Pack n Send Blog

Finding a reputable store to list your eBay items can be time consuming. Consumers need to know the right questions to ask.

Does the store know how to place the correct title and category on your item?

Does the eBay seller list and ship your eBay item? Proper and timely fulfillment is essential to successful eBay selling.

Does the eBay seller only accept items that are allowed to be sold on eBay? If they're breaking eBay rules, their account could be suspended and your investment of time and money would be lost.

Does the eBay seller research each item to make sure they are both pricing your item correctly and checking on what prior items have sold for? Proper research is required in order for your items to sell and to make you as much profit as possible.

Does the eBay seller list multiples of the same items? You do not want your items to be bidding against themselves.

Does your eBay seller re-list if your item doesn't sell the first time? At this time, you can tweak both your price as well as your description.

Does your eBay seller have positive reviews from customers in past eBay sales?

Does the eBay seller take their own pictures, or try and copy pictures already on eBay? Stock pictures often do not show any special markings or enhancements of an eBay item. Customers need to see the exact item they're buying. Better pictures will always sell the product faster and usually at higher prices.

Make sure the eBay seller asks you for a truthful description. If an eBay item has defects or is not in operating condition, then the item needs to be listed with these defects. Buyers should know exactly what they are purchasing. A returned item due to dissatisfaction is not a good eBay sale. All blemishes and defects should be listed for any eBay item. If a computer screen is broken, this needs to be shown in the picture and described in the listing.

If you are trying to sell a car on eBay, does the eBay seller ask you to see the title before the sale? Do they let you know that the vehicle needs to be ready for a purchaser to see, touch and take the auto to a garage for an inspection?

Does the eBay seller have a secure, safe location to store your eBay items? Does the store provide an alarm system and carry insurance on their store. If you are shipping furniture, can the company you list with ship your furniture as freight.

These are just a few questions you should ask when researching a store that will sell your eBay items. Pack n Send has helped individuals sell their personal items and family estate profitably on eBay. If we can answer any of your eBay selling questions, please call us in Houston at 713-266-1450.

If you need to move small amounts of furniture from one city to another, it may be less expensive to freight the furniture than to put it on a truck and move it.

Furniture freighting involves securing the furniture on a pallet, surrounding the furniture with protection and stretch wrap, and shipping the furniture via truck to its new city. Antiques can be shipped this way, as well as office furniture and household goods.

As an ultimate price saver, the furniture can be delivered on a pallet to your curb or loading dock, and you can unload it. Of course you have the option for the freight company to unload the pallet and bring the furniture into your home or office.

Furniture is shipped this way to market.  By securing your furniture to a pallet, there is minimum human contact with the furniture. The furniture is moved via lift equipment. Items are custom packed for safe and secure shipping.

This is just another way to save money when shipping with Pack n Send. Do you have furniture to move somewhere in the country? Contact us for a free furniture shipping quote. We can freight your furniture anywhere in the country, or any where in the world.

 Please call as at 713 266 1450.

This article posted on the KTRK website highlights the diffuculites that ships are having with the temporary closure of the Houston Ship Channel.  Pack n send will try and post daily updates for our customers until the Port of Houston is fully operational once again.

 HOUSTON (KTRK) -- The Coast Guard is working to reopen the Houston Ship Channel after a barge collided with a highline tower. Due to the accident, the Ship Channel is closed to marine traffic and it will remain closed until at least Tuesday or possibly Wednesday.

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The accident basically shut down the entire Ship Channel from mile marker 105 to124. So unless you are in a local vessel that is conducting business between those two markers or if you are outside of those two markers, you are basically out of luck. This could be the case until Tuesday or even early Wednesday, according to the Coast Guard.

That's a big problem because there are 18 inbound vessels waiting at the Ship Channel and 14 outbound. The longer this repair takes, the more that number will grow.

On Sunday at around 6am, a tug boat owned by American Electric Power was pushing three barges carrying scrap metal when it collided with an electrical tower that was fortunately under repair, so the lines were not live at the time.

Nineteen miles of waterway are affected by the Ship Channel closure. The Port of Houston says $322 million are lost each day it's closed. The Coast Guard has two cranes performing the work to try to clear the Channel as fast as possible. One of them is called 'Big John.'

"We have the crane, Big John, on scene and the Big John is going to connect to the tower to take the tension off the tower. Right now the tower is sitting partially on the barge and is probably being supported a little bit by the power lines that are there between the other towers," said Captain Markus Woodrings with the U.S. Coast Guard. "Once the Big John hooks up and takes the load on the tower, then CenterPoint energy can get up there, disconnect the line and reel them in and then we can cut the base of the tower, pick the tower up and put it over on the bank and get the Ship Channel open."

