try FedEx

The times are a changin'. Shipping companues have to make money and reinvest in property, plant & equipment.
The cheapest way is to drive it there yourself or if a friend/colleague is going there from your area and has the room. Otherwise, the prevailing rate is the price you pay.

If the person you are shipping it to can get to a bus terminal check out greyhound.

Based off the size $100 isn't to bad. Just make sure it's packed real well either way. Safest way is to make a mini crate but then shipping may be more expensive. You may want to ping Ron Kruzman (in case he doesn't see this) as he ships PF's all the time.

CPR might have some insight. Their store shows $59 shipping to USA using one of their flat rate boxes.
http://www.classicplayfields.com/store.html

Distance, size, and weight all go into the calculation.

Normally, I put pool noodles around the edges, shrink wrap, put large pieces of cardboard on the front and back, then shrink wrap. Then take that to fedex and have them box it up. That costs about $80-$115 for shipping and for all the packing materials.

Fedex won't take custom made "Frankenstein" boxes anymore (when then did, I could send something out for $60-$75 or so). UPS will take them, but they are also more expensive, so it's not worth the time & effort since there are no cost savings. Plus, UPS generally seems to be a big more rough with packages than fedex is, so I feel better going with fedex since they seem to treat packages better.

If you have a bike shop near you, you can try to see if they have bike boxes available, and that will save you the cost of the box at fedex. Unfortunately, I don't have a bike shop near me any more.

Playfield manufacturers basically ship their playfields in a custom slim cardboard box, with the playfield wrapped in brown paper, padding on the edges, and a stryofoam sheet of padding on the front and back. If the playfield gets damaged, it can be replaced, so extensive padding isn't entirely necessary.

With a NOS playfield, it can't be replaced, so the extra padding is necessary to help prevent any potential damage. That's why Ron crates his playfields--to make sure they arrive safe & sound.

I always use FEDEX

I'm getting 68$ from CT to AZ for a 50# crate 50x25x4. Fedex home service.

$60 using fedex ground.

That $150 estimate from USPS is way high, was that from their website? I recently shipped a pf from Illinois to Arkansas using USPS, insured for $1k for under $50. Wrapped and boxed it according to the instructions in Vid’s thread on pf shipping. Try taking it to your local USPS and see what they say.

I just shipped a fathom from NY out west and it cost me a little over $60 using one of CPR boxes. UPS

I think your problem is your measurements and weight are off.

https://www.ups.com/us/en/help-center/packaging-and-supplies/determine-billable-weight.page

Makes a well-packed PF a lot more expensive than it used to be. Every inch of thickness adds tons to the "billable weight". I found the UPS calculator on their website to be spot on as far as price if you put in the correct measurements. But the only way to save money is to make it as thin as possible. Not the best idea when trying to protect something valuable.

The cost is high for shipping a wired playfield in a large box by UPS (oversize). With my UPS discount $140 USD from Halifax to Ohio for Abra Ca Dabra. The weight was 51 pounds, but they rated it for 132 pounds. A playfield in a double box 22" x 44" x 3" is half the cost $70 USD. Cost me $5 for a bike box (use to be free), & I got the box smaller just above box handles. My box was bowed out to just under 10" from large target bank, & ball lane flap topside.

Its the width that is jackin up the price. If you could slim it down to 6 inches , you would save half the amount.

I'm hesitant to give out this secret as I don't want it over utilized and possibly shut down but I will help out some fellow pinsiders. This is a little trick I learned from collecting bicycles. Go to www.bikeflights.com. They are an intermediary shipping company that contracts with Fedex. I have me own Fedex account and don't even use it anymore as this is way cheaper and Fedex is still the shipper. I have had all my playfields shipped using this method for a fraction of the cost. I literally sent a label to a seller to ship three playfields to me today for $29 and that included a scheduled pickup. The website is for shipping bike related items but Fedex doesn't care as they just come and pickup the box. When filling out the information on the site just describe the contents as a Bike Sign or something. I had a funhouse playfield shipped from IL to San Diego for $30.

You simply go to the site, enter the information, pay for the shipping and bike flights emails you a label in less than ten minutes. Send it to your seller via email, they can print and put on the box and drop it of or fedex will pick it up if you scheduled a pickup while buying the label.

I swear the cost is half of what it would be if you went directly to fedex. Doesn't make sense but I'm not complaining.

Well that sounds better than my trick! Wow. I know an unpopulated field will ship for 40 so I usually strip it to the rails and send the rest in a USPS flat rate box. Not too bad.

Shawn

I shipped a bare playfield for restoration last year via USPS priority mail. Since it was in the same zone as me, it was crazy cheap. Only around $20. If the box was just a couple inches wider or longer it would have been much more though.

Edit: Found my receipt. Cheaper than I thought. March 2016 - Priority Mail 14 Pounds - KC MO to Rogers AR. $12.15.

Size of box matters a lot these days

If a shipment gets damaged, how would it be covered by insurance if you're not actually shipping a bike like the service is intended for?

You specify the amount of insurance. Again, because it is shipping FedEx and insured through FedEx they don't care what you are shipping. The labels look the same. No way they would say, "hey, it has to be bike related."

Insured to