Author Topic: Cross country move- sell or ship?  (Read 1437 times)

wealthviahealth

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Cross country move- sell or ship?
« on: June 24, 2019, 01:44:09 PM »
I have am moving across the country next month and am faced with the age-old dilemma of selling most of my stuff and rebuying or paying a shipping company. The items most important to me are my 2 nice bikes which represent my main hobby. It will cost $600 total to have these bikes packed, shipped, and re-packed and thus far this is the only expense I that I "have to" pay serious dough to ship other than 2-3 medium-sized boxes of smaller things that I imagine will cost $50 per box. This puts me at around $800 to sell everything else at a loss and rebuy and just move these items.
Option 2 would be- use a moving service to ship such items ^ + all things like my bed, tv, furniture, cooking stuff and all other home items that have furnished my small studio over the past few years. Not sure how much such services cost but if it were $1,300 or less I think this option would make sense as I am already overwhelmed by the number of craigslist posting I am tending to trying to sell all of this.
Wondering what folks have done with faced with both of these options and what service they used to ship in the event that they opted for that option.

robartsd

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Re: Cross country move- sell or ship?
« Reply #1 on: June 24, 2019, 02:51:24 PM »
It seems like you could spend a lot less on the bike shipping if you pack and reassemble your bikes yourself. You'd need to remove wheels, seat, pedals, and rear derailleur. You'll also need to loosen the handlebars. You'll want a spacer to keep your fork/frame from being bent while the wheels removed (sometimes you can pack without removing the rear wheel). You may be able to get a box and plastic spacers from a local bike shop for free (used packing materials from bikes they've received). Additional bubble wrap and fill material available as ordinary shipping supplies would also be useful. You can probably get the bike shipping down to $2-300 total.

Alternatives for moving all your household goods are varied. You can rent a truck one-way (U-Haul, Penske, etc.) and do the loading, unloading, and driving. You can hire a transport service to drop off a truck trailer or shipping containers (U-Pack, PODS, etc.) that you load and unload, but they move. You can also hire full service movers. Costs of options will depend both on distance and on demand in the areas you are moving between.

Linea_Norway

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Re: Cross country move- sell or ship?
« Reply #2 on: June 25, 2019, 04:18:15 AM »
It seems like you could spend a lot less on the bike shipping if you pack and reassemble your bikes yourself. You'd need to remove wheels, seat, pedals, and rear derailleur. You'll also need to loosen the handlebars. You'll want a spacer to keep your fork/frame from being bent while the wheels removed (sometimes you can pack without removing the rear wheel). You may be able to get a box and plastic spacers from a local bike shop for free (used packing materials from bikes they've received). Additional bubble wrap and fill material available as ordinary shipping supplies would also be useful. You can probably get the bike shipping down to $2-300 total.

+1

Also, if you would sell the bikes, you can probably buy a just as good used bike back for approximately the same price. Same goes for furniture.

ejmyrow

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Re: Cross country move- sell or ship?
« Reply #3 on: June 25, 2019, 07:36:42 PM »
Motorcycle or bicycle? Is a bike rack an option?
We moved and sold/gave away everything except what fit in our sedan. It was so freeing! We were able to pick up everything we needed from Goodwill/ Craigslist for cheap. I guess it depends on how nice your belongings are and how attached you are to them. However I'm in favor of starting fresh. Plus Minimalism is good for the soul.

 

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