How would you ship an iMac?

I hope this is ok to ask! I assume many of you must have sold your mac computer or purchased a used mac computers at some point!

I am about to sell my used 17" iMac G5 (the white one) on eBay, already has a bid from a serious buyer.

How should I ship it? I will be using USPS to ship to them, they are outside of the US.

I have the original box and original packaging. Should I ship it using its original box or do I put the box inside another box?
If I use the original box, do I tape up the box (which would in turn ruin the box when they open it or leave tape behind-- don't know how much that matters!) or what?

What exactly do you do? And also, for the 17" white iMac G5, online I have seen 29 pounds for the weight and have seen 45 pounds for the weight in the original box. I will use the USPS home printing label on PayPal and so I will enter the weight there. This will also be helpful now when I send them an invoice since they are out of the US. Is there accurate weight someone could tell me?

Thanks for all the help!

I would probably ship it via UPS or FedEx. I would pack it in the original box then put that inside another box with maybe newspaper crumbled up in the extra space (if there is any) for it not to be moving around inside the outer box. I think FedEx or UPS is a little better for larger packages such as the one your trying to sell.

Eric559 said:

I would probably ship it via UPS or FedEx. I would pack it in the original box then put that inside another box with maybe newspaper crumbled up in the extra space (if there is any) for it not to be moving around inside the outer box. I think FedEx or UPS is a little better for larger packages such as the one your trying to sell.

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Instead of the crumpled newspaper I would just wrap the original box in bubble wrap. That way you don't have to stick it in a huge box.

To Fab85:

Keep in mind that since you're shipping it outside of the US (you didn't state where) that customs will be involved. Depending on the destination country, the box may be opened and inspected. I would probably go with Eric's suggestion and use UPS, FedEx, or DHL as it will be safer and probably faster.

Also, the USPS will not insure an item over a certain amount unless it's sent via registered mail and that could be costly.

And a word of caution... Selling to a buyer outside the US does involve considerable risk, so use common sense... enough said.

Regards.

I got a price from USPS of about $108 (to France) and on UPS I got a price of about $250! I already billed them the $108... I think I am stuck with USPS.

If I use the original box I suppose I would wrap it in heavy brown paper I have (to conceal that its a computer by the image on the box at least)

The iMac itself is surrounded entirely-- the super thick styrofoam keeps it from getting any pressure from the box itself. Even the stand, the stand is suspended, there's nothing underneath it to bump against, not even styrofoam in that area. I wonder if a box on the outside for shipping purposes is just to conceal it (like if you buy it online from the Apple store) and not really because it needs it? Assuming they use another box.

Just not sure... I hate to ship this out, maybe I should have tried Craigslist...

Fab85 said:

The iMac itself is surrounded entirely-- the super thick styrofoam keeps it from getting any pressure from the box itself. Even the stand, the stand is suspended, there's nothing underneath it to bump against, not even styrofoam in that area. I wonder if a box on the outside for shipping purposes is just to conceal it (like if you buy it online from the Apple store) and not really because it needs it? Assuming they use another box.

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Yeah my suggestion of another box is because of concealment purposes. The original box is already great for shipping because it is protected by the Styrofoam and box material.

You can also do that wrapping but it could be easy for it to get torn off or something.

Thanks so much for the suggestions! I feel much more confident now, ended up using one of those large brown paper bags that you use for disposal of leaves, it was super thick and I taped it all up really well. I think it will work out good now, not AS worried... so frustrating to not really know from experience, I think it will be good though.