Shipping From Europe

[Conki]

I have a question for you guys.
I am in Hungary for the summer, and I want to buy some stuff for my car (EU smileys, grill, chrome bumpers, M-Tech I front valance and rear apron and side skirts).
Have any of you guys had any experience shipping larger items like bumpers to the States from Europe?
I'm sure people ship from Germany all the time, but I don't speak German, I don't even know what's going on on ebay.de.
DHL? FedEx? What's best? What prices should I be expecting? From experience I know that whatever it would be to ship something from Germany it will be twice as much from Hungary, but I'd like to get an idea:)

Thanks in advance!

[Mossman]

Your best bet is to hide in the bushes at an US army base, jump out and surprise buttsecs a strapping young lad, then make him ship stuff for you or you turn off the weiner fountain.

Seriously though from my own research trying to ship stuff from the UK I think it will be very difficult to find a way to cost effectively ship large stuff like bumpers. Your only hope I would think would be to buy/build a crate and buy all the goodies you can get your hands on and get it shipped by a freight company by ship, then sell goodies to pay for the shipping. Could do pretty well for yourself, but you'll have to speak the language pretty well to get it coordinated and deal with paperwork and stuff I'd imagine.

[europeanplates]

I have used fedex often for items and fedex has drop off points in Germany. Set up your international account here (USA) first and have all your account info with you.

Makes it real simple!!!!

Ty

[Atreus]

get some military friends stationed out there to do your dirty work....

[damith]

Freight Forwarder

Your best choice is to find a freight forwarder (FF) who does consilidated cargo. They charge per SQ Feet basis, not by the weight. So find a FF who operates in US who has agents in where ever the country you are going to ship from to US.

[M-technik-3]

108 inches of girth is max for the US Postal system.

[Conki]

108 inches of girth is max for the US Postal system.

Then FedEx and the like are out of the question I guess.
So my best bet is a freight company, which makes sense, I'll try to look into it.
I don't have military friends, and I don't even know if they are stationed here.

[Conki]

OK, I found a Hungarian freight company. They are really professional, and I'll ask for a quote as soon as my parts arrive (from Germany, lol), but I read that American freight companies would be half or third as expensive, so I'd like to find out what other possibilities there are.

Do you guys know of reliable and reasonably priced freight services in the states?

[damith]

OK, I found a Hungarian freight company. They are really professional, and I'll ask for a quote as soon as my parts arrive (from Germany, lol), but I read that American freight companies would be half or third as expensive, so I'd like to find out what other possibilities there are.

Do you guys know of reliable and reasonably priced freight services in the states?

DHL Global logistics (or DHL Danzas), Eagle global logistics are among the big names in the business. I used to deal with Columbia Logistics based in NY and has branches in west coast. They are a midium size business when compare to DHL guys.
Or you can do a search in here http://www.freightnet.com/ to find out any freight forwarders in your state.

Good luck

[Jean]

I've gotten a few large things from europe and they were shipped airmail and/or dhl fwiw.

[Eric]

no way you can ship a bumper through USPS (aka military) I've got piles of Mtech I and II bumpers that I can't ship

[freeride53]

I'm planning on bringing a whole lot of shit back with me using the airline's check-in. haven't really planned it out, but it might happen. BTW, we're trying to persuade my recently widowed uncle in Dusseldorf to move over to California. He has a mint 2.3-16, and a pretty new Z4M hardtop, that I want him to bring over. Maybe I could stuff both of them with e30 parts?

[Conki]

DHL Global logistics (or DHL Danzas), Eagle global logistics are among the big names in the business. I used to deal with Columbia Logistics based in NY and has branches in west coast. They are a midium size business when compare to DHL guys.
Or you can do a search in here http://www.freightnet.com/ to find out any freight forwarders in your state.

Good luck

Thx for the informative comment, now I know more:)

[Conki]

I'm planning on bringing a whole lot of shit back with me using the airline's check-in. haven't really planned it out, but it might happen. BTW, we're trying to persuade my recently widowed uncle in Dusseldorf to move over to California. He has a mint 2.3-16, and a pretty new Z4M hardtop, that I want him to bring over. Maybe I could stuff both of them with e30 parts?

I will be checking in some stuff as well if I can't afford to ship the bumpers. If the bumpers will go on a ship, I will put other crap in the package too.

If your uncle is going to ship the cars over, I would assume he will have to pay per cubic meter, so you can stuff them full of stuff:)

My bumpers and other stuff will arrive on Monday from Germany, I was told that they are spotless! Is $45 reasonable per bumper, what do you guys think? And I can get smiley ellipses for $50 a pair euro grill included.
If the shipping isn't too much, I'm thinking it might be worth it to ship dozens of this stuff, early model owners would appreciate it in the states:)

M-Tech valance, apron, and skirt are harder to find though, those would be nice too.