Two Picks...Two Ships via U-Ship

The second item I bought has more story to tell, so I'll start with that one.

I got this chiropractic table at a thrift store after looking it up on the iPad while sitting in one of their sofas!



You need to be licensed to sell these on eBay (according to them) so rather than take a chance on getting dinged by eBay I put it on Clist and eBayclassifieds. It was the first item in 2 years I have actually sold on eBayclassifieds.

A gal in the south saw it and emailed me. It sells new for $2,200 and the last one from a seller on eBay went for $750. I was asking $1,200 and told her to check with U-ship for possible costs from California to her location.

She got back to me and said they approximated $600 based on size, weight, distance. She indicated that would put her at $1,800 and she couldn't afford that, so I generously told her I would sell it to her for $800. She accepted and sent me a PayPal "personal, other" payment...no cost to me and I think none to her either.

Since I paid $50 for this item I was happy to make this deal. The pictures below are of the loading process (in the dark).
See notes under each picture.



The helper and I got the table to the sidewalk from my truck.



Heavier set fellow is driver and righ owner. Rig is 53 foot trailer behind semi-cab.



Looking in the back door of the trailer if you look carefully you can see the right rear
wheel of a car they are hauling.




The table I sold was loaded in the side door of the trailer but they said it wouldn't be
there as they were picking up and delivering multiples loads over the roughly 3,000 miles
they would be traveling.

She paid only $345 for the shipping so she WON too !

My other U-Ship experience was with a special trike for handicapped kids. It would have fit in a 3 foot square box I think.  Got it for $55 at a piece by piece auction and sold it for $250 I think it was.  The buyer got a trucker from U-Ship to pick it up and deliver it for $250 or so; so he was in it for $500 but the similar NEW ones were in the $1,200 to $1,500 range, so he still saved.

Driver shows up in a long motorhome pulling a flatbed trailer. Flatbed had some kind of Caterpillar digger and a small sailboat on it. Driver put the trike inside the motorhome and away he went.

I forgot to ask him about how accurate the tv show was (Shipping Wars) but the driver on the chiro table simply said "It's all staged."  Sound familiar? 

Of course it is staged.  I looked at the website when the show first came on.  I do find it interesting to watch anyways.

Nice to hear this story MovieMan.  I've stayed away from large items due to shipping.  Since I'm near I-20 I wonder how some of my larger items would sell if did u-ship.  May have to look into it.

It certainly worked for me in the two instances above, but I recently got a request for U-Ship info from a prospective buyer on a third item that didn't pan out.

I gave the requester basic info on how to proceed on U-Ship but he wanted ME to get a basic quote for him (so he wouldn't have to invest time in the process). So wanting to make a sale I did so.

When you just do the basic work it always comes back showing a possible shipping rate of $350 to $700 from CA to the east coast.

It's ONLY when a customer actually has an item in hand that THEY put out for bids on U-Ship. In other words, they say "I've got a (item here) in Redding, CA that I want to get to my home in Atlanta, GA.  It weighs 100 pounds and measure 5' x 3' x 18"."

At that point, carriers on U-Ship will submit bids for what they would do  for delivery. Dates also come into it of course.
If a person gets 4 bids he can accept or reject any of them. Once they choose a carrier the deal proceeds and communication starts between all three parties (me, buyer and carrier).

In addition to the charge by the carrier, U-Ship gets some action too...maybe $50 commission on a $350 shipment.

It's not as difficult as it might seem, but does require a willing buyer and an item that might not be widely available...perhaps a unique furniture piece as an example.

In my third case, the prospective buyer was looking at an item that would sell for $1,200 new and I offered it at $300 for local pickup. I discounted it to $150 to him because it had to be shipped, but at the $350 shipping cost it put the buyer at $500 to $550 and they didn't want to spring for it.  Oh well.

I only paid $25 for it so I would have been happy getting $150.