i been in here complaining about STI and just paid $500 to use them again. I hate this hobby

A man named Randy Buffalo once had such a dream...

I’ve had great luck with Michelle and STI. Pay for their service and you get the games you want.

Another nod for Fastenal for me. I used them to ship my last 3 games (1 to someone and 2 to me) with no issues. You have to pick up/drop off at the store and pallet them yourself but I've never paid over $180 yet. There is a store 10 minutes from my house and if the seller/buyer has one within an hour it's well worth the extra work to save $300+

Kinda different when you're in business.

LOL. You guys are cracking me up.

It’s a 400lb item traveling up to 2600 miles. Have you ever shipped anything large and heavy via FedEx/UPS? $450-$500 is a bargain for a pin!

What can I say?

You shoulda shipped it last year.

It's weird, and I was nervous the first time, but I've had much less damage with legs on shipping than palleted. I just make sure they get cornerboard on all 4 legs and wrap it well and all of them have arrived in great shape. I now prefer it to palleted/crated.

The more philosophical question is who considers shipping to be part of the pin price and who does not. I personally do not figure it as something I recover when selling, as i paid for a separate service that was a convenience to me. Kind of like paying for Amazon prime...lol. I dont consider that part of the item cost.

I do the same. I did a 1700 mile round trip not too long ago. Paid time off work, get to see some scenery, get the game home safely instead of worrying about shippers.....in 30 hours and for only $200. Can’t beat that.

Fear not everyone, once the trucking COmpaNies switch out their Diesel-belching tractors for sleek, modern, can-do-no-wrong Tesla tractors, Shipping costs will drop to an almost no-charge line item on an invoice.

I remember the virtual squeals of delight when RB first started his deliveries. Was he delivering pins too? I was reading R.G.V.A.C. back then. Lots of people learned a hard lesson when that all went down.

This issue has moved me more towards NIB. STI is atleast $550 to get to me, and they only comes once a week. Usually takes 3-4 weeks to get a machine.

NIB shipped, HUO withing driving distance (6 hours one way).

Has anyone here ever used Bob Cunningham? He quoted $300 from PA to KS

Cool. Sell me The Shadow then

Just used him. He is the best.

As far as the whole shipping thing...I have shipped many pins to and from me. Here is my advice:

Michelle Bianchi with beltman logistics - The best white glove service. They are professional and great at what they do. Well packaged and cared for. Great communication. Insurance is included. It is the most expensive, however. 450-550 is expected. Special conditions like stairs, out of the way homes, poorly accessible driveways, etc add to the price...a lot.

Fastenal - Lots of locations and cheaply priced (usually 150-300 in my experience). There is NO insurance. You will have to palletize, corner, wrap, strap down and secure the pinball...and deliver it to the fastenal location...and the buyer will have to pick it up from a location near them.

Bob Cunningham - very cheap (usually around 300...but certain toll-areas, stairs, etc can bring up the price). He packages and wraps everything perfectly. The only downfall is that it is just him and one other helper, so it can take weeks...or possibly months to get the pinball delivered.

I will drive a reasonable distance (within 4-6 hours...but possibly further if it is an INCREDIBLE deal). After that, I have to ship or just pass on it.

Im Thinking about getting into the game shipping business....

Bob Cunningham is extremely reliable. I trust him with all of my pinball/arcade deliveries.

He is an arcade/pinball/jukebox enthusiast who previously operated a billiards business.

I mean these guys crying that you can't ship two pins for $350 must be dense as hell

Prices have gone up and why I don’t ship games that much anymore. Shipped a ton though and by far best luck with legs on.

Usually base is around $375 now.

Got steps? Add $100
Rural pickup or drop-off? Add $50
Insurance free? Not. Included up to $1500, then it’s $30 for every additional $1000.

Base went up some, add-ons went up even more.

I shipped two pins for $475. One was $375, since it was same origin and destination, second pin was an additional $100.

Yep. Top notch.

Just had one of his guys pick up an arcade game that's headed to the UK. The guy was into the hobby and took good care with the game. Not much more you can ask for.

Just booked 2 pins coming from California to Colorado, and Michelle hooked me up-$510 for both. A boboli bo

Back in the good old/bad old days there was a guy we called OshKosh Ron.
Ron was a long distance trucker and pinhead. He offered to pick up and
ship a pin anywhere in the country for $100. No need to pallatize and he
treated machines he shipped like they were his, carefully wrapping and strapping
them in. The downside was it could take up to a year but usually a lot
faster than that.

Great guy and I'm sure he was able to find many pins for himself this
way. The last time I used him was 25 or so years ago. We need to find
someone like him. Or get a long haul trucker hooked on pins.
Steve

Who's crying about that? No one.

I think we'd be happy to pay this for shipping one pin like we used to though.

This guy

Its across the board increases....Tariffs, health Insurance, Wages, materials all have caused price increases everywhere on almost everything.
We may not see it, and some smaller companies, or diversified companies, have not adjusted.....

My other business just finished a trade show in Vegas. In conversation, while business was down, and "pre-Tariff" sales were listed in abundance,
the biggest complaint I heard was the 30% to 50% increase in shipping booths and displays to Vegas. Some companies spending over 1 Million dollars
in expenses to do a show!

