How do YOU ship wheels?
 

I have a thread up in the member's classifieds section for a set of 4 wheels and tires. People are asking me on shipping prices and I don't really have a process on this.

What I'm asking is, to those who have experience shipping wheels, what is your process/what is the proper etiquette like does the buyer pay the shipping price? I called my local UPS store to get pricing and they want $304 which is like 90% of the cost of the wheels themselves.

Thank you

Buyer usually pays and this is why wheels are usually sold locally if they are cheaper since of that high ship cost.
If you're selling a set of $3-4k wheels, $300 doesn't seem as wasteful. In your case if your buyer is getting them significantly
cheaper including that $304 than they are new then it's up to him if it's worth it.

Ship them in separate boxes(1x4 instead of 4x1), or try two at a time. UPS likes to charge "oversize" or overweight(~63lbs) shipping fees. Cost should be about 1 dollar per pound +10 for each box.

You're saying that by changing the size of the box that it will cut the cost to less than half?
Edit: Oh...he's shipping tires also which would be more like $200 then. That still is odd that it knocks off $100.

http://howtoshipwheels.com/HowToShipWheelsWithTires/

Ship them on a pallet and have a trucking company pick them up, should be $150-$200 for the buyer.

UPS
 

UPS Stores are franchised and less than professional. Package 2-wheels by stacking/facing them and running nylon straps through the lug holes. Make sure the 2-wheels are cinched tight and secure. Shrink wrap them and take your 2 sets to a FedEx Office and ship them via Ground.

I got mine with a piece of cardboard on each face of the wheel taped to the tire via clear packing tape, worked out pretty well. Basically the lazy version of 'how to ship wheels.com' above.

I shipped two sets last year and used this method with the exception of taping the pairs of tires together rather than using straps. Fedex guy said it was the best packing job he'd ever seen in regards to wheels. Iirc it was under $200 to ship each set although they were pretty lightweight wheels.
http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p...psvk5yd6r7.jpg

Never go to a UPS franchise.

That's an exceptional example.

Now that I think of it, This is how Tire Rack ships their wheels. Guess they would know best.