Shipping My Own Used Books From Bristol

[RubbaJohnny]

Will deliver safely wrapped in bubble wrap my library to a ship or Agent near Bristol next week .

Please has anyone used a Thai or UK agent

Ro yal mail quoted an outrageous 1500£

I am i no hurry and could go to Bangkok Port to collect

DHL in Germany says old not antique books in European languages should be duty free there's nothing Controversial or tha could not be posted here .

However Id be happy to have delivered to the door.

An Oz friend simply took the T chests to an Avonmouth shipper and 5 months later at is house via Perth.

know LOS things usually involve more paperwork.

Thanks in anticipation

[pattaya_girl]

Send them by Boat from the UK Post office, it takes 6 weeks.... a lot cheaper than Air Mail.

[beerchang]

Will deliver safely wrapped in bubble wrap my library to a ship or Agent near Bristol next week .

Please has anyone used a Thai or UK agent

Ro yal mail quoted an outrageous 1500£

I am i no hurry and could go to Bangkok Port to collect

DHL in Germany says old not antique books in European languages should be duty free there's nothing Controversial or tha could not be posted here .

However Id be happy to have delivered to the door.

An Oz friend simply took the T chests to an Avonmouth shipper and 5 months later at is house via Perth.

know LOS things usually involve more paperwork.

Thanks in anticipation

Dude, I brought 320 books (most paperback but a fair few hardbacks) from UK with British Airways in 3 boxes and hand luggage! Just put them cardboard boxes, tape them up and away u go. BA charge 60 quid per extra peice of luggage no heavier than 30 kilos if u pay online = 120 quid...bargain, cost a lot more to ship them. (this is just BA, check their website, Emirates charge 15 quid a kilo.) Thai customs didn't look twice at my large collection of taped up boxes. They also didn't look twice when I came back this time with one big taped up box containing books weighing 30 kilos (flew Emirates) and I mean really taped up box. Ugliest luggage you've ever seen, handle 'created' from gaffer tape!

Someone after tea money WILL make you pay if you ship them...some guy on here told about them holding his dogs for ransom till he paid and I had to pay 6000bht for my power tools to get to me when I shipped them. (Scammed or not?...nevermind)

If BA aren't charging too much for a ticket, you don't mind carrying loads of luggage and aint embarassed to carry packing tape covered boxes, take my advice.

Good luck.

[bobright]

Will deliver safely wrapped in bubble wrap my library to a ship or Agent near Bristol next week .

Please has anyone used a Thai or UK agent

Ro yal mail quoted an outrageous 1500£

I am i no hurry and could go to Bangkok Port to collect

DHL in Germany says old not antique books in European languages should be duty free there's nothing Controversial or tha could not be posted here .

However Id be happy to have delivered to the door.

An Oz friend simply took the T chests to an Avonmouth shipper and 5 months later at is house via Perth.

know LOS things usually involve more paperwork.

Thanks in anticipation

Dude, I brought 320 books (most paperback but a fair few hardbacks) from UK with British Airways in 3 boxes and hand luggage! Just put them cardboard boxes, tape them up and away u go. BA charge 60 quid per extra peice of luggage no heavier than 30 kilos if u pay online = 120 quid...bargain, cost a lot more to ship them. (this is just BA, check their website, Emirates charge 15 quid a kilo.) Thai customs didn't look twice at my large collection of taped up boxes. They also didn't look twice when I came back this time with one big taped up box containing books weighing 30 kilos (flew Emirates) and I mean really taped up box. Ugliest luggage you've ever seen, handle 'created' from gaffer tape!

Someone after tea money WILL make you pay if you ship them...some guy on here told about them holding his dogs for ransom till he paid and I had to pay 6000bht for my power tools to get to me when I shipped them. (Scammed or not?...nevermind)

If BA aren't charging too much for a ticket, you don't mind carrying loads of luggage and aint embarassed to carry packing tape covered boxes, take my advice.

Good luck.

beware of touts at airport and shipping in points. my dutch neighbor had his car he shipped from rotterdam compounded at lamchabaeng port for a year and a half until he finally paid up god-knows-what fines. if you cannot afford to lose anything book of sentimental value, yeah, carry them over yourself during your flight as sugessted. that way, you'll not lose any sleep. i shipped the cheaper non-antique ones over. yes, it takes some six weeks. door to door delivery? stopped trying. times are hard these days , you know. your books may end up in chartuchak or some other flea markets if you don't carry them over yourself.

[Geekfreaklover]

I did it the other way. I shipped all my books (about 1000) plus all my CDs and DVDs from the UK to Thailand. I think they took up the space of three pallets onboard a cargo ship. The agent in Thailand was Freight links international and the agent in the UK, from memory was called 'home move international' - (I think they are based in the west country) - Cost about 300 pounds sterling door to door (I had a lot of stuff). - They drove the goods all the way from Bangkok to a tiny village near the Cambodian border. Good service. If you need more details I can probably dig out the old email / website addresses.

