How Much Does it Cost to Ship Furniture to Another State?

If you’re flipping furniture for profit, chances are that you’ll need to ship furniture across states at some point. Knowing how much does it cost to ship furniture to another state is essential for making sure that your profits remain high. In this blog post, we’ll discuss what factors affect shipping costs and provide examples of real-world shipping cost scenarios.

We’ll also help you understand how to reduce shipping costs by providing tips on choosing the right shipping method and packaging furniture properly. Ultimately, you’ll come away from this post armed with the knowledge and tools necessary to make sure your profits remain high when shipping furniture across states. Let’s dive in!

Shipping furniture, especially large pieces, might seem like a daunting and expensive task, but with the right knowledge and tools, it can be made more manageable. Whether you’re a seasoned furniture flipper or just starting out, it’s crucial to understand the costs involved.

The costs can vary greatly depending on various factors such as the size, weight, fragility of the furniture, and the distance it needs to travel.

But don’t worry! In this post, we’ll break down all these factors and their impact on shipping costs, along with some handy tips to keep those costs to a minimum.

Alright, get ready as we dive into the ins and outs of shipping furniture across state lines, making sure you keep a good profit margin.

Factors Affecting Shipping Costs

There are several key factors that affect the cost of shipping furniture to another state, such as size and weight, fragility of the furniture, and distance. Let’s look at each one in detail.

Size and Weight: Obviously, bigger pieces will cost more to ship than smaller ones due to their greater size and weight.

It’ll also be more expensive if the furniture is made of heavy materials like marble or wood. The heavier it is, the more expensive it will be.

But, keep in mind if you are pricing flipped furniture, larger pieces also sell for more money! Here is our Furniture Painting Price List to help you know what type of furniture to flip.

Fragility of the Furniture: If the piece has delicate components, such as glass or stone, it will be more expensive to ship due to its fragility.

Packaging these pieces correctly and securely can help reduce costs here. But most shipping companies will ask if it has glass or marble because they know those can break easily.

The cost will go up if your furniture has anything super breakable on it.

Here’s a guide on how to package furniture for shipping.

Distance: Shipping costs are also affected by how far the piece needs to travel. A short jaunt to the neighboring state may be much cheaper than a cross-country trip.

But, sometimes distance isn’t the biggest factor, and sometimes it doesn’t matter how far the package is going.

Real-world Shipping Cost Examples

To help you better understand how these factors affect shipping cost, let’s take a look at some real-world scenarios that I’ve experienced in my years of shipping furniture.

Green Mismatch End Tables

I shipped these two end tables, one larger than the other, from Duluth, Minnesota to Miami, Florida. The larger table cost $106, and the smaller one cost $77, for a total of $183.

They were small enough that they could be packaged in a box and shipped like a regular package.

Black and Wood MCM Dresser

This dresser cost $371 to ship from Idaho Falls, Idaho to Stafford, Virginia on a freight package.

This was due to the size, weight, and fragility of the furniture piece, as well as an extra fee for lift gate services at the delivery. This seems to be pretty normal for freight deliveries.

Dark Green End Tables

The dark green end tables were shipped from Idaho Falls, Idaho to Palo Alto, CA on a freight package.

This cost $375 due to the size of the furniture and the long-distance delivery. If I remember right, the cost of boxing them up and shipping them regular was just as expensive due to their exact dimensions.

Black and Wood Buffet with Skinny Wood Legs

This buffet was shipped from Duluth Minnesota to Las Vegas, Nevada on a freight package for $376.

The distance wasn’t terribly far but it was larger and heavier than the end tables, so it had to be shipped on a freight package.

Chippy Yellow Dresser

This dresser was shipped from Duluth Minnesota to Colorado with white glove delivery, where they blanket wrap your furniture, and deliver into the customer’s home.

Blanket wrap furniture shipping is really great for making sure your pieces arrive safely and undamaged.

The cost was $600, which is not unusual for white glove delivery.

After reading these examples, you might be wondering, is selling furniture profitable? It is! But you have to do it right.

If you sell locally in a large city, it can be very profitable, but if you live in a small town, the best way to make your furniture flipping business profitable is to ship furniture, but build the price into your sale price.

How to Reduce Shipping Costs

Now that we’ve looked at some real-world examples of shipping costs, let’s discuss how you can reduce shipping costs when possible.

Choosing the Right Shipping Method

Choosing the right shipping method for your furniture can help reduce your costs significantly. If it’s a smaller piece, you may be able to ship it with a regular carrier like FedEx, UPS or USPS.

If the piece is too big for those carriers, then you’ll need to use a freight company or white glove delivery services.

Freight companies offer both less-than-truckload (LTL) and full truckload (FTL) services, which differ in cost and convenience.

Packaging Furniture Properly

Properly packing your furniture is key to reducing shipping costs. You want to make sure the furniture is secure and can’t move around in the box or packaging material.

This will reduce the chances of it breaking in transit. If you’re shipping a fragile item, then at least 2 inches of bubble wrap, Styrofoam peanuts, and other cushioning materials are essential all the way around your piece.

Actually, I do this either way to protect my furniture from breaking in transit.

Calculating Shipping Costs Accurately

The most important thing you can do to keep your shipping costs low is to make sure you calculate them accurately.

Get the exact dimensions of the furniture so that you know exactly what size box or packaging material you need, as well as the weight of the item.

This will help you to get an accurate quote from the shipping company. You can then pass the cost onto the customer, so you aren’t out any cost for shipping. This is exactly one of the steps for how to offer free shipping and still make money.

Shipping furniture across state lines can be challenging, but with the right knowledge and tools, it can be made more manageable.

How to Ship Furniture

To learn everything you need to know about shipping furniture, without searching all over the internet, and then learning by making mistakes, grab our How to Ship Furniture Guide that will walk you through exactly how to ship furniture.

We’ve shipped furniture for years, and we are sharing all of our secrets to successfully shipping furniture when flipping furniture for profit, so you don’t make the same mistakes we did.

Knowing the key factors involved in shipping costs is essential for keeping your profits high when flipping furniture. Make sure you understand all these factors and how they can affect the cost of shipping before you take on any big jobs.

Best of luck and happy flipping!

More Flipping Furniture for Profit Guides

• How to Make Money Painting Furniture
• Can you Make Money Selling Furniture on Etsy?
• How to Ship Furniture on Etsy
• How to Start Selling Furniture Online
• Best Place to Sell Furniture Online

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