Yes!! It's another shipping thread

[Jeraly 4]

Just got an e-mail to say that my things should be arriving in port around 17th October!! Looks like we need to get a bookshelf or something!! I can't even remember half of what I sent!!!

[Alex & Rachel 78]

I received three separate quotes from Excess Baggage, two of which seemed to be from their various sub/sister-companies. I went with the cheapest as I have nothing terribly urgent or valuable to care about.

I was quoted £356 for door-to-door delivery for 24 sq ft (or 12 x 2 sq ft book boxes) by London Baggage. I sent off for a quote Sunday, received the quote Monday morning, and Monday lunchtime a very lovely-sounding lady rang up to arrange delivery of the boxes today. I'll be packed this afternoon and then ring for the boxes to come and be collected. They say 8-10 weeks for delivery, so we'll see how that goes!

[rocks 494]

did anyone here have a vast quantity of cds/dvds/books that they shipped?

Edited November 29, 2008 by rocks

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

Yes, quite a few. 156 CDs (17 Kg). 65 vinyl albums, 32 cassettes, 21 DVDs, 140 books, 80 software CDs.

He has already rigged my DVD player to play his DVDs. And he shipped a UK DVD recorder with a hard drive and has it working here too.

[rocks 494]

Yes, quite a few. 156 CDs (17 Kg). 65 vinyl albums, 32 cassettes, 21 DVDs, 140 books, 80 software CDs.

He has already rigged my DVD player to play his DVDs. And he shipped a UK DVD recorder with a hard drive and has it working here too.

ah nice, maybe you can answer a question for me.

i have quite a lot more vinyl (about 150) and dvd's than that. i'm just wondering if i'm going to encounter any problems with customs with that much stuff. the vinyls are all old and look that way but the cds/dvds/books mostly look new, as i like to take care of my stuff. i read that you need to have owned your items for more than a year for customs purposes... you didn't run into any problems with that?

[rebeccajo 14]

Well....

The husband moved here over three years ago. If we are lucky, there are still a couple of rather large boxes of graphic novels/comic books in his brothers attic.

We literally cannot afford to spend a thousand bucks on shipping them over here. But we are going home for a visit in March. We are going to try a little experiment whilst there. We are going to box up some of the favorites and take them over to the post office and see what it might cost to post them slow-boat. If it's not too pricey, we'll probably go for it.

Three years ago we shipped a box of DVDs/CDs and it was like 60 quid.

Edited November 30, 2008 by rebeccajo

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

We cleared customs ourselves in person at a CPB office in Houston, TX rather than using a broker to do it for us. (Houston was the port where the goods arrived.) The officer that clears household goods shipments in Houston was so easy. I had called to find out the process and ask what forms to fill out and bring. He said just bring the bill of lading (a scan the shippers emailed to us), an arrival notice from the ships agent (also emailed to us) and a list of the contents. I said what about all those custom forms? He said, "I like to keep it simple---no forms." So it took us about a minute. Showed him what he said to bring and he went off and brought back the arrival notice with a pattern of holes punched in it that said something like US Customs Houston TX. That release was required in order to pick up the stuff. I don't think they are too strict about a load of personal household items because it's pretty normal to send those things (music and dvds) when you move.

Now for the hard part of getting Nick's stuff, which was 2.5 cubic meters and 650 pounds. This is the stuff they don't tell you in the UK...the cost on the US end. Every ship has a shipping agent that handles arrival, unloading, port charges, dock fee, custom clearance for the container to leave the port, etc. So they charge you a fee. You don't shop around, it's the ship that picks their agent for the whole load. So when Nick's stuff arrived, we were emailed a bill for $465 to cover all I mentioned. No credit cards, no personal checks. $90 of that was for customs clearance of the container, nothing to do with you clearing your personal items for pick up, just general customs because they x-ray the container.

