South Pacific Shipping

[Michaelmos]

Planning a South Pacific Cruise next year. I expect to make a few purchases and will likely not have room in suitcase to transport items. Any recommendations for shipping package from Papeete to US? Will Oceania ship a package? Thanks

[StanandJim]

Planning a South Pacific Cruise next year. I expect to make a few purchases and will likely not have room in suitcase to transport items. Any recommendations for shipping package from Papeete to US? Will Oceania ship a package? Thanks

 

Ask the shop where you make the purchase to arrange for shipping. That is most convenient and will protect you best regarding insurance and breakage in transit.

 

Oceania does not ship per se, but could recommend a shipper via the local port Agent, however, these days consolidating several purchases into a single larger package could presult in shipping costs which are prohibitively expensive. I would strongly suggest that you allow each vendor to handle shipping./

[Birder1]

Hi, Michaelmos,

 

My situation was a little different, but may give you something to ask the courier.

 

I was on Sun Princess in Papua New Guinea, where I picked-up a fabulous Trobriand skirt, paintings, & tiger-ebony bird-of-paradise statue (about 12 lbs). Upon return to Brisbane, I inquired of a courier to ship my items to Florida. My paintings would be wrapped separately. The estimate was $800USD!!! So, I elected to purchase a new suitcase for $70USD & lugged them back to the USA no worse for wear nor any issue w customs.

Edited November 9, 2015 by Birder1

[rallydave]

Another potential issue with shipping from Tahiti is that all mail goes thru France which is certainly the long way around. Not sure but, might be the same for other shipping services and as the previous post stated, buying a new suitcase to ship the items home with you, even if you have to pay an excess baggage fee is more than likely less expensive and for sure quicker than shipping.

 

You also might bring a suitcase that collapses and packs into you existing cases or simply get a larger suitcase at home and bring it with you with extra space.

[vaitape]

Shipping costs from French Polynesia are out of this world and unreliable if you're going through the regular mail service.

 

We concur: buy another suitcase and pay the additional luggage fee. The bag will be on your same flight and the cost will be waaay less than if you ship your purchases home.

[Hawaiidan]

I used to doa lot of shipping in the pacific....Had US customs bond and broker

 

Here is the deal All shipping trans pacific id done either by air freight or sea

In both cases it is by weight and dimention, By air you can figure about $30 to 50 per pound, By sea you have 2 choices a 20 ft container or 40 ft container as all shipping today is by container,no more piece rate. only by the container. Now with a small shipment you need the service of a shipping borker who consolidates lots of small shippments in to one container. This is called LCL or less than container load.

 

Generaly the broker uses the cubic feet in the container and its weight. The minimum is by weight dimension which is 2000 lbs or 1 cubic meter. You will be charged for this space! You will be charged this rate for anything that you can fit into that space and within that weight of 2000 lbs. If it is 20 cu ft and 40 lbs... you pay the same as if it was a ton and a cubic meter.....no discount. Now you have to pay for an export documents to be drawn up where youship from. Also when it arrives in theUS you must either purchase a 10,000 US Customs bond andfile the paper work withUS Customs, Your items must be classified with Commercial import commodity codes called TUSA numbers... for each item.

Does the art contain banned products like ivory or turtle Shell Has the skirt been properly fumigated for pests and disease The cargo...your shipment will be held at the port of entry (SF, LA Portland, Seattle) in a bonded US customs facility. It will remain there till you or a broker you hire properly clear it and pay duty....there is no duty free like for a traveler. Your broker will cover you with his import bond and file all the paperwork.. with Customs, for the natural products with USDA.

You will have 30 days to clear it in person or your legal representative (broker) or you will loose the cargo and be fined for its full value This is why shipping is so costly for shipping small cargos . US customs is a division of the IRS and they don't have a lot of room for error. Its hardball..

 

I once saw in SF the US customs cut up a mercedes with a torch, and fine the person(the value of the car) who brought it in because he failed to follow their instructions.........They don't mess around and don't give people who don't follow the exact proceedures bonds,TUSA, clearances etc.

 

That's why a broker is going to charge you $800 for a suit case. He has to jump through all those hoops...in order because if He doesn't he or you gets a$10,000 fine on top of duty/penalties etc

 

And that is how the wonderful world of international shipping works......

