I shipped a starter set to my cousin in Pennsylvania for Christmas. The weight itself would have only run about 20 dollars, but shipping the big bulky box cost me over twice that much. (Admittedly, I purchased a box to ship the box in, and that added to the price, but I was shocked at the final bill.)
I was tempted to tell the kid at the UPS store I wanted to just send the package to Pennsylvania, not put it through four years of a private college in Pennsylvania!!! I bit my tongue. It wasn't his fault. You may be able to find the shippers' formulas on the web for how they determine their prices. I did earlier, but I didn't save the URL.
