Travel chest needs to cross the ocean at the smallest possible expense!
April 16, 2010 5:40 PM   Subscribe

Moving from Canada to England, need to ship one large trunk as cheaply as possible. Recommendations for companies/methods of doing this would be most appreciated.

I'm moving from Canada (Toronto) to England (destination as of yet unknown), and I'm travelling fairly cheaply. However, I do have a large antique travelling trunk which is packed full of stuff that I can't bear to part with. I can't really take it on the plane with me, because a) It's really heavy and I can't carry it myself, b) I'm travelling with an airline which charges through the nose for heavy baggage, and c) I'm not sure yet where I'll end up, so my dad is going to have to send it to me when I finally figure it all out.

The other issue is that I'm not moving a whole set of furniture, so obviously getting a whole cargo unit thinger is a bit overkill. The trunk is self-contained and very durable (it's survived almost a hundred years now and shows no signs of weakness), so could travel a bit rough.

My mum has suggested a few options (she did the same trip, but in the opposite direction), but when I look them up on the internet they either don't exist anymore or don't have websites. From a previous MeFi post, I found this site, which seems to be a good bet, but other than asking for a quote, it won't give me any idea of pricing (which is necessary!)

I really need some help here. Mefites who have shipped relatively small items overseas, how did you do it? How much did it cost? Which company did you use?

Much thanks in advance.
posted by Planet F to Travel & Transportation (5 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
I recommend Seven Seas Worldwide.
posted by hot soup girl at 6:05 PM on April 16, 2010 [1 favorite]


So do I. Worked for me, UK to US.

I don't remember what I paid, but it was reasonable. They were OK with me changing the destination address upon the boxes' arrival at the US port.
posted by galaksit at 10:45 PM on April 16, 2010


Oh, as far as I recall, with Seven Seas you had no choice but to pack stuff into their own boxes. Shipping a randomly dimensioned box may not be permitted. They expect regular dimensions so that your stuff can be placed on to a standard pallet on a container.
posted by galaksit at 11:09 PM on April 16, 2010


If you have a US military friend, you can get it shipped via USPS to a military base (Lakenheath) for about $50US.
posted by Brent Parker at 12:28 AM on April 17, 2010


Response by poster: Seven seas did have an option for "suitcase", so my trunk might fall into that category, albeit a large suitcase. I'll try them, I guess, thanks for the recommendation!

As for shipping to a military base, I'm not American, don't have a car available to me when I get there, and have no military affiliation, so I don't think I'd qualify for that one, although it does seem useful to keep in mind in the future.
posted by Planet F at 6:27 AM on April 17, 2010


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