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I've been doing some research on shipping costs and then thought that maybe people here could offer suggestions.
I have about 2000 comic books, all in sleeves with cardboard. It's about 11 of those long white comic book boxes. I have no idea how much 1 box weighs, but I'm guessing around 30 lbs each.
These things have been stored at my parents house for years, and I'd like to finally get them in my hands. But they are located in Tennessee and I live in California.
Anyone have any recommendations on how I could ship these to myself? What would be the cheapest carrier to use for this? I know USPS has Media Mail rates and I could probably get away with shipping them with Media Mail since they are books. There are a lot of carriers that charge by "space" rather than weight, but I am not familiar with them.
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outside of driving them back yourself I have no idea of any cheap / inexpensive way. If Aeson pokes in here he may be able to help you. He once worked at a shipping place.
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USPS will always be cheapest. UPS might be the next. FedEx is one I like though. May be more expensive but more reliable in my experience.
Go online to each carrier's website. Online prices should be cheapest. They should also come pick the package up for free. check USPS for what they define as media. Comic books could count. when checking for pricing have the exact weight and dimensions of the final package. Never hurts to err on the side of them accidentally over weighing a package when thinking of pricing. Some times if another boxes is slightly on the scale it'll put things in a higher weight scale.
Pack it up yourself is the cheapest way to go. Make sure you get it insured. FedEx has free insurance up $100. You could see if a local pack and ship store will do it on the cheap for sending several boxes.
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Andy the originator, Mega the drama queen, Mania the insane, Al whom uses movie quotes to connect with the world he did not create, Ugh- primal urges and the only sane one of the group and DarkMania the Sith Lord
Lovin' the four 'B's of life- Beer, Babes, Buffets and Bombs. just being funny
I'd be very wary of using USPS. My experiences with them, admittedly anecdotal, are poor, to say the least. However, my one non-anecdotal reason not to use them is that their tracking is awful. With a large, personally valuable and monetarily valuable shipment, I would want to know where those packages are at all times.
If you're handling the shipping, I'd suggest breaking them into three groups:
Valuables - take with you
Non-valuables but cherished - FedEx
Non-Valuable but don't care as much - USPS
You might consider switching to short boxes, which are half the length. Long boxes, especially when they're old, tend to bend in half from the weight. Short boxes don't have that problem, and they are much easier to transport.
I'd hate to see how a USPS employee would clean up the mess when a long box collapses on them. I'd suspect that some comics would get thrown in the trash or horribly damaged when they taped it back up.
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