On Saturday, April 13, 2019 at 11:49:21 AM UTC-4, swalker wrote:
On Sat, 13 Apr 2019 06:09:20 -0700 (PDT), DerbyDad03
wrote:

My son wants me to build him a fireplace mantle. The two-pillar, top-shelf
style. Basically, three long 3-sided boxes which he would assembly and
trim out.

The thing is, he lives 2500 miles from me, so I'm going to have to ship it.
Other than getting quotes from the standard shippers (UPS, FedEx, etc.) I'm
look for other ideas.

I look to the collective wisdom of this group for creative options.

Go to https://www.uship.com/ and get a free estimate

I just did. It was a bit of a pain.

After I enter the (made up) details it wanted me to register. After I
registered, it cleared all of my shipping details and I had to start over.

Oh snap! I already got a response. Less than 5 minutes! Hang on, let me
go read it. Am I suspicious? Sure am. Let me go see what it says...

"Good afternoon-

I see your dates are pretty far off, but are these items ready to go? Im 3 hours away, and starting this exact route tonight. What have you considered for a budget for this shipment?"

Really? He just happens to be driving from western NY to Las Vegas *tonight*?
And he's willing to grab my stuff on the way by? I guess it's possible.

Anyway, my response was:

"Thanks for the response. Items are not ready to ship. I don't have a budget because I've never done this before. What do you think would be a reasonable amount to pay for this type of shipment?"

Let's see what he says...