Speaker Packing?

you are wise to hesitate shipping speakers,don't start now,YMMV,Bob

If you have to do it, I would suggest getting someone to make crates OR have Fedex Office (aka Kinko's) or UPS Store pack them. They will charge you big $, but then they will on the hook if the packing is not up to snuff, so that when the big brown guy runs a fork lift thru them, they cannot claim that you used a box w too low burst strength!

Also consider strapping them to a pallet and shipping freight.

I don't think Fedex or UPS will offer that service but may be wrong. There may be local packaging service companies that will do this. That said, building packages for speakers isn't rocket science. Depending on the speaker size it will be labor intensive though and take some doing to procure the packaging material. Still, you may be better off trying to sell locally, or regionally (eg deliver them yourself or have the buyer meet you w/i 100 miles). Regardless of packaging, the moving/handling in transit can be hard on speakers as they're not engineered for shock stresses.

very tricky - lots of threads here on that and the related topic, insurance...

first thing to know is that most manufacturers boxes are not up to the job. most are designed to be strapped to a palette - usually in the company of other boxes creating a kind of semi-rigid block.

the very best way is to build an individual wood case for each speaker, then build a foam cradle inside it to keep the cabinet in place during transit. Terry at Cain and Cain was famous for the artful construction of his museum quality cases. needless to say these are expensive to build and expensive to ship. oh yeah and a PITA to store

in the not quite but almost category is to start with the manufacturers box and foam inserts. then build a case around it (all six sides) of 2" high density foam. then put that inside an outer box filling any empty space with peanuts.

again this is a time consuming, not inexpensive way to go

Though they will pick-up, none of the shipping companies (ie FedEx, UPS) will pack anything for you

Over a certain weight limit (easily exceeded by a big set of speakers) you have to use a common carrier (eg BAX) some will pickup at a residence, some will not - which means that you have to schlep these big old crates to them. Then there are issues getting anything that heavy delivered to a residence at the other end.

IMHO it doesn't really pay for anything but a high dollar pair of speakers.

Be interesting to see what some of the other folks have to say.