Shipping a few large items internationally?

Zehnpai

Zehnpai

Molten Core Raider
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Google searching for this kind of blows all kinds of goat ass so I figured I'd ask here. When my wife and I return to the states in a few months we want to take a few items back with us. Our kids crib, high chair and two or three large toys. All told it doesn't weigh more then 150 pounds and when collapsed and packaged together won't exactly take up much room. We'd like to keep the items for sentimental/heirloom purposes but I'm not about to drop 500+ bucks for effectively 200 bucks worth of furniture and plastic.

Anyone know anybody or have experience with this?

If it matters we'll be leaving from Oman. I'm not sure of the flight yet. I intend to call the airline and ask what their luggage restrictions are as I imagine if I could get away with just wrapping the items and paying extra baggage fees would be cheapest.
 
McCheese

McCheese

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Zehn - Vhex_sl said:
Google searching for this kind of blows all kinds of goat ass so I figured I'd ask here. When my wife and I return to the states in a few months we want to take a few items back with us. Our kids crib, high chair and two or three large toys. All told it doesn't weigh more then 150 pounds and when collapsed and packaged together won't exactly take up much room. We'd like to keep the items for sentimental/heirloom purposes but I'm not about to drop 500+ bucks for effectively 200 bucks worth of furniture and plastic.

Anyone know anybody or have experience with this?

If it matters we'll be leaving from Oman. I'm not sure of the flight yet. I intend to call the airline and ask what their luggage restrictions are as I imagine if I could get away with just wrapping the items and paying extra baggage fees would be cheapest.
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Your best bet is to do like you suggest: wrapping the items and paying the extra baggage fees to transport them manually. At worst you might have to leave one or two things behind unless you really want to pony up some cash.

When I was living in Kazakhstan I wanted to have some big(ish) things shipped to me. I checked with DHL, UPS, and USPS and the prices were absolutely insane for even moderately sized items. I don't remember the exact prices, but I remember UPS was in the 500s at least. I shipped several smaller packages of 10 - 15 pounds via the USPS and even those were upwards of $80. So I hate to think what 150 pounds would cost.
 
agripa

agripa

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You want to look into freight shipping. Put all of the items in crate and have it shipped by air or boat it should be much cheaper then shipping each piece. My girlfriend ships art to Israel all the time from the US it is a couple hundred bucks at the most.
 
Lambourne

Lambourne

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I used a freight forwarder to ship a complete engine, transmission and a bunch of boxes from the US to Europe, I paid about $350 with all handling fees included. This was a small company that collects cars and goods, sticks it all in a container and then ships it via sea freight. Paid about $1000 to send a car across the Atlantic although this was 15 years ago. I did have to go pick the stuff up though, wasn't door to door.

Not sure how large your stuff is but if it's not heavy and not much larger than a bicycle it might not be much more expensive to check it as oversize luggage (there's usually a special desk for stuff like this at the checking and and baggage claim)
 
Noodleface

Noodleface

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Don't have much to add to this except I shipped a guitar to Sweden once.. sold for $500 and cost $400 to ship. Didn't seem worth it to me, but whatever I didn't pay for it. I also shipped an amp to Hawaii and that cost $350. Prices are straight up absurd.
 
Zehnpai

Zehnpai

Molten Core Raider
399
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Ugh. Not 150 pounds, 50 pounds tops. Sorry typo.

Yeah, best bet sounded like just seeing about over-sized luggage. Hardest part of this is our contract handler is a piece of shit so we don't know what airline we'll be taking back to the States.

Thanks for the recommendations guys. +1's all around.
 
Szlia

Szlia

Member
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Depending on the type of plane ticket you have, going above your limit for luggage weight can be atrociously expensive. I once found myself with 10 kg of luggage over the limit and I was asked to pay $50 per kilo...

Several years later, for a similar trip, I mailed to myself a couple of parcels filled to the brim with stuff and used ground/sea mail. It was significantly cheaper but it was sloooooooooooooooow (one of them took almost three months to arrive).
 
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