If you travel with books, do I have a case for you...

If you are not a techy/geeky/hardware junkie kind 'o human, you should probably skip this post...it revolves around my new-found love of some injection molded plastic cases...you have been warned:

I am heading to Seattle in October for the Seattle Book Fair. This naturally led me to find shipping cases that I can either bring on a plane with me or ship to a show. I looked at ATA cases that seem to be pretty ubiquitous and was leaning that way. However, they are pricy (on the order of $350/case for what I was looking for) *and* I have heard at least one horror story where an ATA case was set by UPS in a puddle and the case, which is "moisture resistant" wicked the water up and destroys over $100K of books.

Luckily, I remembered the case company that all the engineers and hard science types used to use back when I spent too much time around HazMat sites. The company is Pelican, they make cases and flashlights. In addition to the hard science and camera set, they do a lot of military cases (I could be wrong, but I think their motto is, "Your iPod or your M16, we'll keep it safe, dry and dust-free").

Actually, their motto is, "You break it, We replace it, Forever". Their cases are unbreakable water tight (not "resistant"), corrosion proof, dust proof, and chemical resistant. They are rated from -10 to 210 degrees. I picked up one 1510 and four 1620s. OH, and I forgot, they all have this very slick little one way valve so they can equalize pressure (without letting moisture in).

The big cases are guaranteed to float in salt water with 149 pounds in them and the carry on bag will float with 64 pounds. They have some very slick custom foam ("pick and pack", so you customize it to your uses). And wheels.

I shopped around pretty hard (Pelican does not sell directly, so you have to find a disty). After talking with nearly a dozen different distys, I settled on CaseClub in CA. They do not have the sexiest website, but they had the best prices I could find (and a guarantee to beat any other you find lower by 5%). More importantly, they were a pleasure to work with. In addition to having the best prices, they knocked another $20/case off because I bought 5 at once and carved some out of the shipping as well (and threw in a pair of slick little Pelican flashlights).

The best quote I received for ATA cases would have would have been well over $1200 for the volume of these cases *not* including the very sexy carry one bag (for particularly special volumes) *and* they are not as tough (or water proof). I was able to get all five cases from CaseClub for under $1K (including shipping). I can not recommend CaseClub highly enough...great cases, great prices, great customer service.

The only problem I have is that my wife is getting very cross about my sleeping with them under my pillow.