See if these guys can help.   They are known for low rates, but not great on
protecting the cargo (package it well).   I would think it would be pretty
hard to damage some tires and stock rims.

http://www.forwardair.com

I sold the 30" stock tires for my TJ online.  When it came time to ship them I
took some cardboard and put it over the front and back of the wheels and wrapped
them with the shrink rap that they sell in rolls to keep things on pallets.

The cardboard was there just to give a place to put the mailing labels.  To say
I got funny looks at the UPS place when I literally rolled in with five 30"
tires and rims would be an understatement.  However the guy behind the counter
didn't bat an eye.  I don't recall what the shipping cost was, but it seemed
pretty expensive at the time.  But as you have found out, folks are not standing
inline to buy stock jeep tires, and I was glad to have them gone.

Dean

I sold mine a few years back and dit it at one one of the MailBox's
ETC . I asked him the cheapest way and we shipped them some kind of
3rd Class freight .. It took a few weeks but was fairly inexpensive.
Ask your local shipping store about that. If the buyer is not in a
real hurry to get them it would be an option.

SP

Kinda OT, but how much did you get for them if you don't mind me
asking? I have a set of 4 OWL-package rims from my '99 that I still
have to sell. If you don't want to say that's OK :)

Thanks,
Matt

Wrap 'em in shrink wrap and slap a ups sticker on.  They pay shipping
so the buyer should have taken that into account when bidding.

I sold my rubicon wheel and tire combo and shipped each tire/wheel for about
$35.00...  I covered the wheel with thick cardboard and pulled two 3 mil
plastic bags (think 'yard waste') over each one, slapped a lable on it and
sent it out from a Fed Ex depot. I sent it business to business, it was
cheaper that way.

good luck to ya.
n.

If you don't mind some redundancy, my experience involves a good dozen
sets of wheels/tires.  The poster who said to slap a cardboard circle
on the front and ship 'em is correct.  There's virtually no way UPS or
FedEx will hurt the tires, but you want to cover the wheel faces.
It'll generally cost you $20-25 *per wheel* (depending on weight)
shipped this way, and they'll be separate parcels ("1 of 4", "2 of 4",
"3 of 4", etc.) of a single shipment.  Tire Rack ships tires this way
as do other commercial mail order tire sellers.  Now, the one caveat:
insure them.  FedEx *lost* one of the BMW wheels I bought a few months
ago.  Where you can *lose* a BMW wheel & tire between Nebraska and
Wisconsin I'll never know ...
--
C.R. Krieger
(Been there, done that)

Hey Eric, here is another idea.  This is what I did.  I went to a local
trucking outfit and they put five tires on a pallet and shrink-wrapped the
tires/wheels.  They shipped this to one of their depots near the buyer.  He
went and picked it up.  I did this on eBay too.  I don't remember what he
paid but I did have to do some talking to get the best price possible.

Andy
2001 TJ

I recently sent an entire set, 5, of tires/rims from my BMW via UPS. They
weighed in at roughly 30 pounds each. My local America's Tire outlet had
received a set of really nice tires/rims for something, and these were
wrapped with a sheet or two of carboard and plastic banding. They gave me
the carboard sheets (round) free. I suppose I could have lifted them from
the dumpster, but the guy cut them off and gave them to me. The local UPS
Store cut loose with some small boxes to put the lug bolts in, and I picked
up some shipping tape from Lowes. The tape I used is the clear variety, like
tape in the dipsensor on your desk, but 2.5" to 3" wide.

I wrapped each tire/rim assembly (technically called a wheel) with carboard
on each side, and copiousw amounts of packing tape. I carried them to the
UPS Store, where the clerk affixed packing slips and threw them on the back
of the waiting truck.

When I listed my wheels on eBay, there was a Shipping Calculator. All that
is needed is the dimensions and weight of the wheel, and the Zip Code will
determine the shipping cost. It really was very easy. Easier than telling
you about how easy it was ...

Total shipping was, in my case, just under $150. The Buyer paid shipping
costs, and it was calculated right in the eBay Experience. Had I done it
right, the shipping costs would have been separated from my item, and I
could have arranged the shipping from my house. I maed it more difficult
than it needed to be, kind of similar to what you are doing, and I had to
write UPS a check. I could have used PayPal to collect the total sale plus
shipping, then used PayPal again to pay the shipping. I screwed up and
collected all from PayPal, but then had to pay from my chceking account
instead from PayPal.

Your aversion ot shipping is unfounded. It is easy to do, all you need to
know that you do not know right now, is the weight of the wheels. Everything
else you can find easily, or you can let the UPS Store do it all.

When I worked for a courier company we carried almost anything, if it was
small enough to fit in a GMC 3500 van we carried it, for the larger things
like large compressors, mining equipment and even the odd Cat diesel engine
we used a trucking company, which intern gave us the smaller parcels to
carry and deliver.
One word of note on shipping wheels, let the air out of them first, 5 pounds
of air add to the shipping weight.  And strange as it may sound is also
safer, one time we had to deliver ten 12'' boat wheels, nothing big, but
they were full of air, at the originating depot they placed truck axle gears
on top of the wheels in the bin, as we were removing the gears one of the
wheels decided to go bang, no real damage done other then the boss requiring
a change of shorts. :)

Snow...