Shipping advice (HK to the US)--what's affordable and relatively fast?

November 18, 2015 7:04 PM

(Asking for a friend) I need to ship most of my worldly possessions from Hong Kong to the US -- I will start teaching on the east coast in February. Most of my things consist of books, but there are also some other items including clothing, kitchenware, etc. What is the best option in terms of price? And would most of the items arrive by February? Thanks!
posted by wallawallasweet to Travel & Transportation (6 answers total)

Best answer: Have you checked the South China Morning Post to see if there are any ads for companies that specialize in expat repatriation? Or expat forums? I think you're looking at an LCL, a partial container, where the cost is determined in volume (not weight like an air shipment), and the ship would bring it to the west coast and you'd pay for it to be trucked to the east coast. I'd figure on two months.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 8:55 PM on November 18, 2015 [2 favorites]

Best answer: If it's not sentimental stuff it might be cheaper and easier to buy new. Bring the clothes and sentimental stuff with you on the plane.
posted by bleep at 9:54 PM on November 18, 2015

Best answer: Hongkong Post will almost certainly be the cheapest for things like clothes and books that you may not need right away. Their site is exhaustive and even small post offices will offer detailed answers to conplex questions (like the maximum length of a poster tube you can ship to England, which I asked last week).
posted by mdonley at 12:43 AM on November 19, 2015

Best answer: I've used Seven Seas for an international move and had a good experience. It looks like they ship from Hong Kong to the US - I did a dummy quote from HK to Boston. Looks like by sea right now they estimate 81-99 days for the journey and it looked like around 6k HKD? And air freight was estimated at 16-20 days for 11.5k HKD. For the dummy estimate I plugged in 6 book boxes (which NB do not try to fill with books or you will go over the 35 kg limit ask me how i know omg they are huge) and 2 normal boxes, I think, and a real quote with actual real details will be different, but just to give you some rough ideas.
posted by you must supply a verb at 4:04 AM on November 19, 2015

Best answer: Did a little calculating on the Hongkong Post calculator.

A 30 kg box sent with trackable surface (boat) mail takes 25-40 days plus customs clearance and costs HK$1152. Friends have done this to mail durable and expensive stuff like fancyish cookware home and everything arrived in one piece and in good nick. I'd be worried about clothes or shoes moulding, though, so perhaps only use this for really strong stuff.

Sending the same package as a 30 kg Multipack (their box which you pack) by Speedpost (trackable air mail) costs HK$1961 and takes as little as 2-4 working days, plus customs processing. I've send loads of things around the world through Hongkong Post's trakable air services and have never had a problem.
posted by mdonley at 4:44 AM on November 19, 2015

Response by poster: Thanks all! My friend will likely go with Seven Seas!
posted by wallawallasweet at 8:23 PM on November 22, 2015