So for my review I've had smaller items shipped to my house, I've gone to a warehouse to pick up items, and I've picked up items directly at a seller's residence. I once had a large piece delivered locally which was probably the least user friendly experience mainly because 1. It took so long and 2. They only notified me the day of that they were going to bring the piece. So they left the large furniture item on my front porch, thankfully it was a covered porch.
Picking up items at a seller's home has been the easiest although generally I've only purchased items I could carry out on my own and that could fit in my car. Keep in mind if you're doing this the staffing at these sales are minimal and you're expected to carry out your own stuff or bring your own help. Also once I bought several glasses, you need to bring your own boxes/packing items just FYI they don't provide this either. Once I picked up at a warehouse where there was a surcharge for picking up these items, these weren't particularly user friendly either since the signage at these pick-ups weren't very clear, and I had to walk a fair distance in the warehouse to pick up my item. Although they were small furniture items it was still a bit of a trek carrying something a bit cumbersome. Also if there is a pick up surcharge generally the charge is applied to each item won so be sure you read the fine print when bidding.
Some items I've had shipped and again its been mixed results. For fragile items such as glass there have been two instances where some damage has occurred. Thankfully for one of the items the outside of the box was partially torn when I got home, so I did take pictures of the outside of the box. Once I opened the box several items were damaged inside which I was sure to take pictures of those items as well. I was expecting a pro-rated refund of the shipping of just the damaged items, but they refunded the entire shipping costs. Although I was still a bit disappointed given the poor packing of this particular purchase. Other fragile items have arrived no problem so its been a mixed bag.