Friendly word of advice to other 1st time wheel sellers on the board (from a 1st time wheel seller). DO NOT under estimate your S&H costs... expect to pay about $35 - $40 to ship a single wheel (a set of 4 is about $150). Don't forget other "incidentals" like large boxes if you don't have any are about $6+ each big enough to hold a 18" to 19" rim + padding. Crumpled up newspaper is free of course , bubble wrap on the other hand is ridiculously expensive. Also, don't forget you actually need to get 1 to 4 huge boxes to a shipper. For those that work: FedEx, UPS, etc require large windows in the middle of the day for you to be home for a pickup. If you don't have a buddy with a SUV or truck that'll take you and your boxes to a shipper, thats gonna be a big problem . And even if you do, expect to pony up beer and pizza .

And then theres ebay and/or paypal fees...

Anyways, just saying... REAL WORLD cost to ship a single wheel is at least $50 to $60+.

So for those selling 4 wheels for "$300 to $400 shipped"... if you don't have a local buyer, might as well throw them in the trash or dump them on the side of the freeway as you'll walk away with about a $100 or less .

P.S. these prices are without tires... if you are including tires... bump up the $$$ .

Not whining here... I made my deal and stuck with it... just warning others to think it through more clearly first .
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Absolutely great advice. I looked into shipping a set of wheels and tires, and your dollar estimates are right on the money. No pun intended.

Absolutely true - selling wheels, tires, and wheels/tires, can be costly. But i've learned a few tricks over the years.

1. Use FedEx Ground. By far the cheapest way for shipping bigger things, and delivery is most times faster than UPS.
2. Try to double up the rims in a single box if you can. You pay a premium for having multiple boxes - and many times can save 25% overall if you can double up. Just make sure the separation between the two wheels is padded and thick.
3. When shipping tires without rims, using reinforced packing tape to tape 2 together and ship like that (tape at 5-6 spots around the two tires).
4. When shipping wheels/with tires - dig deep - these are the most expensive things to ship, and to do this right, you really need to have some cardboard and some plastic strapping to hold the cardboard on front/back. (if you've ever gotten anything from TireRack, you'll know what I'm talking about). You can also use that plastic stretch wrap on a roll and wrap them this way as well.

and always make sure you know the zip code to ship - for these things, distance is critical to estimating the cost. Always use the FedEx shipping calculator to figure this out.

andy

1. Use FedEx Ground. By far the cheapest way for shipping bigger things, and delivery is most times faster than UPS.

If the buyer and seller live near bus stations, you may also be interested to check into this: http://www.shipgreyhound.com (http://www.shipgreyhound.com/)

I've shipped many oversized items with Greyhound and you'd REALLY be surprised on the price difference... Well worth the pizza and beer IMO... :thmsup:

http://www.clubxb.com/forums/f18/how-ship-wheels-tires-17341.html
check it out

http://www.clubxb.com/forums/f18/how-ship-wheels-tires-17341.html
check it out

Substitute FedEx for UPS within that link, and it's pretty much what I said - and will be much cheaper since UPS has higher ground rates! And something to correct - when you ship tires, FedEx or UPS does NOT add any sort of premium to the cost - they measure it LxWxH just like a box would be measured - and then the weight. Just make sure you wrap 'em good to protect the face of the wheels.

Interesting post about the greyhound shipping idea - may have to check that out next time! :yes:

andy

crazy enough, I used to ship car parts via greyhound. They are really cheap for larger items, but the other person has to pick it up at the terminal.

I just checked over there to see what it might cost. I estimated with tires and it is coming up for about $125 to ship St. Louis to New Orleans.

http://www.shipgreyhound.com/

wellz i work for usairways and we have agreements with ups and fedex...i think i can ship anything with no charge for large items or anything...and the discount is 80% off...so ive been a ebay seller for 4-5 years now...the benfits are great...

preach on bro