Shipping big car parts.

So I'm usually parting a car, much to my own stubbornness. Because why would I sell it to a scrapyard for $500 when I can spend days pulling it apart, dealing with Facebook Marketplace, etc to make $1000 after giving up and usually throwing a bunch in the trash bin. 
 

Back on topic. I like local sales because no shipping. But I've had people interested in parts further away. Bumper quotes to MN and NC. I want to put a set of wheels on eBay but not looking forward to trying to ship them. 
 

So how do you ship the big stuff without going crazy or losing money because you thought you had an idea of shipping cost and then something makes it more expensive. 

In reply to dan0 :

So I've heard that Greyhound busses will allow you to ship items in their baggage compartments from terminal to terminal. I've had decent luck with my local UPS store, they charge me $80-100 to ship cylinder heads from Missouri to the East Coast.

My brother owns an antique store and has used Greyhound quite a bit.  He has also gone to Fastenal and they have shipped some heavy / bulky stuff between stores for reasonable.

I'll look into the Fastenal and Greyhound more.  I've heard of them but didn't know if it really was still a thing. 

The exhaust I just shipped was $140. Tough to make at that point  

I sold a vinyl convertible top cover from a VW Cabrio a little over a year ago. Gave the guy a price of $80 shipped since it's pretty light. Well it has plastic tubes in it for reinforcement so the longest dimension was about 24" inches. Cheapest USPS would have been $65. Ended up UPS for $40 . Would have just preferred a local sale. 
 

Bumper in question. 
 

I think you will find that Greyhound has discontinued their freight service.

UShip might be an option

Wheels on a pallet, wrapped with shrink wrap,  Local Less Truck Load Broker

Good Luck

wake74 said:

I think you will find that Greyhound has discontinued their freight service.

Huh.  Can't say I'm surprised, but I did ship a '66 Chevy II fender to some guy in Michigan via Greyhound a few years back.   Can't be more than five.  I think.   It worked well.  Hardest part was finding someone at my local terminal that knew the process.

Edit:  They have indeed ended that service:

https://shipgreyhound.azurewebsites.net/closure-information-2/

Well I'll still check out Fastenal. 

Wheels on a pallet, wrapped with shrink wrap,  Local Less Truck Load Broker

How do you find the less than truck load broker ?
years ago there was a company that was $150-$200 for a  Pallet cross country ,  no idea if they are still around......

In reply to californiamilleghia :

RL Carriers may be an option. 

Ship freight. Get a pallet and wrap it. I'm sending a heavy inline 6 engine from VA to CA for $450.

LTL brokers are on the inter-web

Or stop at a local Truck Stop and check out the bulletin board

Quick Inter-web search

Not Affiliate

Residential to residential (no lift gate) for a standard pallet size with wheels quoted through uship. Essentially coast to coast. Don't actually have a buyer so I didn't want to make a "marketplace listing" for a cheaper price. So assume $500 or a little less to go across the country. 

Or I could maybe get this down if I built a crate, then spending some more money on materials and if it was stackable could save some as well.