Recommendations for shipping flash equipment

[Bruce Schultz]

I just bought 2 Speedotron power supplies plus 3 flash heads and I'm having a devil of a time finding a decent price for shipping from Minneapolis to Louisiana. Any suggestions?

[BrianShaw]

I can’t offer advice because I’ve become resigned to the fact that shipping is just stupid expensive anymore.

[Luis-F-S]

The last pack I shipped was a 2403, and I used FedExp Ground. With my Fedexp discount it was pretty reasonable. Your other options are USPS and UPS. Good luck. Where in LA are you? L

[Pieter]

FedEx has a flat-rate program similar to USPS, but the package sizes are larger. You might have to split the shipment into 3 boxes, but it could end up being a less expensive way to go. https://www.fedex.com/en-us/shipping/one-rate.html

[Daniel Unkefer]

Big and heavy things must go Fedex here or not at all. USPS and UPS are over the top.

[HMG]

Look into Greyhound's shipping service. Also roadie.com (and there may be others). No experience with either.

Longshot, but you could look at the "rideshare" section in the Minneapolis Craigslist. Maybe someone is driving down close to you.

[Ari]

Try YRC freight.
I had to arrange shipping a Creo scanner and computer, both crated, from southern New Jersey up to Ogdensburg NY.
Not a huge distance, but a delicate operation and potentially very expensive.
YRC was reliable and cheaper than the bigger freight companies.

[Alan Gales]

Just make sure you box it all. I had a fellow ship me a set of Novatrons in the carrying case, UPS, with no box or anything. I guess he figured the case was rough from use anyway. Fortunately, everything worked fine.

Yeah, shipping studio strobes is expensive!

I once bought a large light table for viewing slides. They put it into this huge box and ended up spending more for shipping peanuts than I paid for the light table. It was great since I sold a lot of camera gear on eBay. Those shipping peanuts really came in handy!

[Bob Salomon]

Just make sure you box it all. I had a fellow ship me a set of Novatrons in the carrying case, UPS, with no box or anything. I guess he figured the case was rough from use anyway. Fortunately, everything worked fine.

Yeah, shipping studio strobes is expensive!

I once bought a large light table for viewing slides. They put it into this huge box and ended up spending more for shipping peanuts than I paid for the light table. It was great since I sold a lot of camera gear on eBay. Those shipping peanuts really came in handy!

When we were the distributor for the Braun 35mm slide scanner we received some through ups and FedX that just had a label slapped onto the Braun case!

[Pieter]

I dropped off a package at the post office yesterday. It weighed about 7 lbs. The employee who accepted it just slid it off the edge of the counter, letting it tumble (crash!) into a waiting bin. Things get thrown around by shippers, you never know. And fragile stickers don't mean squat.