[Birder1]

I used to doa lot of shipping in the pacific....Had US customs bond and broker

 

Here is the deal All shipping trans pacific id done either by air freight or sea

In both cases it is by weight and dimention, By air you can figure about $30 to 50 per pound, By sea you have 2 choices a 20 ft container or 40 ft container as all shipping today is by container,no more piece rate. only by the container. Now with a small shipment you need the service of a shipping borker who consolidates lots of small shippments in to one container. This is called LCL or less than container load.

 

Generaly the broker uses the cubic feet in the container and its weight. The minimum is by weight dimension which is 2000 lbs or 1 cubic meter. You will be charged for this space! You will be charged this rate for anything that you can fit into that space and within that weight of 2000 lbs. If it is 20 cu ft and 40 lbs... you pay the same as if it was a ton and a cubic meter.....no discount. Now you have to pay for an export documents to be drawn up where youship from. Also when it arrives in theUS you must either purchase a 10,000 US Customs bond andfile the paper work withUS Customs, Your items must be classified with Commercial import commodity codes called TUSA numbers... for each item.

Does the art contain banned products like ivory or turtle Shell Has the skirt been properly fumigated for pests and disease The cargo...your shipment will be held at the port of entry (SF, LA Portland, Seattle) in a bonded US customs facility. It will remain there till you or a broker you hire properly clear it and pay duty....there is no duty free like for a traveler. Your broker will cover you with his import bond and file all the paperwork.. with Customs, for the natural products with USDA.

You will have 30 days to clear it in person or your legal representative (broker) or you will loose the cargo and be fined for its full value This is why shipping is so costly for shipping small cargos . US customs is a division of the IRS and they don't have a lot of room for error. Its hardball..

 

I once saw in SF the US customs cut up a mercedes with a torch, and fine the person(the value of the car) who brought it in because he failed to follow their instructions.........They don't mess around and don't give people who don't follow the exact proceedures bonds,TUSA, clearances etc.

 

That's why a broker is going to charge you $800 for a suit case. He has to jump through all those hoops...in order because if He doesn't he or you gets a$10,000 fine on top of duty/penalties etc

 

And that is how the wonderful world of international shipping works......

 

Great read...thank you, Hawaiidan, for explaining the reasoning.

[RJB]

I used to doa lot of shipping in the pacific....Had US customs bond and broker

 

Here is the deal All shipping trans pacific id done either by air freight or sea

In both cases it is by weight and dimention, By air you can figure about $30 to 50 per pound, By sea you have 2 choices a 20 ft container or 40 ft container as all shipping today is by container,no more piece rate. only by the container. Now with a small shipment you need the service of a shipping borker who consolidates lots of small shippments in to one container. This is called LCL or less than container load.

 

Generaly the broker uses the cubic feet in the container and its weight. The minimum is by weight dimension which is 2000 lbs or 1 cubic meter. You will be charged for this space! You will be charged this rate for anything that you can fit into that space and within that weight of 2000 lbs. If it is 20 cu ft and 40 lbs... you pay the same as if it was a ton and a cubic meter.....no discount. Now you have to pay for an export documents to be drawn up where youship from. Also when it arrives in theUS you must either purchase a 10,000 US Customs bond andfile the paper work withUS Customs, Your items must be classified with Commercial import commodity codes called TUSA numbers... for each item.

Does the art contain banned products like ivory or turtle Shell Has the skirt been properly fumigated for pests and disease The cargo...your shipment will be held at the port of entry (SF, LA Portland, Seattle) in a bonded US customs facility. It will remain there till you or a broker you hire properly clear it and pay duty....there is no duty free like for a traveler. Your broker will cover you with his import bond and file all the paperwork.. with Customs, for the natural products with USDA.

You will have 30 days to clear it in person or your legal representative (broker) or you will loose the cargo and be fined for its full value This is why shipping is so costly for shipping small cargos . US customs is a division of the IRS and they don't have a lot of room for error. Its hardball..

 

I once saw in SF the US customs cut up a mercedes with a torch, and fine the person(the value of the car) who brought it in because he failed to follow their instructions.........They don't mess around and don't give people who don't follow the exact proceedures bonds,TUSA, clearances etc.

 

That's why a broker is going to charge you $800 for a suit case. He has to jump through all those hoops...in order because if He doesn't he or you gets a$10,000 fine on top of duty/penalties etc

 

And that is how the wonderful world of international shipping works......

Very interesting. About 5 years ago we shipped 2 boxes ( about 15 to 20 pounds each) from China thru the China Post Office. Had to fill out a 1 page China customs form and about 4 weeks later they arrived at our front door in Florida. Easy as pie. I guess all areas of the world are different. But China? Who would have of thought.