Would like some space in a shipping container, near Seattle to BI

[terracore]

If you know anybody who works or previously worked for an airline and has flight benefits, they can ship stuff on FedEx at a 75% discount. A friend of mine retired from an airline and has moved entire households for her friends this way.

UPS is running a promotion for their "simple rate" shipping through July 19. Use the coupon code "thrive" to get 45% off. You can ship up to 50 pounds under the rate plan. I priced a 50 pound shipment from Hawaii to the west coast at $31, but shipping from Hawaii is cheaper than shipping to Hawaii, but you can check it out to see if it works for you.

When I moved here I shipped a couple of big boxes media mail. I didn't think it would hurt to interpret the word "media" quite broadly, like old tax records etc. The USPS rough shipping caused the box to be ripped open and seeing stuff that they didn't interpret as "media", I had to pay the difference between media mail and priority mail when I picked the box up, even though they shipped it slow boat and lost half the contents.

I tried shipping a computer over via priority mail and when it arrived it looked like somebody had tried to drive a fork lift over it. The metal case was all bent in and the computer didn't work. Fortunately I had insured the shipment. I had to ship the computer back to the manufacturer to get it repaired in order to generate a receipt that would establish it's damage value for the insurance to be paid. When I got the money order for the insurance payout I cashed it at the PO, and the clerk commented that was the first time in her career she had ever seen a customer get them to pay for an insured shipment. Since then I have learned to insure parcels with a third party insurer, it costs a lot less and the claims process is really easy. If you are going to use USPS insurance take photos of the outside and inside the box- they will ask for them. I know you're thinking, who the hell takes pictures of their mail? The USPS thinks you should.

If there is rough weather or some other disaster (like forest fires) you can gamble that Express mail is going to be delayed. One time I was going to ship a heavy box priority mail but there was a blizzard in the midwest so I shipped it express mail. It was twice as much, but the shipment missed the 2-day delivery guarantee entitling me to a full refund on shipping cost. I took the receipt and tracking info to the counter clerk and they refunded the shipping cost in cash.

[terracore]

While I'm on the topic of shipping, one time I needed to buy a large specialty tarp. The company was willing to go the extra mile to get it to me but the lowest cost we could find to ship it was almost $200.

So I asked them, would you be willing to UPS ground the tarp to an amazon warehouse with my merchant info, then I could buy the tarp from myself and get free Prime shipping to Hawaii? Not only were they willing, they had free UPS ground shipping in the 48. Had I cracked the code on "free" shipping to Hawaii? Maybe, they thought it was such a good idea that they resumed selling the tarps on Amazon so I didn't have to test the theory out.