If it was just driving then I surely would have done it. But I don't own a truck and I would have to rent a penske truck and then coordinate with some guy (that I don't know where to get- closest I could think of was taskrabbit and not sure if they had the tools to forklift the machine into my penske truck (since those apparently only have a 23 inch width for their lift gate thingy (not sure but it sounds like i would need to additionally rent a forklift or some apparatus to get the item into the truck and also that doesn't count getting the item out of the building physically since I would have had to remove the door frame and take it down 1 floor (since item is on 2nd floor). Apparently renting a penske truck and driving 1 way has a fixed rate of around 800$ and i'm not sure it includes gas. And if i bring it to my location (after driving 900 miles back - assuming i could get the item I purchased onto the penske truck on pickup), I would still have a hard time unloading it off the penske truck (would need to find hired help and the hired help may need to have the tools to get it out of the truck). Then if I can't coordinate the hired help to coincide with my pickup time and/or delivery time, I'll be holding onto this penske truck for extra time and they charge money by the day I believe on top of the 1 way 800$ route + gas. So all in all, much more coordination, risk, and the physically driving 13 hours and at the end I don't think it saves that much more than the 1700$ in this case by professional movers, since thats 800 (for the 1 way flat rate) + at least 100$ for gas + 100-150$ for pickup and delivery hired help loading into/off the truck + the actual truck rental per day. Think it would run me around 1200 that way but even if I could save the 500$, there is just so much more that could go wrong doing this myself (coordinating, making sure I don't damage the item myself on taking on and off the truck and the actual drive, and just the overall physical labor). It probably would be a fun trip but not so fun if I can't sync everything up. All in all from risk assessment, the moving company for 1700$ was a better bet. But as someone else above said, if I had more time, I would have been able to get a better quote from uship or possibly found other movers that could give me a few hundreds cheaper in savings, possibly with a less predatory contract. Thanks for all the responses. Overall, the deal is done, shipment is en route. All that remains is for me to pay the remaining balance to the movers upon delivery and hope they don't break the machine en route (which shouldn't usually happen but always could happen).