[chrisartist]

You may well have a big problem in getting the books once they arrive in Thailand. Last December, I asked my brother to send about 40 of my books to me. He sent them by FedEx. When they arrived in Thailand, FedEx called me and told me that there would be both duty and VAT payable on the books (which I had valued at GBP20 each, because in order to replace them, I would have to travel to Taiwan, South Korea, and China). I bought these books about 16 years ago.

According to what I was told, the fact that the books are my personal property and have been used is irrelevant. Thai Customs does not class books as personal items.

I then managed to persuade FedEx that there is no duty payable on books. They still insisted that VAT is payable. An examination of Thai Customs regulations indicates that VAT *is* payable on books, even when no duty is payable. I got around this by arguing that they are all textbooks (most of them were either cookery books, which teach you how to cook, or books on Chinese painting techniques, which teach you how to paint.)

So, I recommend that you be careful which carrier you choose and, before you ship, get confirmation in writing from the Thai end that no duty is payable and no VAT is payable (I expect that it will be very difficult to get such confirmation, given the Thai people's propensity for not taking responsibility for anything that they do.)

[beerchang]

You may well have a big problem in getting the books once they arrive in Thailand. Last December, I asked my brother to send about 40 of my books to me. He sent them by FedEx. When they arrived in Thailand, FedEx called me and told me that there would be both duty and VAT payable on the books (which I had valued at GBP20 each, because in order to replace them, I would have to travel to Taiwan, South Korea, and China). I bought these books about 16 years ago.

According to what I was told, the fact that the books are my personal property and have been used is irrelevant. Thai Customs does not class books as personal items.

I then managed to persuade FedEx that there is no duty payable on books. They still insisted that VAT is payable. An examination of Thai Customs regulations indicates that VAT *is* payable on books, even when no duty is payable. I got around this by arguing that they are all textbooks (most of them were either cookery books, which teach you how to cook, or books on Chinese painting techniques, which teach you how to paint.)

So, I recommend that you be careful which carrier you choose and, before you ship, get confirmation in writing from the Thai end that no duty is payable and no VAT is payable (I expect that it will be very difficult to get such confirmation, given the Thai people's propensity for not taking responsibility for anything that they do.)

40 books worth 800 quid...holy sh*t! Can you name some titles/authors/ISBN numbers so I can look thru my books to see if I have such valuable items!

To OP, don't keep an idiot in suspence . What have you decided to do?

[beerchang]

(most of them were either cookery books, which teach you how to cook, or books on Chinese painting techniques, which teach you how to paint.)

LOL. Excuse my sense of humour but I believe, despite some of the garbled, vitriolic drivel written on this forum, that NO-ONE on here thinks a cookbook teaches you to build a house, nor does a painting technique book teach one how to bake a pie!!!

OP where are you? Paint pie eating member would like to know your decision.

[anonymouse]

I've shipped books from the UK to Chiang Mai seven times now, in batches of between 1,500 and 4,500 I use cargobookers.co.uk they will collect from anywhere in the UK and deliver to the port in the UK.

I shipped my last batch of 1,900 books collected from surrey and delivered to the port in Bangkok for just under £300.

Once they reach the port I use Schenker who have office's in Thailand to get them through customs and deliver them to my home address in Chiang Mai, normally takes about six weeks door to door.

[beerchang]

I've shipped books from the UK to Chiang Mai seven times now, in batches of between 1,500 and 4,500 I use cargobookers.co.uk they will collect from anywhere in the UK and deliver to the port in the UK.

I shipped my last batch of 1,900 books collected from surrey and delivered to the port in Bangkok for just under £300.

Once they reach the port I use Schenker who have office's in Thailand to get them through customs and deliver them to my home address in Chiang Mai, normally takes about six weeks door to door.

Now that's useful information. Cheers anon, I gotta shed load of books to ship. I've just been doing bit by bit as I have been coming and going (UK/Thailand) quite a bit.

[chrisartist]

(most of them were either cookery books, which teach you how to cook, or books on Chinese painting techniques, which teach you how to paint.)

LOL. Excuse my sense of humour but I believe, despite some of the garbled, vitriolic drivel written on this forum, that NO-ONE on here thinks a cookbook teaches you to build a house, nor does a painting technique book teach one how to bake a pie!!!

OP where are you? Paint pie eating member would like to know your decision.

Thank you for the useless and unwarranted criticism, which is against forum rules.

Please note: (i) my remarks were tongue in cheek, which you seem not to have noticed; (ii) there is a difference between instruction books and textbooks, and not all instruction books are textbooks; and (iii) it is perfectly legitimate to point out that some books *teach something*, in order to make a case to Thai Customs; I am unable to understand how you might think that I was noting that cookery books and books on painting technique teach X rather than Y, which is the interpretation that your useless criticism depends on.

I apologise to other posters for not replying to the OP's original concerns in this post. However, my earlier post *did* address his concerns. This one merely replies to useless criticism.