The International Schools Review Forum

Can someone share your experience on shipping items overseas when relocating. I know that there are different prices for different countries, but what is the process? We are a family of 4 (2 adults and 2 kids). What should we bring and how expensive is it? Thank you.

You need to be more specific in order to answer the "What should we bring and how expensive is it" question; I can tell you from my experience to make sure you get a true picture of all the charges before you choose a shipper and then be prepared for it to cost more when you receive the shipment and then if possible pick a shipper with offices in both places.

I am thinking: clothing (alot since we have 4 of us), and toys for kids.

You will be overwhelmingly better off paying for extra baggage on your outbound flight. Sea/land shipping has become a tremendous racket with more hidden fees that a Verizon cell phone contract.

[quote="lightstays"]You will be overwhelmingly better off paying for extra baggage on your outbound flight. Sea/land shipping has become a tremendous racket with more hidden fees that a Verizon cell phone contract.[/quote]

That depends very much who you ship with and how you ship it. I boxed my stuff myself, took it down to the shippers yard (a reputable international company), put it on two pallets and wrapped and labelled it myself. I then picked it up from the reciever at the other end. No extra or hidden costs, I knew exactly what I was paying for.

If you phone someone in the Yellow Pages who offer to come to your house and give you quote you are going to get ripped off. Last time I shipped I got a quote from one of those companies that comes round and packs for you. The quote was US$4,500. I did it myself for under US$1,000

However, I would still go with maximizing your luggage allowance first, then ship second ............................if you have to.

I would say it would be cheaper to do overweight baggage fees. We have a family of 5 who came over and did that... the reimbursement didn't pay for all of it, but it definitely paid for a lot of it and so it wasn't too horrible out of pocket. Plus you have your stuff right away... sometimes shipping it takes much longer and you have to do without for awhile which is not fun... we have a family who shipped their stuff and their "box" as we called it took 2 months to arrive after they did!

Contact your airline first and see how their extra/overweight bag fees work. When I moved to SE Asia three years ago, Cathay Pacific allowed me two 50lbs. bags for free. Increasing one bag to 70lbs. incurred a $35 fee. They also allowed two extra 50 lbs bags at $100 each. I also hauled a carry on that weighed around 20 lbs. 240 lbs. to the opposite of the world for $235 is a pretty good deal and more than covered all my shipping costs.

Excess baggage is all very well if you don't have a lot of stuff. Experience tells me that when you have kids, the stuff soon mounts up. Besides, shipping stuff can work out cheaper than having to buy a load of new stuff when you arrive. Seven Seas is a good company. They have offices all over the world, they're very reliable, not too expensive, and you can work out your own quote using their online calculator.

Thank you all. Yes, we have lots of clothing and some toys. I don't want to by new clothes overseas and spend money on it since in many cases clothing is more expensive overeseas than here in US. My husband thinks we will have about 1000 lbs at least.

Aside from clothes, you might also want to consider things to cook with. The apartments I have moved into have generally come with pots and pans, but these have generally been of pretty bad quality. Bringing a good set of pots and knives just makes life easier.

But really, what you ship also depends, to some degree on where you going and what is available locally.

Remembering the good'ole days; family of 5, including 3 under 9 years old, traveling with 12 seventy pound bags with a 3 day stopover at LAX. My back aches just thinking about it.

I can see the desire to have your own cloths. My experience has been that well made clothes overseas are expensive (especially shoes). I wouldnt ship cargo container though. My experience has been that you suffer some loss in the shipment, and it takes too long. The one time I did it was 4 months and it cost just under $600. Most people i know that shipped ended up buying things locally while they were waiting for their cargo to arrive as most of the things you need you need right away, such as clothes and kitchenware. I have no family, so I do very well with 2 or 3 checked bags, my carryon and backpack. A couple clothes things to consider (and I dont know the reasons for many of these):

1) Shoes: (yeah i know again). Some parts of the world like asia you cant find anything over a 9 for men, and a 5 for woman.

2) Bras: again some parts of the world (asia) the local population tends to run on the small side. Anything over a C would be expensive or unavailable.

3) Over size: if your particularly tall or "wide" you may have to order or have all your cloths made. Start being worried if your shirts go past the "Large" category or your trousers exceed push the 40 in. range.

4) Underwear: Every place Ive visited has a Victoria Secrets or equivalent (one thing woman are lucky at), but some countries either seem to be exclusively boxer or brief places. If your a woman who likes to wear boy shorts, be prepared to shop in the male department.

5) Socks: Never had a problem with them, and only know one guy (coach/PE teacher) who was obsessed with silver threaded athletic socks, had to order them from the UK. Woman can get really nice 100% silk stockings (again i dont know why this is important).

6) Dress-wear: Probabley the easiest to come by are things like ties, etc.

7) Outerwear: No problems pretty easy to come by but can be expensive. In places you need an umbrella they are everywhere.

As far as kitchenware goes, some of the best stuff ive used was local. No store in the USA/UK will ever carry a wok that would equal the cheap, hammered steel, riveted handle one i got in Guangzhou, nor the Santaku knife i got in Japan (incidentally i check that knife in my luggage, and its the one indispensable item in my kitchen. I can deal with cheap flatware, table wear, even pots and pans, but a dull crummy knife makes cooking a chore).
Aside from that leave your kitchen appliances at home, they most likely wont work on the current, or run poorly on a convertor. I have one teacher here that brought this one cup coffee maker that uses these little coffee packs, that she cant get here, nor can she get them shipped. Though going through a non english writen instruction manual can be a pain. Pans/Pots are kind a cheap and what are you going to cook with until they arrive, anyway.

(OK so I did like one thing in Cairo, they have this way of cooking that involves heating rocks, and then pouring batter on them to make this flat bread/pancake thing, awesome stuff.)

Thank you PsyGuy