I'm in the midst of my first international trade, sending to The Netherlands, and I'm having trouble finding the best shipping method. I was told that a decent size box (12 shipper, for example) would cost around $80 or so, but FedEx and UPS are much, much more ($200 and over $300, respectively) and even USPS (which I'd like to avoid) is over $100. Anyone have any suggestions, or do I just go with USPS and hope for the best?
It's going to be expensive, way more expensive than you thought. As long as you're aware of that and decide to make the trade it's all good. Did you check DHL?
USPS is the way to go for international. I just send a 17 pound box to the UK, was $83. that was about 9 total bottles, a few of them being bombers (I always use fedex otherwise)
40 pounds to Belgium just ran me ~$120 via USPS in a 16"^3 box, and USPS is definitely the way to go for international trades.
Thanks guys! I have not checked DHL yet, so I will before I do USPS, but it seems they're the way to go, $100 is a lot closer to the $80 that was suggested to me than the $200-$325 I saw on fedex/ups's sites. Damn full 12 shipper... these "cantillon" and "westvleteren" things I keep hearing about had better be worth it....
Another question, I know lots of BAs use "marinade" or "live yeast cultures" as a euphemism for beer if asked by their carrier what they're shipping. Does that work for international shipping? I know, for example, that produce travelling internationally is a pain (ever tried to bring fruit back from the Caribbean?), and I want to make this as painless as possible. If those two euphemisms do not work, can someone suggest an alternative?
I usually suggest to send it as olive oil. It's much more important to keep the customs declaration value low to stop it getting pulled in and hit with importation taxes. European customs don't care about the legality of importing alcohol. The challenge of course is to balance the size of the box with the declared amount. A 12 box shipper is pretty likely to get flagged.
Oh goody, I can't wait for that... would I be better (without significantly higher cost) to ship two small boxes?
A trading partner recently sent me 4 x 750ml via USPS which cost him $88. Not sure where that fits versus the quote you have for the larger box.
My larger box is 4 bombers and 10x12oz, so an extra 120oz+glass on top of that, i guess a little over $100 isnt too bad then.
That actually sounds slightly cheaper than I would have expected based on what I other know other trading partners have spent. Spreading across two boxes doesn't sound feasible. Looking back the last time I had to pay customs charges on a large box it only cost about $20. The courier's handling fees were about the same again. At the end of the day it's a risk that I take personally when agreeing to a larger trade so I wouldn't get too hung up on it on your end. The important thing is that they won't toss the beer if they do find out what it is.
Yes, that's definitely important, and that the fees are only $20 isnt too bad either, I can live with that.
I'm pretty sure the most efficient sends (per bottle) are either - stuffing what you can into a USPS flat rate box (but this isn't much) - sucking it up and just sending a huge box via USPS. the cost per bottle for 12 bottles is less than the cost per bottle for 6 bottle, etc
heh I like quads fine but after I did my blind test of Westy vs other easily attainable quads, I traded my Westy away. there were 4 of us and Westy scored right in the middle.
