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Jhall has some good advice. The trouble with the boxes at music stores is that they nestled the drums. This is cool is you are absolutely sure you're packing them properly, but most of the time, you run the risk of damage if something slips and starts rubbing. You can wreck the interior of a perfect drum if you're not careful. Also, the strength of a drum is when both hoops are in place. So, I typically keep them all together. I just bit the bullet and usually buy boxes, at least for the larger ones. Use the 20x20x20 for most floor toms and the 24x24x24 is about as small as you can use for a 22" kick. That's really pushing it, but I've never had any incidents and I've probably shipped close to 50 or so kits/kick drums. Be sure to pack using real foam or peanuts, don't use newspaper. Insist that the buyers use insurance and go a bit over. One of the risks you take is that one of the 5 boxes gets lost or damaged. Then you've got an incomplete kit. They aren't going to be liable for the entire value of the kit, just the one box that's lost, so I typically add a "buffer" in my value, and insurance that I pay per box. I'm in TX, so pretty centrally located, but I can ship a typical kit anywhere in the US48 for about $60-75. The only time it gets more is with 24" kicks. They're double oversized and cost close to $50 at the cheapest rates to ship.
I use Fedex ground as they're the cheapest. As mentioned, don't use a UPS or mailbox etc store to do the shipping as they add a surcharge.
later,
m
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