Cheap, safe, cross-country shipping for a single piece of furniture

November 18, 2017 9:30 AM

I'm looking for the best (safe and inexpensive) way to ship one heavy, antique piece of furniture from Berkeley, CA to Cambridge, MA.

I've inherited my dad's antique fainting/psychiatrist's couch - similar to this: The upholstery is a mess, but the wood is in good shape.
Ideally, I would like someone to pick it up from my step-mother's house in Berkeley, package it safely, and ship it to me in Cambridge. I am in absolutely no rush to get it, so it can be slow, so long as it's not going to get lost or damaged in the process. If you have had either good or bad experiences with specific companies, I'd love to hear about it!

posted by tangosnail to Travel & Transportation (3 answers total)

This has been so expensive as a service for antique dealers, IME, that hiring one of the smallest cuboids of self-moving storage is competitive. Decent movers who can get it into the cuboid and immobilize it with straps and empty boxes are expensive by the hour but really fast on the job.
posted by clew at 10:53 AM on November 18, 2017

When we had a few pieces of furniture to get half-way across the county we called a moving company and they put it on another truck they had going to the same area, so it wasn't that expensive. Obviously, this requires you be flexible about pick up and delivery as they won't know until last minute when they can pick it up. But it worked out for us.
posted by COD at 1:34 PM on November 18, 2017

I've heard good things about TSI Shipping, which does exactly what you're needing.
posted by bologna on wry at 1:42 PM on November 20, 2017 [1 favorite]