Most of the pallet was incomplete and complete laptops (Obsolete Pentium II and IIIs mostly). I did have over 100# of laptop batteries, 100# of incomplete hard drives, and about 70# of motherboards among other things.
By shipping freight, you may pay a little more, but the cost per pound will be less. This way, I was able to send more stuff. Normally, sending incomplete hard drives doesn't pay. But, I was able to send them and make a few bucks off of them by going the freight route.
As for boxes, check your recycling centers and the local stores. Our recycling center encourages people to take boxes- every box on that pallet came from the recycling center.
I don't have a dock at my office, either. That photo was taken by me standing in the alley. There are double doors that swing open, but that's it. You'll pay more for liftgate service, but it's a lot cheaper than owning a forklift. I can't modify that building too much (I rent there), so I can't add a dock. I'm moving into a larger facility, but this one works fine for moving pallets out. The driver came with a liftgate and a pallet jack. We had it in the truck in 2-3 minutes.
As for costs, it'll depend on where your buyer is. I'm in Wyoming, and the pallet went to Ohio- that's not exactly around the corner! All you can do is just ask and see. You were paying almost 34 cents per pound to ship- I think that freight could be less than that, depending on where it's going and how much there is. Terry will help you, though.
I put that pallet together over the course of 2-3 months. I did it at the end of the day and on slow days. Everything went well, though. Shrink wrap is probably ideal, though. We're farmers, so I've used rope to secure hundreds of loads of straw. It gets the job done, but wrapping is definitely easier.
Another tip- make sure to get a good pallet. Mine was damaged on one end, so I had to break out some wood and the tools to reinforce it. Instead of drilling holes for bolts, I'd rather be loading the pallet.
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