some guy wants to buy a two stroke Lawn Boy from me. I am in NC and he is in Louisiana. Does not seem like a scam.

What is the best way to ship a mower? I certainly do not want to take it apart, box it and all that. Will the UPS store do all that for a price?

The better question is this....two stroke lawn mowers are now illegal to sell at Home Depot, etc. Am I going to get in trouble for selling a two stroke mower (especially over state lines)?

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Ben
1987 190d 2.5Turbo

Since it's used I don't think you're going to have legal troubles. Ordinarily I wouldn't advise shipping a lawn mower, since they are plentiful, relatively cheap to buy, and relatively expensive to ship. I kind of doubt the UPS store will be willing to dismantle it for you, but it doesn't hurt to ask.

Is this guy a collector or something?

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Whoever said there's nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes never had a cheap Jaguar.

83 300D Turbo with manual conversion, early W126 vented front rotors and H4 headlights 400,xxx miles
08 Suzuki GSX-R600 M4 Slip-on 22,xxx miles
88 Jaguar XJS V12 94,xxx miles. Work in progress.

Ask your "Potential Buyer" for his Nigerian Bank Account Number...

(This whole idea REEKS of some sort of Scam.)

NOBODY,BUT NOBODY pays to ship an old Used Two Stroke "Lawn Boy"
across a couple of states!

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'84 300SD sold
124.128

Yes, most likely. There is something of a collector following in these. I bought a few , but now just have a group of 3 fairly new ones ( ca 2000 Duraforce) that I swap parts around on. They are very light and agile mowers.

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80 300SD (129k mi) 82 240D stick (193k mi)77 240D auto - stick to be (153k mi) 85 380SL (145k mi) 89 BMW 535i 82 Diesel Rabbit Pickup (374k mi) 91 Jetta IDI Diesel (155k mi) 81 VW Rabbit Convertible Diesel 70 Triumph Spitfire Mk III (63kmi)66 Triumph TR4a IRS (90k mi)67 Ford F-100 (??)

It'll largely depend on how much you want to disassemble it. UPS has volume surcharges so if the box gets over a certain size the shipping charges will increase by $10-20 and residential deliveries will cost more than business deliveries (and that depends on UPS criteria not just whether or not it's a company or not).

Just to give you a rough idea:

UPS Ground-shipped boxed, not "oversized", guessed 60 lbs. (could be less but not a drastic difference price-wise between 40-60 lbs.) from a UPS Store (generic Chapel Hill address) to a residential location (generic Louisiana address) would probably be about $50.00. They also have surcharges for "rural" deliveries so keep that in mind.

Southeastern Freightlines (according to Freight Quote)-leave it more or less in tact, strap it to a pallet (or crate), loading dock to loading dock should be around $150 (residential-to-residential almost doubles that).

I don't know what their restrictions are, but daw_two shipped me some bulky MB interior parts via Greyhound and it was quite reasonable. You'd have to bring it to a Greyhound terminal and the buyer would have to pick it up at one.

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1980 300TD-China Blue/Blue MBTex-2nd Owner, 107K (Alt Blau) OBK #15
'06 Chevy Tahoe Z71 (for the wife & 4 kids, current mule) '03 Honda Odyssey (son #1's ride, reluctantly) '99 GMC Suburban (255K+ miles, semi-retired mule) 21' SeaRay Seville (summer escape pod)

yes. that is exactly what it is. he seems to collect 2 stroke lawn boys and according to him, there are none in Louisiana.

I don't know why anyone would collect lawn mowers. Some people collect John Deere tractors too. or Mercedes diesels.....oops!

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Ben
1987 190d 2.5Turbo

and they sound like motorcycles!

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Ben
1987 190d 2.5Turbo

People collect anything. I had a friend who collected beer bottles -UNOPENED.
What's the point? I love beer- how tempting would that be? And at some point the stuff inside goes bad ...and geez.

I picked up these Lawnboys and soon enough I had a rare M21 model that I got for peanuts. I got the engine running, but the wheel bearings were worn out and the parts prices are ridiculous. I will probably part the thing out on ebay someday or just sell the housing as scrap (I think it's magnesium). Now I just use the ones I have as "daily drivers" and if I can find a cheap one , pick them up for parts.

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80 300SD (129k mi) 82 240D stick (193k mi)77 240D auto - stick to be (153k mi) 85 380SL (145k mi) 89 BMW 535i 82 Diesel Rabbit Pickup (374k mi) 91 Jetta IDI Diesel (155k mi) 81 VW Rabbit Convertible Diesel 70 Triumph Spitfire Mk III (63kmi)66 Triumph TR4a IRS (90k mi)67 Ford F-100 (??)

Check with UPS to find out the charges, and any special requirements. They may be leery of shipping anything that has, or had contained gasoline.

If they have no problem, find and pay some mechanically-inclined neighborhood kid to disassemble it and pack the pieces in a box? You shouldn't have to do much more than run it out of fuel, remove the handle and break it down into its sub-assembly pieces, find a box and fit all the pieces in.

UPS can take over from there.

Be sure that he pays you up front, and the check has cleared, before you touch it with a wrench...

Is there a "Lawnmower Collector Monthly" magazine?

I just called the UPS store. About $210 to pack and ship. I want $150 for the mower itself.

I emailed the guy to say that the deal is off. I don't care what he says. Anyone willing to pay that much for shipping is off his rocker - collector or not.

I'm not doing it.

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Ben
1987 190d 2.5Turbo

Go to a Sears or Home Depot and see if they got an empty new mower box and fold the handle up and box it.

nah, too much trouble. mowing season starts up here in a few weeks, there will be plenty of customers locally.

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Ben
1987 190d 2.5Turbo

Certain older Lawn Boy mowers are very collectible. They represent to mowers what our old Mercedes represent to cars- they were very well made and would last 30-40 years with a little maintenance. LB also made the entire machine, nothing was outsourced.

I have shipped a number of engines and pumps with UPS. Pack it yourself for any eventuality, then set up an on-line UPS account and print a shipping label. You can then request a pickup, take it to a UPS store, or hand it to any UPS driver you happen to see in your travels. I also have an old steel strapping set to make packages really secure. I've never had an issue with anything I shipped UPS.

Knowing something about shipping, the weight (but mostly the volume), will mean the shipping costs will far exceed the value of the mower.

By comparison, I have gotten transmissions shipped for about $240...worth it given the cost of said item.

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2009 ML350 (106K) - Family vehicle
2001 CLK430 Cabriolet (80K) - Wife's car
2005 BMW 645CI (138K) - My daily driver
2016 Mustang (32K) - Daughter's car