Shipping record collection overseas?

[Mithrandir]

Looking for advice here. So I moved to New Zealand a few years ago from Dublin and it's looking like I'm here for the long haul if I can manage it. Of course moving here the records weren't coming with me but now that it's looking like a permanent set up I'm hoping to get them over here with me. It would be nothing crazy but still a fair bit of weight (100-150 records). Has anyone ever done this before? Unsure of what my options are and how much it's likely to cost so advice appreciated if anyone has any experience. Cheers.

[Eoin McLove]

I moved to Aus this year and we have had everything including my pretty large record collection shipped. We went with the groupage option as it cuts the cost down,  so all of our stuff was sent with other people's stuff in one container. Might be worth looking into. If it's a small enough amount of space you're taking up the cost won't be that high and they come to your house and pack everything professionally. We are waiting on our stuff to arrive so I can't say what state everything is in yet but I'm guessing (and hoping and praying) they know what they are doing. We were told it would take 3-4 months to arrive but if you are just sending 150 records you might have to factor in extra time for them to fill the container.

[ochoill]

There's a few options for this but your best bet is get someone to pack them very securely in Dublin, to about 20 per box, well foamed and upright, get the weight and dims of each, then ring a freight forwarder in NZ or IE about it.  Costs can very so widely that it's worth checking a few.  So long as they are already packed, and you have an invoice put together for them stating they are personal effects / not commercial, for sale, etc, and you have a value on them, they are more likely to help you out.

For value, you could give them their rough actual value (say €20 each, or €3000) for insurance but you will pay at least duty on it as well as the fee to insure it.  You could value it significantly less and not insure it if you felt comfortable with that, since they are not for sale, but that's up to you.

I'll get you a tariff for them when I get to work.  When I moved home from Canada about six years back, I sent a mix of stuff back - a guitar, PC, pedals, Vinyl, books - across 4 mixed size boxes, it cost about €400 all in as airfreight.  The perks of working in freight forwarding meant it was a little cheaper.  They basically used the invoice I gave them, sent it with Aer Lingus, and I picked it up from the airport myself after customs had a root through it, it got flagged because it was personal effects.  It is cheaper to get it yourself if you can, and to drop them off yourself too if someone in IE can help you.

Tariff for vinyl records is 8523.80.90