Sourcery Pricing Part 2: Cost Comparisons
Now that we have some context for why Sourcery requests in Boston and New York cost $65 (which, if you missed it, we talked about in a previous blog post HERE), let’s take a step back and see how Sourcery’s costs compare to travel costs from a few major cities to New York City. We’ll just be focusing on travel costs (plane or rail) to keep things simple. So, we will not be calculating hotel, meals, ground transportation, or any expenses incurred by taking a road trip by car.
Let’s look at travel costs to New York City from the following locations*:
- Los Angeles, California: $228 flight, or $463 Amtrak
- Washington, DC: $161 flight, or $267 Amtrak
- Atlanta, Georgia: $190 flight, or $234 Amtrak
- Columbus, Ohio: $220 flight
- Denver, Colorado: $198 flight, or $264 Amtrak
Flights are expensive, of course, but even if you’re traveling regionally for a day trip, using commuter rail can be quite expensive! For example, a one-hour trip on New Jersey Transit, the Long Island Railroad, or Metro North commuter rail averages $20 each way!
Even off-peak times are expensive, and they aren’t even convenient to the times that reading rooms are open:
- Philadelphia: $39.60
- New Brunswick, New Jersey: $33.10
- New Haven, Connecticut: $38.50
- Stony Brook, New York: $30.50
Even if you’re traveling less than 100 miles, a Sourcery request is still be cost efficient and won’t take you away from your other responsibilities for a day.
Of course, there will always be a need for longer research trips to review collections, visit more than one repository, or work closely with an archivist. But if you need very specific materials, or want to investigate a collection or sample various repositories before committing to a longer trip, then Sourcery can be a big help. If all you need is a simple scan request, then no need to find or vet a research assistant – just place a Sourcery request!
The next time you’re considering a trip to New York City or Boston for archival materials, think of Sourcery! By using Sourcery you’re saving time and money that could be spent elsewhere.
*Note:
Flight estimates are taken from Southwest Airlines, Delta Airlines, American Airlines, and United Airlines and then averaged together. We also tossed Amtrak in there, mostly for fun. Here are the considerations we’ve taken and more details for how we got our numbers:
- Flights were calculated for the arrival day of December 6 and a departure of December 7th. These prices were calculated on October 6, 2025;
- Prices were calculated via the airline’s websites;
- We always chose the cheapest flight options available;
- You can view the full data set here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nQh5TNCwDy8hx8JAnXe6a8BnAUSTldnZ3c_qOo3QkC8/edit?usp=sharing.
