Was just quoted $260 by Fedex to ship an item across the pond. Its 23lbs granted, but $260?? Are there other carriers out there which are cheaper?

If your not in a rush you could have USPS surface mail it, but that would be 4 to 6 weeks I think.

The cheapest will probably be the normal postal service. But be sure to insure it then, because it is said that they 'loose' a lot more shipments then Fedex or UPS. I never had a problem with it myself though, and I ship everything through regular mail.

The couriers all charge about the same. It used to be that Airborne was a little cheaper, but now they are DHL too they may be in the pricing carte..sorry, free open market.

Your other option is USPS air or sea. Sea slow, air quick. Air not massively cheaper than FedUPS. And insurance / tracking etc not as good. And a number of vendors won't offer USPS because of this. To answer your actual question: the cheapest way by far is USPS sea. If it is critical / valuable / desirable then prepare to dig deep and call 1-800-courierofyourchoice.

Oddly, gravity must be heavier in the US, because the same package going west to the US would be less than $170.

Regards

Mark

It might be worth opening an account with one of them. The same shipment but in the other direction would cost $90 from the office here.

Rob

I researched this a while back - USPS Surface Mail is pretty much the cheapest for large heavy items. Other carriers get pretty expensive for bulky items. One to try is Airborne, the other is www.eaglegl.com. But BEWARE - anything "airport-airport" carries huge charges at Heathrow - something like £80 on top for several types of handling, customs (several, including non-account charges), and fuel.

I had a 54x6x8" parcel sent to me by Airmail Parcel Post (4-10 days, cost $70) on 25th March and it arrived last week with a lot of stickers indicating it had been sent to Germany by accident! Quite why it took them so long to figure it out I don't know... I was just about to get the sender to file for insurance.

Gareth

Go with USPS Airmail Parcel Post. I've shipped numerous players to the UK, Germnay, Switzerland, etc using this service and it usually takes about 7-10 days and costs around $35 ( I pack them up real good too ).

You will have to fill out an extra customs form and make sure you fill out one of the blue insurance forms too!

UPS and Fedex seem to be outrageous on the international shipping.