Moving Stuff Overseas:container, Post, Or Airline?

[cloud96]

I'm moving back to my home overseas from Thailand to US after a year

Over my time here, I've bought lots of souveneirs and just have more stuff to bring back

What are the cheapest and or best value ways to get stuff back overseas?

My main options seem to be:

- Use a company to ship by container, sharing with someone else

- Send by Thai Post, DHL, Fed-Ex or the like (I guess this would have to be airmail, they never seem to be able to ship by boat...right?)

- Carry the excess baggage with me on the airline and pay extra for that

- Send the excess baggage by air as "unaccompanied baggage", but I have no idea how this works

- Hire some international moving company to do it for me, as I see ads all over Thaivisa for companies doing this

I'm finding some information on the web, but my experience is that things in Thailand never actually turn out the way you think they are from reading quotes, etc. online.

What are people's experiences with the above? What did you find to be the best value and or cheapest? Please give specifics.

In my situation, I'm moving from Mae Sot, Tak to RI, USA by EVA from Bangkok to Newark. I suppose I could carry the stuff myself from Mae Sot to Chiang Mai or Bangkok and even go to a port for pickup/dropoff. Beyond my normal 2 bags and a carry-on for the plane I guess I have 1 or 2 extra suitcases no more than 23 kg each of a standard volume... I can tolerate a moderately-high level of hassle but don't want to pay too much, maybe $50-200 (1500-7000 baht), what do you think?

[GungaDin]

I can only talk about unaccompanied baggage.

Nearly everything was packed in large sports bags plus 4 large bird cages, flat packed and very heavy.

Cost only A$2.50kg X 450kgs...... Cheap.

Don't forget to seal all bags with bright cable ties to discourage pilfering at Swampy airport.

Get some fish scales and weigh each bag....... nothing over 30kgs if possible.

How much weight are you moving?

[ericthai]

Wow GungaDin, you got a cheap rate. My last trip home I was over weight and they charged me 600 baht per kilo.

Cloud96, it all depends on how fast you want the stuff. If you can wait for it you can ship by a shipping company, they will do what is called break bulk, which it's put in a container with other stuff. Not sure of the cost as I have only been shipping full containers to the US ($4500 for a 40' to Boston) PM me and I can give you a shipping company to use. If you can get everything to be only 1sq meter then it should not be more than $60 USD. I would offer to put it into my next container, but we do everything we can to get as much as possible into a container.

[vera5212]

Wow GungaDin, you got a cheap rate. My last trip home I was over weight and they charged me 600 baht per kilo.

Cloud96, it all depends on how fast you want the stuff. If you can wait for it you can ship by a shipping company, they will do what is called break bulk, which it's put in a container with other stuff. Not sure of the cost as I have only been shipping full containers to the US ($4500 for a 40' to Boston) PM me and I can give you a shipping company to use. If you can get everything to be only 1sq meter then it should not be more than $60 USD. I would offer to put it into my next container, but we do everything we can to get as much as possible into a container.

Would like to correct the above a little bit

Never ask for a price in breakbulk, unless you know the shipping company very good and they understand clearly your requirements.

Breakbulk shipments are never going into a container. The merchandise/goods are just put on board of the vessel.

If you are working for the first time with a shipping company and you want to arrange a shipment in container, but cannot fill up the container, you should ask for a less than containerload price. In the shipping world this is called a LCL price (less than containerload).

Vera

[GungaDin]

Have just re-read the op.

It looks like a max wt. of only 50kgs, so unaccompanied baggage would be best.

He won't get A$2.50kg.... it's all down to numbers.

My ticket was by TG, so I asked for TG to carry the excess luggage. BNE>BKK.

[ataloss]

Thai Post quoted today that 30 kg from CMai to Canada costs 4530Baht plus 55B for the 30kg carton. By sea. Del in 1-3 months. That's the largest carton, and the price is AOK. Visit any ThaiPost for prices to your country. Many Europeans were busy packing these cartons with chairs etal and said they were delighted with the price: many have been happily using ThaiPost for years.

[cloud96]

Called EVA air yesterday, their price for excess baggage (more than 2 checked bags and a carryon) is $117 US per bag less than 23 kg. I suppose not totally unreasonable but a bit pricy for a bag I think.

I asked about unaccompanied baggage, they had no idea what I was talking about (maybe mai kao jai?), referred me to 'cargo', which ended up being UPS, and they said their policy was to not move personal belongings, only export stuff.

Got a quote from a container shipping company called Premier Trans Express, I didn't ask for LCL, just said I had 1 cubic meter maximum, he said he'd be putting it with other crates till full so I guess he understands, but he quoted me 12000 baht to pick up from house in CM and deliver to port in Boston!? Whats that like $340 US...

Still looking for that $60 price on a cubic meter.