ThinkingSkull.com

A while back I got an unbelievable steal: $200 round-trip to San Francisco, California, from Jacksonville, Florida (and that wouldn’t pay a car’s gas even half way).

The primary purpose of the trip (other than to hang out for a weekend with an old high school bud) is to sort and empty out a storage unit 3/4 filled with stuff from about 18 years ago. Most of what’s there are books that I intend to keep, while the rest of it has either been upgraded or replaced long since. The question is, how to move just under 100 lbs. of books from coast to coast on the cheap?

FedEx wants over a dollar per pound and seven days to get it there. UPS is only asking for $80 or so. US Postal Service wants around $60-$70. And an option I’ve seen used in the past, “Greyhound Express” would throw it under a bus, up to 100 lbs in something as large as a foot locker, for about $60. Not bad.

There is another option, however. Being that its only a weekend, I can pack light and use my non carry-on (up to 50 lbs) to pack stuff in, then pay $25 for an extra bag (of up to 50 lbs again). If either bag is over 50, however, they charge you $50, and that’s only for 51 and up to 70 lbs. No, those numbers don’t make any sense, but you CAN stuff two bags with up to 50 lbs. each and only be out $25 more than your plane ticket. Of course, it used to be free and tipping the skycap $5 will let you load up two Navy-issue sea bags with about 100 lbs each (which is how I got most of that crap out there in the first place), but those days are sadly gone.