From Los Angeles, Oregon is a short coastal zone at a bargain; from the East Coast it is one of the longest mainland runs. No sales tax keeps marketplace flow steady.
Both tables were captured live on 2026-07-27; one actual parcel, two origins, no rounded numbers.
To see what Portland really costs, we ran a 12 × 10 × 6 in box at 5 lb of household goods through the SMKlog calculator from each coast. Nothing in the tables is edited, and each price already folds the label cost and SMKlog's charge into one number you pay once.
| Carrier | Service | Price | Quoted transit |
|---|---|---|---|
| USPS | Ground Advantage | $17.30 | 6-7 business days |
| UPS | Ground Saver | $19.14 | 6 business days |
| UPS | Ground | $19.30 | 7-8 business days |
| UPS | 3 Day Select | $27.17 | 3-4 business days |
| USPS | Priority Mail | $28.19 | 3-4 business days |
| Carrier | Service | Price | Quoted transit |
|---|---|---|---|
| USPS | Ground Advantage | $13.29 | 3-4 business days |
| UPS | Ground Saver | $13.52 | 5 business days |
| UPS | Ground | $14.05 | 3-4 business days |
| FedEx | Ground Economy | $14.31 | 3-4 business days |
| UPS | 3 Day Select | $19.94 | 3-4 business days |
The coasts split hard here: Los Angeles opened at $13.29 with USPS Ground Advantage, while the same box from Newark started at $17.30. Portland gets the state's best routing. Head east over the Cascades and rural stops tend to add a transit day. Treat the whole table as a snapshot with a date on it, and put your own ZIP pair through a live quote when you're ready.
Carriers price by zone, a step function of the distance between ZIP codes. Los Angeles to Portland spans a couple of zones. Newark to Portland spans nearly the whole map, and every extra zone is another price step. That gap of about four dollars between the two Ground Advantage rows is the whole explanation.
From Newark, UPS 3 Day Select quoted 3-4 business days for $27.17 against 6-7 days at $17.30 on the cheapest ground row. Roughly ten dollars buys three days on this route. For a birthday deadline that trade can be sensible; for a casual sale it rarely is.
Carriers do not care whether the carton is new. A sturdy reused box with old labels peeled off ships exactly like a fresh one, and the money saved on packaging stays saved. Just make sure the flaps still close square and take a strip of tape.
It depends heavily on where the box starts. Our dated test run put a 5 lb, 12 × 10 × 6 in parcel at $13.29 from Los Angeles and $17.30 from Newark, both via USPS Ground Advantage, with SMKlog's charge already inside those totals. Quote your own route for a current figure.
From Los Angeles the rows quoted 3-5 business days on 2026-07-27; from Newark the ground tiers stretched to 6-8. Paying for UPS 3 Day Select or USPS Priority Mail cut the eastern run to 3-4 days. Every window in the tables came from the carrier itself.
USPS Ground Advantage both times: $13.29 from the West Coast, $17.30 from the East. UPS Ground Saver sat close behind on each run. The order can flip when the box or the week changes, which is why the calculator pulls fresh prices per quote.
No registration exists to skip. Say what you're sending, add origin and destination ZIPs, compare the carriers, pay for the row you want, print. Tracking is included automatically.