Shipping books to the U.S. from Germany

When I moved to Munich from Chicago, I shipped a lot of books over using the U.S. Postal System's M-Class shipping bag. Basically, it's a big burlap bag which you are given and allowed to fill up up to a certain weight, far more than one usually needs. And it only cost about $40 total. As long as you don't really care how long is takes to ship (they say 6 to 8 weeks, although it arrived in 4) and a bit of rough handling, it's quite a bargain.

My question is, is there any analogous shipping method from Germany back to the States? I have quite a number of books I'll be needing to ship back soon. Or perhaps is there any way I can use the USPS's M-Class bags from here?

Any advice would be quite appreciated.

You might want to go through UPS. I just shipped a box to the states through Deutsche Post. Using the largest box they provide with a weight of less than 5 kg, it cost 30 euro for delivery in 3-4 weeks. I imagine it's quite a bit more for a larger, heavier box.

You can see their price list for packages here. The highest weight they'll go is 20kg, and that's 60 euro to the states (zone 3).

That's all I know; but if you find something better, please come back and share here.

Thanks for the reply, Michnic. Doing some more research on the DHL site, I did find the solution I was looking for. It turns out M-bag service is available for shipping heavy items back to the States from Germany. Here's the link:

http://www.deutschepost.de/dpag?check=yes&..._EN&xmlFile=899

*Veeeeery* useful to know...

So I'm shipping a bunch of books & paperwork back home, and am looking for heavy cloth bags capable of holding 30 Kg of stuff. Deutsche Post no longer sells such things, and I'm wondering where they can be obtained.

Anybody know where to buy heavy cloth bags that don't rip when filled with 30 Kg of books? Strong address tags with reinforced eyeholes for wires?

Kaut & Bullinger is out -- tried them already...

I used the M-beutel last month. I choose the land-mail option instead of air-mail, as I didn't need my books to arrive in a timely fashion. Much to my surprise (and delight), they arrived less than a week later! That's quite a deal at 2.10 per kilo.

And they supplied me with the cloth bag for free. I used the post office across from Hauptbahnhof.

jauzins

Hmm, good tip! I'll hit the post office by the HBF in that case and see what happens. The one at Goetheplatz told me they couldn't help me with bags; the Deutsche Post info hotline also said that bags are no longer being sold by the post -- perhaps you got lucky!

Did they give you the bag right there and then when you showed up with your books?

Contact Alison if you need to move a lot of stuff. They have cheaper rates than international moving companies cos you do the packing. Why are you sending your books back to the States? I will baby-sit them for you and promise not to turn down the pages. I miss my books and journals almost as much as my cat, Tripod. Yes, yes, she's a gimp living with her Aunt Madilyn in Houston.

http://www.upakweship.com

HEy how did this go for you ?
does the post office at haupbahnhof give you the bag?

Hey just FYI- my MBeutel sack(which I could only get at the HAuptbahnhof Poste) arrived in 9 days from Munich to Connecticut, USA- very easy. Also I brought a tag but they did all the paper work for me and gave me a tag.

Bottom line:
Using the M beutel = 2.46€/kg (includes the 10.80 start fee)
Using a normal packet = 2.95 €/kg

If you have over 100kg of books like me...still comes out rather pricey...

Does the M beutel *have to* be books and/or paper documents, or can it be anything? Can I stuff a box of ranodm household items into one of those bags and ship it?

Anyone?

"We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give"
- Sir Winston Churchill

Save money on shipping and donate. I know of this little restaurant is Schwabing with a lending library. ahem, PM me for more details.

But I don't want to ship books! I want to ship other stuff, and I want to know if that's possible with the M-Beutel.

Besides, trust me, you don't really need my copies of Mathematical Methods for Physicists or Quantum Mechanics.

No, Janet. Only books and or papers. you have seen this link haven't you? it's even in english: m-bag, deutsche post

Yeah, I read it, but I don't see anywhere that it *must* be books or papers. Thanks.

I'd say this bit is a clue though

But that still doesn't say that it *must* be "Buch International" or Presse International."

IPJ:

An M-Bag is books/newspaper/periodicals ONLY. They have the right to inspect. It's the same as with other special rates for the same materials.

I strongly recommend putting books/papers in cartons which will fit into the M-Bag, then putting those in the bag. This'll protect everything. You can also hide a few items in with the books, but know that this is against postal regs. They can charge you for full third or first class rates.

Edit: I'm interested in those books if you don't want 'em.

woof.

It tells you to write one or the other
OK Janet, I give up
You try sending a toaster
Be sure to let us know what happens though won't you

Thanks BadDoggie, but I'll probably just do it the legit way. It appears that the three cheapest choices are:

1) Taking my items as excess baggage with my flight on Air France. So long as the total weight is no more than 200kg per person, excess baggage can be up to summed dimensions of 158cm and no more than 32kg for each piece for €125/piece. This comes out, for baggage at the max weight, to €3.90/kg.

2) X-Bag with ABX Logistics (there's an office at the Flughafen). I drop off my boxes at their desk at the airport and pick them up a week later at the airport of my destination. For San Francisco, this costs €6.00/kg for under 100kg of items or €3.50/kg for over 100kg.

