20 Jun
2025
20 Jun
'25
8:36 p.m.
On Fri, Jun 20, 2025 at 7:34 PM Frank Smith via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
It’s not just that shipping is “too expensive”, it can be a huge hassle depending on the
items. For large and/or heavy items, the seller may not have the time, materials,
expertise, or ability to properly box or crate the items for shipping and find a carrier
that will pick it up.
If you see an item you really want that says “local pickup only” you can probably get
the seller to agree to still sell it to you if you are willing to arrange all
packing/shipping. He likely doesn’t care whether or not the buyer is the actual person
arriving at his door to pick up the item, as long as he doesn’t have to do anything other
than point to it.
Exactly. For example, I have an AlphaServer system that weighs around
200 pounds that I posted elsewhere for local pickup only. (No takers
yet). In my opinion, the only reasonable way to ship it would be
strapped to a pallet via freight shipping. That's the way it was
originally shipped to me 13 years ago. It was expensive shipping back
then, it could only be even more expensive now. I'm in no position to
palletize something for shipping myself, and I wouldn't want to have
any responsibility for anything that went wrong during shipping,
especially if someone paid a large sum for the shipping, more than the
value of the item being shipped.