SELLING OCEAN CONTAINERS
About one year ago I started selling containers for DSL. I knew very little about containers other than the obvious – moving containers loaded with import or export goods in/out of the Ports of LA and Long Beach CA and to/from Phoenix Metro area, is our company’s specialty. After selling a few hundred, I now consider myself the resident expert about container “classifications, grades, sizes, specs, uses, etc.”
A large percentage of callers ask me “what condition are your containers in?” We sell used containers retired by various steamship lines (SSL) from the CA ports. They leave the Ports loaded with goods that are delivered to distribution centers in the Phoenix metro area where they are unloaded and then arrive at our container yard empty.
The most common classification for the type we sell is WWT (wind & water tight). If you were to walk into a container and close both doors, you would see no daylight coming through the roof, sides, or floor. As long as the doors operate and seal properly you’re looking at a portable, affordable, secure, safe, critter-free storage solution made to last for many years.
We sell them as-is which means they’re the color they were painted when manufactured and have the SSL logos, and Identification #’s. They show the wear and tear of being on the water on an ocean container and loaded/unloaded on and off of shipping docks for roughly ten years. They have dents and dings and surface rust on the outside. The plywood floors show typical scratches and tire marks created by forklifts.
We sell what is considered “standard container sizes:”
• 20’ ST measures 8’6” high 8’ wide and 20’ long – empty weighs 5,140 lbs.
• 40’ ST measures 8’6” high 8’ wide and 40’ long – empty weighs 8,421 lbs.
• 40’ HC (high cube) measures 9’6’ high 8’ wide and 40’ long – empty weighs 8,750 lbs.
• 45’ HC (high cube) measures 9’6” high 8’ wide and 45’ long – empty weighs 10,430 lbs.
You will see other sizes advertised (for example 30’ 48’ 53’ and those are either modified or are standard sizes for railroad containers)
New “One-Trip” containers are the highest quality units on the market. They are called “One-Trip” containers because they have only been used for one trip across the ocean which means they’re virtually dent/rust free. They are the closest to brand new that you can get. Usually they’re all one color – either light beige or grey. They’re real pretty but at least twice the price of our used containers.