3) Deutsche Post Postpaket. Each box shipped can be no larger than 120cmX60cmX60cm. This costs €32 for up to 5kg, €42 for 5 - 10kg and €62 for 10 - 20kg. This comes to €6.40/kg, €4.20/kg or €3.10/kg, for the maximum of each of those ranges.

I just thought I'd share this info, in case it can help someone else...

Ask at the Post about Seefracht. I know they used to have surface mail for packages which was much cheaper (about 1/3 the air freight charges) but you had to specifically ask for it. I couldn't find it on their site.

woof.

Thanks. Perhaps I'll call and check about that. There is a section on Seefracht, but it's really vague and says basically nothing meaningful at all.

I didn't read the beginning of this topic very carefully. So I went to the post office on Agnesstr., and asked the *ahem* friendly, helpful person at the counter about the M-Beutel. It turns out that they really do only sell the bags at the Hauptbahnhof branch of the post office. How weird.

M-Beutel is apparently no longer sold at the HBH post-office. You have to go to "Kaut-Bullinger" in Rosenstrasse instead.

I have a question about the M-bags: can I send the following things in one-

a. CD's
b. Bound, photocopied books
c. Papers which have my scribbles/notes
d. Bound official lecture notes

Or is one only allowed to send original copies of books and magazines?

Thanks for the replies

M-Beutel are no longer sold at Kaut-Bullinger on Rosenstrasse either. I asked four employees there, and they had no idea what I was talking about. According to an employee at the Deutsche Post just east of Hauptbahnhof, you can buy a suitably strong, plastic bag (which I imagine to be similar to what the U.S. Postal Service gives you) at a store around the corner form the HBH Deutsche Post ("around the corner"=along that street just to the south of the post office, and further to the east).

I didn't have time to go searching for the bag, so I tried to ship the three boxes of books separately at the media rate (which is possible in the U.S.). I guess the German system is that book shipments below 5kg have an option for somewhat cheaper rates than regular shipments, which basically must be by air ("Luftpost"). Above 5kg, they will throw a tantrum if you don't actually have the bag (these were different employees from the helpful one who told me where to buy M-Beutel), and tell you to ship at the regular rate.

One other note about M-Beutel: the shipping option is apparently not available at every German post office. I asked about it several times at the Deutsche Post in Garching, and they had never heard of it.

The overall expense of shipping from Germany, and particularly the lack of an option to ship by ground or boat (which is much cheaper) surprised me. I asked a friend how most Germans ship when they move, and she said that they typically hire a company to pack up and move all their stuff.


The two things I learned from this experience are: 1) Save your M-bags from when you ship from your home country. 2) Organize your (non-book) shipments to be in 5 or 10kg units. A 6kg box will ship at the 10kg rate and cost a lot more per kg.

Does anyone have a suggestion on how I can send a medium-sized box of books from Berlin to the northeast USA? I'm looking for the least-expensive option, even if that means my books will be on a slow boat for a long time. Thanks!

use this link to see a discussion about this. quite old, from 2004, but through 2006 and with lots of useful information which might still be valid.

slow boat for a long time. (i think it can take up to 8 weeks)

I shipped books from the US to Germany via the slow boat option in 2005, in an m-bag. The same thing exists for Germany-USA. Not sure how much it costs, but it will definitely be the cheapest option.
By the way, mine took about 5 weeks. Make sure to label it Personal used books or something, so customs will not charge you. The lady in the post office in the States told me to put "student library" and no value on the boxes and I did have to pick them up at customs, where they asked me what the boxes contained, but they did not charge me anything.
Oh and the m-bag is actually a "bag", so you may want to put the books into a box and wrap them safely (I didn't and some ended up looking a little ... torn up, not badly though), so they are protected well.

Thanks, all!
I'll pop into a Deutsche Post office & see if I can get more info. about the "M Bag."

Are they books that you actually want to keep or just can't imagine getting rid of? Think about it.

The links to the M-Bag on the first page are no longer valid, use this instead:

http://www.deutschepost.de/dpag?tab=1&...1011605_1009485

Bump! As this is an old post and started by someone in Munich, just wondering if anyone had any more recent experience and/or Berlin-specific experience shipping books to the US.

Thanks!

Sara

Hey guys and gals,

I'm moving back to the US and got tons of books. Does anyone know of a cheap way to send books? Or cheap moving companies? Time is not an issue. If it takes 8 weeks (or whatever) and comes by boat, that is no problem.

The US has a cheap system for sending printed materials like books (see "m-bags"). So does Belgium. Perhaps Germany has something similar, or perhaps you have some good ideas.

Thanks all,
Dave

Topics merged by admin

I had almost the same question once: sending books in Germany, but not sure how cheap it is for international...

Büchersendung/ Book post

Yes. You can send M-Bags from Germany. Unlike the US Postal Service, which got rid of surface options, you can send an M-Bag via surface mail. If you search, there are threads on TT about this.

Here's a Deutsche Post link: http://www.deutschepost.de/dpag%3Ftab%3D1%...1011605_1009485