According to the Coast Guard, the six tug boat crew members were not injured in this accident. They have been tested for drugs and alcohol. However, those results have not yet been released. The incident is still under investigation. The tug boat's owner will be responsible for repairs.

 There are 30 yachts that are stuck in downtown Houston, members of the Houston Yacht Club who can't get out because of the closure.

The channel is the lifeline to the Port of Houston, the nation's leader in foreign waterborne tonnage and imports and runner-up in U.S. export tonnage and total tonnage.

For more information on shipping cargo out of the Port of Houston, please contact pack n send at 713 266 1450.

  Pack n send is reprinting this article from today’s Houston Chronicle. Since this will directly impact both incoming and out going ships, it is important to note that there will be cargo delays at the Port of Houston this week.

 By ZAIN SHAUK
HOUSTON CHRONICLE

A set of barges crashed into an electrical tower Sunday in the Port of Houston, prompting the U.S. Coast Guard to shut down most of the nation’s second-largest maritime shipping complex, possibly until Wednesday.

A towing vessel pushing three barges of scrap metal through the Houston Ship Channel about 6 a.m. hit a 300-foot-tall electrical tower, which carries lines across the artery, said Petty Officer Richard Brahm, a spokesman for the Coast Guard. No injuries were reported.

The crash happened at the narrowest point in the waterway, leaving three-fourths of the port’s terminals inaccessible.

“Maybe if it was wider we could have got boats around it, but it’s not, so it’s a logistical problem,” Brahm said. “It’s a bad place for it to happen.”

There was no risk of electricity-related injuries or effects to the power grid, which is owned by Houston-based CenterPoint Energy, because lines in the area were deactivated prior to the crash for maintenance work, said Penny Todd, a spokeswoman for the company.

CenterPoint was in the process Sunday of moving equipment needed to clear the steel tower and cables from the waterway — work the company expects will be completed Wednesday, she said.

The 25-mile-long port complex is a major economic engine for the region and in 2009 handled more waterborne tonnage than any port in the country, according to the Port of Houston Authority.

About 60 ships carrying $322 million in goods and resources — ranging from crude oil to finished products in containers — move through the port each day, said Chief Warrant Officer Lionel Bryant, a spokesman for the Coast Guard.

19 miles closed

Items shipped through the Port of Houston move to and from destinations in every state, which could mean delays for companies with vessels in the water.

Those ships will have to drop anchor and wait until the steel electrical tower, which was propped up by the barges after the accident, is removed.

At least eight ships were waiting in an anchoring area outside the port after the crash. Five others were waiting to leave.

The Coast Guard closed 19 miles out of the 54-mile-long ship channel, leaving more than 100 terminals — including those for oil giants Shell and Valero — cut off from the sea.

Further delays possible

The few accessible terminals are mostly for container ships and will not be usable by most companies that would need other infrastructure for loading and unloading or that had planned to arrive at terminals north of the crash site, said Tom Pace, presiding officer of Houston Ship Pilots, a labor association.

Three days of backups could result in further delays, even as traffic begins moving through the port again, Pace said.
“It’s going to take probably three days to get everything back to normal after that,” he said.

Crew members from the towing vessel, the T/V Safety Quest, were removed from the boat and tested for drugs and alcohol.

It was unclear how the accident occurred, but the tower’s location has long been known to ship pilots who work in the port, Pace said.

It was one of six towers in the channel, but was the closest to the preferred waterway for traffic.
“The one problem is the tower’s really close to the navigable channel,” Pace said. “That’s probably one of the reasons it had happened.”

For more information about shipping cargo and freight receiving through the Port of Houston, please contact pack n send at 713 266 1450.

 Pack n send is publishing this article taken from the Handy   Shipping News to show that weather and natural delays in freight do not only occur in the Untied States.

NEW ZEALAND – After our story  earlier this month  on the hardships endured in South Island in the wake of the earthquakes there were immediate disruptions the following day (15th September) when landslips on North Island in the Manawatu Gorge closed State Highway 3 to all traffic, including freight trucks. At that time the road was swiftly cleared and reopened within a few hours.

NEW ZEALAND – After our story earlier this month on the hardships endured in South Island in the wake of the earthquakes there were immediate disruptions the following day (15th September) when landslips on North Island in the Manawatu Gorge closed State Highway 3 to all traffic, including freight trucks. At that time the road was swiftly cleared and reopened within a few hours.

Now however the Gorge is closed to rail freight for the next two days at least after a further slip caused a train carrying a cargo of 400,000 litres of milk to derail yesterday (Saturday). The freight train was heading for Palmerston North from Hawkes Bay when upon rounding a bend the driver saw the blocked track. Despite efforts to stop in time the KiwiRail train ran into the earth slip, fortunately with no injuries to the crew. Another train also hit a slip at Taumarunui on Saturday morning, fortunately again with no injuries and no reports of major delays.

