said it was too big. My dimensions are 72X16X16. Where did you come up with 50" The grille itself is 69". My prices are direct from FedEx and UPS. 

[340Challman]

Give it a go yourself, what is there to loose? $100? in materials? Worse case is you buy another one restored? On the anodizing , mine was dull and I found well worn fine grit sandpaper with acetone and lightly polishing it brought it right back up. With mine is was mostly 50 years of road grim that was dulling it.
On my S/E tail panel I did have to remove some pretty nasty dents and the anodizing did get removed. I polished it up with various levels of fine sandpaper then used Brasso for a mirror like finish, and its held up just fine IMO.

Interesting. Well, if the finish will hold up without clear that'd be great. I think I'm going to give it a go. 

[pschlosser]

How did you arrive at this? USPS wouldn't touch it. Said it was too big. My dimensions are 72X16X16. Where did you come up with 50" The grille itself is 69". My prices are direct from FedEx and UPS. 

I guessed on the dimensions.  I've upgraded the estimate, now UPS is closer to $250,

Dimensions: 70x16x16
Weight: 12 lbs

1 × UPS® Ground @ $95.04
1 × Peak Season @ $0.25
1 × Large Package @ $77.85
1 × Large Package Seasonal Surcharge @ $84.75
$257.89

and USPS is not showing they will take it.  Just like you said.

Wait until the christmas season surcharge expires, and save on the "Seasonal Surcharge", too.

[340Challman]

How did you arrive at this? USPS wouldn't touch it. Said it was too big. My dimensions are 72X16X16. Where did you come up with 50" The grille itself is 69". My prices are direct from FedEx and UPS. 

I guessed on the dimensions.  I've upgraded the estimate, now UPS is closer to $250,

Dimensions: 70x16x16
Weight: 12 lbs

1 × UPS® Ground @ $95.04
1 × Peak Season @ $0.25
1 × Large Package @ $77.85
1 × Large Package Seasonal Surcharge @ $84.75
$257.89

and USPS is not showing they will take it.  Just like you said.

Wait until the christmas season surcharge expires, and save on the "Seasonal Surcharge", too.

Where are you getting these numbers?

[JH27N0B]

Special Ts is in the next village north of me.    I've had Bill work on parts for me in the past but it's been a long time.  A friend of mine, Tom, works with Bill and I've had Tom work on parts for me more recently.  He did my T/As grille restoration for me and it's a work of art.
Shipping is out of hand now.  It's sad how that and many things we used to take for granted have gotten so much worse in recent times, that in many cases I don't want to deal with tasks I used to enjoy like selling extra stuff. I bought and sold parts in the past to help cut the costs of my restoration and had a lot of fun.  Ebay was a life changer for me, I sold clutter in my house I never thought I'd find homes for, yet didn't want to toss as they had value.  I have lived in my house 35 years and still have a lot of stuff I don't need.  But eBay and other online venues have made it too expensive and risky to sell there now.  Add the $600 threshold where you get the sales reported to the IRS and might have to pay taxes on your "profit" when you actually lost money, since you didn't keep receipts for stuff you bought a quarter century ago.  Give me a break!  Then add expensive shipping, might get damaged or lost in route. Fogetaboutit. 
So I look at my clutter now and wish I could sell it, but except for maybe a swap meet a year, or to a local guy through word of mouth, no way to find new homes for my stuff!
If you hear about me croaking, stake out my house.  When a dumpster is delivered for a crew to clean out my place, you will undoubtedly find some valuable Mopar parts there dumpster diving!
I miss the good old days when shipping was inexpensive and reliable, and eBay was friendly and safe for sellers.

[BIGSHCLUNK]

A small business mans perspective... First off there is really N0 completion in the package freight business. Not nationally anyway. We have something called SpeeDee here but they do a small handfull of states around me. Then Bidenomics .... ya it's bullshit, but everything has gone up - insurance/maintenance/wages. Insurance on my trucks is up 25% - never had a claim in 40 years. And I dont tow or haul anything anymore. My nephew works for UPS, he has MS. He's on meds that are 28K a month. I can only imagine what UPS pays for health ins. Wages, the average driver (again UPS as FEDEX is set up differently) is around a six figure number.  Hell I could do three pages on this alone. Then size factor. Weight used to be the thing, but now its also how much space does it take up in the truck or trailer. We had a client in east noplace California about a year ago that wanted a bumper cover from us. He figured the weight cuz he had his old one. Was a little over $100. After we gave him the good news on box dimensions it was over $1100. Another lost sale! Is it a ripoff? Hell yes it is . They are still making money... back to the Biden thing. But unless your buddy is a trucker going that way you are short on choices. Now some things can/must go LTL but things like a grill will NEVER survive.     
DHL made an attempt to break into the market a few years ago... ya, good luck with that.