Finding Airfare

This (booking buddy) is a cool site if you're searching for airfare.  You enter your cities and dates one time, then click on whatever buttons (expedia, hotwire, etc) to see what fares they're offering.  It's so much better (esp for international flights) than going to each site separately and entering the information, because a lot of those sites don't work so well for international flights and it's so annoying to keep entering the information over and over again.

I don't know if it really helps you find the best possible deal but it at least lets you see what's out there.

And here's a chart that shows how much it costs to take baggage based on airline (although it doesn't seem to help much for international).

And an article (largely de-bunked in the comments section) that shows how it's sometimes cheaper to ship your bags instead of checking them.  Given that it looks like there are 3 or more connections between Taipei and Pittsburgh or State College on an expensive but not-astronomically-so flight (I just can't call an $800 1-way ticket cheap!) I think that might be the way I'll go.  Also considering my experience in Detroit on my way home last year, which should be illegal under international law, would've been a lot better without baggage.  Either way I know my books will be taking the slow boat from China.