<p>The Washington Post had a comparison of all of the various ways of getting stuff from coast to coast. They compared the costs for shipping a medium size suitcase (35 lbs) one way. This was to compare to the $15 fee American just started charging and the extra baggage fees. For those trying to figure out how to get things long distance to school: </p>
<p>This is helpful, thank you! Fortunately for us (for now, anyway), Southwest Airlines does not charge a baggage fee, and they let you check 2 suitcases. So when my S goes to college, we (me, H and younger D) will each take two suitcases filled with S’s stuff. Hopefully that will be enough and we won’t have to ship anything. We can pick up pre-ordered bulky items at the store when we get there. I want to buy his sheets in advance and wash them first, though.</p>
<p>I did my own calculations the other day based on a 50 pound package shipping cross-country. I checked the costs for UPS, DHL, FedEx, and USPS and was surprised to find that FedEx was the cheapest (about $1 per pound). The USPS was pretty expensive but I don’t think they like heavier packages.</p>
<p>For books and other media, media mail rates through the USPS are the cheapest. Definitely second UUD’s comment on FedEx Ground being the cheapest. We’ve been using FedEx Ground for coast-to-coast shipments that usually take four days.</p>
<p>Agreed on USPS Media Mail. When I moved cross-country for grad school, I packed all of my textbooks and notebooks into various boxes, and mailed them off. I was able to get four years worth of heavy engineering texts and bloated notebooks shipped with plenty of insurance for less than $100.</p>
<p>oregonianmom, be careful, Southwest allowed passengers to have 3 check-in luggage pieces for free less than a year ago, they may very well start trimming their offerings like everyone else is.</p>
<p>oregonianmom, you are taking too much. Six total bags of 50#/ea is more than enough to tranship from OR to east coast. 2 bags came back to OR at christmas break. East coast weather is not any colder than Western Oregon, just different. Central Oregon is much colder than most places east of rockies.</p>
<p>LongPriime, Depends on sports equipment, etc. S1 and S2 would have been fine if they had had notebook computers instead of desktops. S3 had sports equipment and music equipment, takes more. DD had much more plus her keyboard. We ended up taking eight total bags including the keyboard (3 of us traveling) when SW had the 3 bag limit. The girls seem to have more to take.</p>
<p>with this quote, a few notes on media mail:</p>
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<p>you are NOT legally allowed to send notebooks via media mail.</p>
<p>however, you CAN send books, cds, dvds, vhss and computer software via media mail. omitted from this list are video games for [insert non-computer system here], which also CANNOT be sent by media mail. (note: you can also include one envelope (card) or postcard in a media mail package without paying for additional first class postage.)</p>
<p>with general guidelines out of the way, the savings are enormous. want to ship 20 pounds of books and a few cds across the country? with media mail, you can do it for $8.88 (plus any insurance you may want). have 70 pounds of books? you can do that for $26.38.</p>
<p>granted, media mail is occasionally slow (it goes on the truck AFTER parcel post), but for non-time sensitive stuff, its a great way to lighten the weight of suitcases and other packages.</p>
<p>Whoops, looks like when I did my reading of the rules last year I had mentally added in an extra comma.</p>
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<p>Oh well, they looked in my boxes at the post office and didn’t seem to have a problem.</p>
<p>But be sure to take out some insurance on the packages. One of mine arrived a few days later than the others, and it was only staying together because I had circled the box with tape all down the length.</p>
<p>Fedex Ground also includes $100 per parcel insurance free in their rates, and additional insurance is cheap as well. Better yet, with Fedex, you seldom need the insurance, unlike UPS who prefers to drag parcels behind the truck or run over them, rather than actually load them onto the truck.</p>