If you have a UPS store near you it will PAY you to have them pack it. They will do a fine job and you will not have any responsibility for anything that happens in shipping. I once got one that had been put in a too large box with about a gallon of Styrofoam peanuts and the machine was broken in several places. Not a good plan.

I've never used the ups store to ship anything, but I'm planning to use them for shipping a cabinet. I still have to look into the cost of that.

Ups store charges 30-40 to package a machine and it would cost 90 to ship ups ground from the east to west coast. They do allow you to take the packaged item to another carrier though. I still think I will just do this myself. The cost is way too high for me.

Is there a specific machine involved, or is this all just speculation? $90 to ship a regular domestic sewing machine sounds pretty high, though living in the middle of the country might skew my reality of shipping costs.

If you sell a machine on eBay, they have decent discounts on shipping, though I only use FedEx or USPS, as I can't stand UPS.

This is just speculation. I have a few machines that need new homes. I got the quote for 35 lb. shipping, from central pa to 90210 (that's an easy California zip code for me to remember :) ).

One thing to remember, although you can take it to someone to pack, and they may do a great job and insure it for the value or more, but in our particular case the issue is concern for a machine being damaged "on our watch".

I ship machines cross the US all the time, but like my Civil War era Grover & Baker, I chose to do a 36 hour round trip rather than risk any damage.