Awesome work! Glad to see the great photos of the new homes for these lovelies.
I don't know if you've got this noted elsewhere, but I wanted both a ps2 (with a large built-in ferrite if you find one) as well as the usb. The table above only has me for a usb.
It's not necessary as everyone who gets a USB has the option to pay the shipping only on the ps2 when I find them. You also have the option of having it all shipped together but it's possible it could be spring before Im able to get through all 5 storage locations as there are boxes stacked 8-15 foot high in some of them and as much as 25 feet deep. My friend/former boss who actually owns all this stuff has acquired all this through 4 businesses he's owned or worked at over the past 30-40 years as well as some auction buys.
As far as UPS goes, I would have to source boxes as they will not allow me to use the USPS boxes. They have specifically told me so. So that ads about $5 to the shipping rate you are talking about. It's still cheaper yes, but here where I am getting boxes is much harder as they just closed the Staples so I would have to order boxes and pay shipping on those and that all ads up to the point where the USPS is about the same with less hassle but yes far worse tracking logistics (which everyone loves UPS for their amazing tracking). I have looked at several options and when you run all the numbers not just the surface shipping cost they all come out about the same. Unfortunately USPS is the easiest for me.
Once we have Off-Key off the ground all orders will be shipped UPS no matter what just because of the amazing logistics they have, that is if they quit trying to force me to use Windows to automate my shipping process! That will be a deal breaker as their scale, printer, software combination is Windows only at this time.
I don't mind waiting until spring to ship everything together.
I know I'll probably one of the exceptions in this regard though. It's a tremendous job you've got in front of you, especially with the weather now. And if I end up making a trip to Indiana to visit some in-laws, I'll give you a heads up in case you want some free labor.
Thank you for the detailed reply on the shipping challenges. Tell me what the ideal box is and let me see if I can find it for you. I dealt with this problem regularly when I owned an auto parts distributorship, so I know some good places to get such materials and on the cheap. (We were lucky enough to have a furniture distributorship right down the street and they would throw away a whole driveaway dumpster of packing material each week. We would dumpster dive there about once every 6 months and have everything we needed.) So far in my initial quick searches, I can get you a 13x13x6 box for $1.50/ea shipped (I put in an LA zip code for the shipping, so that might vary depending on where it needs to go). I wouldn't mind even purchasing what you need for you and then you can just credit what I owe you for my ssk.
(If you need packing and the tape dispenser I can even get those for you.)
We actually never used UPS's scale, printer, or, software. We had a simple bathroom scale and rounded up by 1lb, and just used the website with a login for our account. We printed the 'labels' on a regular laser printer and just taped them on the box. Worked like clockwork. I'll try to see how the website works on my wife's mac as I'm sure it would basically be the same thing.
I'll let you know.