So we paid and waited for that to clear and be taken to a warehouse and the container emptied out. Well it seems that sometimes they want a more intense inspection where the container is opened up and the pallets with boxes are cut into and the boxes opened. So, yep, that's what our luck was. And another bill from the agent for $125 because the container had to be transported to a Customs secure warehouse and the intense inspection. So it was finally cleared and we went to the customs warehouse. That warehouse said we owed them $25 for their services. Such a rip-off. It's like your stuff is held hostage and you just have to pay whatever they say. Then we drove the pick-up truck to the back and gave our punched customs clearance paper to a forklift guy and he brought out the pallet. It hadn't been inspected at all...still wrapped and sealed by 1st Move International in the UK. That doesnt' mean that something else in the container wasn't inspected, but you have to pay anyway. So in all we paid $615 on the US end. I don't know how often this happens or if people who get door to door service encounter additional fees in the US. Maybe somebody will comment. We had partial container, door to port. It was efficient and arrived quickly in perfect order, but the "hostage" situation was annoying.

Hey, but not everybody gets to go to cool warehouse places like this

[rocks 494]

thanks to both of you nich-nick and rebeccajo for the information.

[gazarama 0]

did anyone here have a vast quantity of cds/dvds/books that they shipped?

Actually I need a major quantity to be shipped. I have a record collection of about 1500 items; 325 of which are cassettes 260 in vinyl and the rest are CDs/CD singles.

I checked with Seven Seas Worldwide a few years back since they are pretty near the current location of my collection, and they suggested their book boxes, but I would probably need the tea chest.

Anyone use this company before for shipping their collection? And if so, how many CDs could you get in the book boxes/tea chest.

Thanks in advance.

"Someone who's been missing his collection for far too long!!!"

[VisaJourneyLady 33]

alot of companies will require you to use a book box for dense things like records etc. cos they will have a max weight of the boxes, regardless of size so the handlers don't break their backs moving them. That's why they charge the same for a book box as a tea-chest

[elmcitymaven 9,712]

I seem to recall that there was a max of 35kg for each box, as per EU standards for worker safety (as Poiteen mentions above). We shipped about 100 LPs over and probably the same number of CDs. It was the LPs that were the killer!

[Alex & Rachel 78]

My stuff is arriving tomorrow.

Everything passed through customs okay. The lady who spoke to Alex said the only fee incurred was a $50 fee for an x-ray, thankfully!

For the actual shipping, courier collection and delivery (which would've been free had I lived in London), I paid 439 pounds for 12 boxes of belongings (that's roughly 350 books, a dinner service and 8 glasses and a few other kitchen accessories, 100 CDs, 270 DVDs, a couple of coats/blankets and a lot of personal papers) for door-to-door delivery from Worthing, England to San Jose, California with London Baggage Company. Hope that helps!

Edited February 10, 2009 by Alex & Rachel

[sharpies 0]

We decided to go with Excess Baggage for sea freight. They quoted us £473 for 60 cuft. I will let you know how it goes, so far it has been good. They were extremely competitive. The boxes arrived at 7.49am today, after booking with them at 3pm yesterday. So far so good!

[woki1986 1]

I put a post in the general UK thread - didn't see this previously.

I've got 13 boxes full of... well... all sorts. Books, personal items. I've just found out that an inventory list would be the best thing to do, so I'm sitting here going through all of my boxes and writing what's in them. Will I have to write what I think each item is worth? Will a simple: Box of 30 books (for example) be sufficient? Or would I have to list every single one? (I've got 3 boxes of books...)

I get the feeling this is going to be very, Very time consuming.

[Think~Pink 0]

I put a post in the general UK thread - didn't see this previously.

I've got 13 boxes full of... well... all sorts. Books, personal items. I've just found out that an inventory list would be the best thing to do, so I'm sitting here going through all of my boxes and writing what's in them. Will I have to write what I think each item is worth? Will a simple: Box of 30 books (for example) be sufficient? Or would I have to list every single one? (I've got 3 boxes of books...)

I get the feeling this is going to be very, Very time consuming.

With the company I used, (John Mason International), they did their own inventory, but it was very brief. I photocopied mine and gave it to them as a back up, but my inventory was just for my personal use.

The only things I had to put a value on, were the things I wanted to insure, but they made it very easy.

The form was split into rooms and items pre-printed, I just assigned a value against the things I wanted insuring and tallied it up at the end.

you are best asking the person who deals with your move how they want things listing. some companies you can pack your own belongings, so have to be thorough, some, like mine, do the packing for you..give them a call

BTW..I had 17 boxes, 80 cu. ft. and it cost just over 800 pounds including insurance. Not the cheapest, but not the most expensive and my stuff will hit Baltimore on May 15th

Good luck