Shipping from HI to West Coast (1bdroom apt)- under 2g? (co-op, live)

[MajiiDe]

Hey everyone,

I've been looking for information on shipping costs from Hawaii to Seattle, and was wondering if anyone had any recommendations. I have a large 1 bedroom apt and would like to ship most my things with me when I move back to the mainland. I was hoping to pay under 2grand since there really isn't that much to move. I'm okay with boxing things up myself and even driving it out to sand island to be loaded up in a pallet if it can cut down on costs- I just want to see if a few of my nicer things- glass computer desks, kitchen utensils, framed artwork, electronics can make it to the west coast safely and without being too expensive.

Is there a cheaper alternative than pods or matson? If there is no cheap solution, I'm okay with selling everything but I would still need to ship electronics safely (couple desktop computers and lcd monitors). Anyone recommend a cheap safe way for shipping these items?


Thanks!

[hotzcatz]

Cheapest way I've ever found to ship stuff is to box it up yourself and deliver it to the docks where it is shipped as "mixed freight" in a G-van with other people's stuff. You get to load it into the container and unload it on the other end, too. We've only done that inter-island, though, dunno what the Hawaii-mainland version would be. Securely boxed and then all the boxes shrink wrapped on a pallet is a nice secure way to ship since they can't take any one box without disturbing the load. Other folks will be in and out of the small container so having it nicely wrapped cuts down on possible pilferage.

Usually, ocean freight goes by volume and not weight so wrapped in as small a volume as possible is best. We occasionally ship in small heavy things via ocean freight just because any other shipping method is too expensive, but that's with a food co-op where there are enough people ordering to fill up several pallets so we get a discount on the quantity shipped.