Further interruptions to cargo have occurred due to the persistent bad weather which closed State Highway 73 to high sided lorries and caravans when high winds threatened to overbalance tall vehicles and heavy snowfalls occurred in some mountain areas. The outlook however is good for the next few days with dire weather warnings lifted. Meanwhile the stricken milk locomotive remains stranded after the wagons were removed and towed via an alternative line to their destination and efforts to clear the earth fall using other trains continue whilst the main line at Kaikoura is due to open later today after almost two weeks following the massive landslip there.

Now however the Gorge is closed to rail freight for the next two days at least after a further slip caused a train carrying a cargo of 400,000 liters of milk to derail yesterday (Saturday). The freight train was heading for Palmerston North from Hawkes Bay when upon rounding a bend the driver saw the blocked track. Despite efforts to stop in time the KiwiRail train ran into the earth slip, fortunately with no injuries to the crew. Another train also hit a slip at Taumarunui on Saturday morning, fortunately again with no injuries and no reports of major delays.

Further interruptions to cargo have occurred due to the persistent bad weather which closed State Highway 73 to high sided lorries and caravans when high winds threatened to overbalance tall vehicles and heavy snowfalls occurred in some mountain areas. The out look however is good for the next few days with dire weather warnings lifted. Meanwhile the stricken milk locomotive remains stranded after the wagons were removed and towed via an alternative line to their destination and efforts to clear the earth fall using other trains continue whilst the main line at Kaikoura is due to open later today after almost two weeks following the massive landslip there.

For information on freight and cargo shipping, please contact  pack n send at 713 266 1450.

Somalia-News just in as 24 US marines operating in the Gulf of Aden stormed a freight vessel today and, without firing a shot apparently, capturing the nine pirates and rescuing the eleven man crew. The German owned M V Magellan Star, an 8,000 tonne DWT general cargo and sometime container ship flagged in Antigua & Barbuda was en route from Spain to Singapore when she was intercepted transiting the Gulf.

When the pirates swarmed aboard the crew had already put out a distress call and retreated to a safe room in the engine compartment where they communicated with the ships agents by satellite telephone link after killing the engines. The pirates were confused when they used an emergency link to speak to the managing agents who apparently told them the crew were ‘on holiday’.

The pirates then apparently went on a wrecking spree presumably frustrated by their lack of success and inability to control the ship. Meanwhile a team from the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit's Maritime Raid Force aboard the USS Dubuque, and heading for an joint exercise with Jordanian troops, rerouted, arriving near the captured vessel during the night. Before daybreak two dozen marines in fast RIB’s and supported by two helicopters, launched their own attack.

As the helicopters flooded the ship’s deck in light the troops scaled the hull of the Magellan Star, much as the pirates had, and succeeded in capturing the dazed and divided villains without having to shoot anyone. The problem came when the US marines first had to find the hidden crew, then convince them their ordeal was over.

Reportedly the crew only condescended to open up when the Americans cut an access hole and pushed through a stars and stripes uniform patch through the steel panel. The troops took a number of AK 47’s from the pirates and now have the problem of what to do with them. There have been similar successes before but mostly by foreign troops unattached to the EUNAVFOR anti piracy mission or pirates caught in the open.

Pack n send has reprinted this article from the Handy Shipping   Guide. Pack n send ships freight and cargo worldwide and commends the US marines for their fast and safe actions.

For more information about our international freight shipping, please contact pack n send at 713 266 1450.

Pack n send is re printing this article first published by the Port of Houston.  Keeping the Port of Houston and Houston Waterways clean is just one way to protect the environment. Maybe even more important, it protects ships from damage due to floating debris, and keeps cargo moving safely and efficiently through the Port of Houston.

 -Freight Shipping & ReceivingTwo events in August showed that keeping trash out of Houston area waterways is an important part of environmental stewardship for Port Commissioner Elyse Lanier, the Port of Houston Authority, Buffalo Bayou Partnership, the city of Houston and several other public agencies and private organizations. 

The August 7 Eco Bash on the Bayou brought out more than 200 volunteers — including 20 Port SupPORTers — who helped bag sand for hurricane preparedness and collected debris along the Sabine Promenade of Buffalo Bayou.

Shell Oil Company and PHA were the anchoring partners of the August 13 celebration on Houston’s East End that marked the start of the fourth year of the Clean & Green Port of Houston Program. The ongoing public-private partnership uses community service workers from the Harris County judiciary system to clear debris from the banks along Buffalo Bayou and the Houston Ship Channel. Buffalo Bayou Partnership is the managing partner with support from the Greater East End Management District, Harris County Constable Precinct 6, and the Harris County Community Supervision and Corrections Department.

For more information about cargo shipping and cargo loading from the Port of Houston, please feel free to contact pack n send at 713 266 1450.