Anyone have Bob Cunningham's contact info? I don't do facebook

I had a pin ship in from New York two years ago. Shipping was $425.00. It shipped with legs on. For me, legs on is the preferred way.

2 months ago I was quoted $475.00 to ship a pin in from Phoenix. 1000 miles. For that price I hit the road. 2 nights in motels and gas was still less than $475.00.

Around here, I have 4 Fastenals within 10 miles from me. These stores will not/do not furnish pallets.

If there is a pin in my area that you want I can help you out with buying it and getting it shipped but you will be using STI; I won’t do Fastenal unless you want to pay me a nice chunk for my labor; those Fastenal savings are not free.

Price is one thing but how do they handle damages?
Sti/Beltman was really lousy in my experience.
Fastnel I haven’t heard of any damage claims.

I'll drive thanks. I shipped several until one was damaged by STI. Never again. It forces my opportunities to be less but gives me an opportunity to go on some great road trips.

you want high shipping costs?Been quoted 9k to ship a pin to Australia.

Was it that air shipped on the Concorde?

Everyone keeps pushing for higher minimum wage yet keeps complaining about prices of goods & services going up. What do people think is going to happen when you jump the minimum wage by 30%? Anyone been in a fast food place lately? I remember a few years ago I could grab a burger, fries & drink most places for $3 to $3.50 now you are lucky to get that same meal for $7 or $7.50.

Good economy, low unemployment, higher wages & cost of just about everything and pin shipping is suppose to stay the same as it was 4 or 5 years ago?

I am an old fart collecting Social Security and selling a few pinball parts for a little extra cash and I hate higher prices as much (or more) than the next guy but times have changed. 10 years ago I was paying about 35 cents a roll for my packing tape and now it is costing me $1.50 for a smaller roll. USPS rates go up every year, peanuts are costing me almost double what they cost 10 years ago, etc. Such is life!

Uship is that company they use on the TV show "Shipping Wars". Staged bids or not, you know how little experience some of those guys and gals have with shipping things. They bid, they win, they do their best best attempt at getting it there in one piece or not. They figure you'll just ask for money off for the damage. Nope, not using them. . . . . What ever happened to Roy's cat when Roy past away?

Fastenal does not insure. If something happens tough luck.

STI did deliver my game yesterday on a Saturday which I was not expecting

Apollo 13 I think.

I'm having a pin shipped now. Going through ups with insurance. $476.00 from New York to Ga with a 5 day del time. Figured it would cost me about the same to drive up and pick it up. Its about a 15 hour trip for me so i see the cost of shipping as a fair trade off to keep me from spending 2 days driving. Could have saved $145.00 with no insurance which puts the shipping at $331.00 which i find as fair.

I'm not sure how I feel about the cost of shipping, if I were just a hobbiest I would likely not like the increase much however it's a 'cost of doing business' thing for me. Shipping has gone up but I can't send someone to Chicago or Wisconsin Everytime a new game is released. Time and efforts involved in doing that sometimes the juice isn't worth the squeeze.

Headed from Pittsburgh to Pintastic this weekend if anyone along the route needs a game picked up taken etc. PM me, I am sure our guys are cheaper than convention shipping methods.

For future reference, I've had a good experience with a moving company called a1autotransport.com - they typically move cars and furniture, but I thought I'd check out their prices and they were definitely on the cheaper side. No problems as far as delivery or damages either. Definitely recommend them if anyone's looking for an affordable option.

I had fast Eddie bring me a Hobbit pinball this week.

He was awesome, packed the game so well it took us a half hour to unwrap all the blankets/cardboard/plastic wrap etc.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/fast-eddie

When I ordered my TNA, shipping to Oz in a group container was organised by Kayte and came to US$375, from memory (April 2019). Half way across the planet.

The pin was then transported 2000km or so (about 1200 miles) by an Awesome SPECIALIST Pinball Courier (Bill) from NSW to SA and that cost AU$300 (<US$200).

If it's less than 1000km or so I rather collect pins myself.

In other shipping trivia, shipping from overseas to Australia isn't too bad overall. Reasonable. There is one Distinct exception for us here, that is Marco who use "iGlobal" to contract their international shipments. This means we can order US$50 of parts in a fairly small parcel and pay sometimes as much as US$120 for the privelage. The same exact parts from a US store with "normal" shipping, this cost becomes more like US$30-50. For that reason most I know in Oz avoid Marco like the plague, unless there is No Other Option for supply.

Also had an "anomoly" the other week, but turned out Sweet thanks to Marg at Pinball Life.... ordering a set of Alien playfield PCB, the shipping estimates ranged from US$1070.00 up to US$2800.00... WTF? ... for barely 500 bucks worth of very light boards. It seems the auto shipping calculation "estimate" (by which payment Could be made) applied some very wierd assumptions, but Margaret did a fantastic job of sorting this out and it ended up costing just over US$90 to have the entire set shipped to my door. Which was exceptional!

Thank you Spooky and Pinball life!

I don't understand Marco with its shipping "choices". Why won't Marco ship direct? I have shipped some items to an Aussie contact for this reason. He tells me what to buy so I buy and gather at my home, figure the shipping and related charges, he Paypal's me and I ship. We have no shipping hassles. but it is such a waste of time.