Hi all,

This is somewhat related to buying/selling, though I'm not doing either of those things. I only need to setup shipping of a machine. If this belongs in another sub-forum, please let me know! I did some preliminary searching on the forum before posting and wasn't able to find anything relevant and recent.

Here's the story:

Back in the late 90s my parents bought an X-Files pinball machine. It's been in their house (in the basement) ever since. I finally bought a house 9 months ago or so, and today my mom said I could have the pinball machine. I just need to get it. The problem is the machine is in Connecticut, and I bought a house in California.

How do I get the machine from Connecticut to California? I haven't ever done cross-country LTL freight shipping, and I'm actually not even sure that's what I need. To make matters worse, I'm old, but my parents are even older (go figure)! They won't be able to deconstruct the machine, get it on a palette, etc. However it's shipped, the people at the shipping company will have to deal with all the packing, moving, and loading.

Surely, someone here must know how the process works. Any pointers are appreciated. I figure it's worth the hassle for the free machine after my GF gave me the go-ahead to get one for the garage. I figure getting this one for free means that I can use the money I was going to spend to get a second one.

Thanks!
Mike

Thanks all for the replies, much appreciated. Here's some extra info:

- My mom literally had to go down in the basement to "see" if they still had it. I don't know how she could not remember if they still had it. Probably why they haven't sold it yet.

- Spending a grand or so shipping it seems like a worthwhile deal to have the machine. I'd rather have the machine than the money.

- Unfortunately, all my vacation time is tapped out for the foreseeable future (going to Dubai and a few other places for the World Expo next year, if the global situation approves). Driving the machine myself is out of the question right now.

- My garage is a pretty steady temperature (living in Silicon Valley, the temperatures and humidity stay fairly constant). Will probably also be getting an extra HVAC register installed in my garage next week due to an issue unrelated to pinball.

Anyways, I will definitely check out all the options listed here. Glad to have found a very active community for this hobby!

UPDATE!

Mike from Automated in Milford, CT wrote me back this morning and suggested I call Beltmann. They will be out to my parents house nest Tuesday, and expect it'll take 14 days before it arrives in CA. $560 shipped (with additional $250 surcharge for stairs at the pickup location... none at my house in CA).

Thanks again everyone for the pointers, this would have been very difficult to arrange without your help!

UPDATE 2!

They forgot to add the surcharge for the third guy to get the pinball machine up the stairs, so the total shipped was closer to $800. It's on the truck as of an hour ago and on it's way to me now!

Final update:

Beltmann organized shipping through CRST who got it here on exactly they day they said it would arrive (yesterday (9/14)). Arrived in perfect condition, they did a great job. And it turns out they didn't actually need the 3rd guy for carrying it up the stairs at my parents house, so I got a refund for that.

Thanks again everyone for your suggestions!