Any reputable shippers or shipping services you recommend for this? And special packing needs?
This depends on the buyer, in my case as long as they are packed with some good protection like how you got them from China for an example, then I will be more than satisfied.
Also have to factor in the time = money thing for the seller (me).
If the buyer trusts you, they would pay you before you ship anything way.
Mail / UPS / FedEx Ground all I have to do it box it, put on a label and leave in in the front of the office and away it goes.
You will still use these guys in most cases, let me explain the process on how things work for me and I guess Artemis3 uses something similar, let's imagine a scenario where I want to buy your gears and ship them to the other side of the planet.
Since Air freight is so expensive and not everything can be shipped via air anyway, some local freight companies will have warehouses across major cities around the world, if I want to buy your miners, I will ask you to ship them to that warehouse in the U.S, it's up to you how you decide to get them there, you can use UPS/DHL or you can drop them off it doesn't matter, what matters is that you get me a receipt to prove that you have delivered say 10 boxes to the warehouse/company address.
At this point and assuming I trust you, you would have already gotten your money and you are not a part of what's going to happen next.
The warehouse/company have other clients who also buy all sort of different stuff and send them there, once they get the minimum quota to fill a 20F/40F container, they will load it on the back of a ship and off it goes.
The buyer will, of course, have to wait for a much longer period, you (the seller) don't.
It may sound simple but it's a bit complicated as the buyer won't be able to test the gears until they arrive which could take a few months, also the seller isn't going to wait all that long to get paid even if escrow was used, so this needs mutual trust between both parties, I bought a ton of used gears mainly from China and shipped them this way, I was only able to test them MONTHS after they arrived, by that time I would have already paid the seller because I trust him, he also trusts that I will be honest after receiving the products, say I find 2 dead PSUs and 4 bad hash boards, knowing that I won't lie about it, the seller will return the money or send me the replacements on my next order.
So far no problems, but this way of doing things can be a little bit complicated, I would only make such a transaction with someone I highly trust.
Now since I do trust you, if you have a good amount of these old gears I might be able to take them, if they are just 5-10 miners then I can't do it because there is a minimum price I have to pay (Usually it's 1 cubic meter) so if I buy only 5 miners then the shipping cost of each miner will be beyond reasonable.
Hope by now you understand how many of these old gears get moved around the world and why the hashrate isn't dropping
.