Cost of moving items from the U.S. to Munich

Hi all,
I searched around and didn't find anything on this particular topic, so I'm sorry if this has already been covered ad nauseum. If it has, I'd appreciate any help in locating those threads!

We have a small-ish house (for the U.S., anyway), about 900 sq. ft. and a lot of stuff *isn't* going. We had a company come in to do a cost estimate; I told the guy who came to do the assessment that I'd like to do two appraisals, one including the cost of our furniture and one not, as we're more than willing to replace, second-hand, virtually everything in the house. He stated that it is absolutely more cost-effective to keep our own things and move them than to replace them. Having browsed the user-furniture sites for Munich, including the TT one here, I'm not convinced.

They came back today with the estimate of 3,000 lbs of stuff, and a cost of $7350!! There is no WAY that we could not replace all of our furniture, used, for much less than that cost! I wrote back to ask for either a re-estimate, excluding large furniture, or an itemized estimate so that we can determine what's "worth it" to take, and what's overhead.

OMG, I am just sick, that is about 3x what I'd estimated the cost of moving stuff to be! Can it really be that much?! I mean, I know international moves are often paid for by a company that will just eat the cost, but ours is not... this makes me feel sick to my stomach!

Anyone remember what they moved and paid, poundage-and-cost-wise, and feel willing to share?

Thanks in advance!

Lynz

Moving is expensive! I'd say you're getting a deal. Our move from Hong Kong to Hamburg - a container load full of stuff for a sea voyage of more than two weeks - cost 50-thousand DM 10 years ago. It was deluxe service though. We didn't even have to do dishes the day of the move - they just packed everything at one end, and set everything up on the other. Happy it wasn't my nickel.

I'd say that it sounds like a good price. About five years ago, I had an antique desk and plant stand, plus several crates of dishes, etc. packed and shipped here, and it cost me about $3,000. Right now, I'm trying to get one medium-sized, lightweight wooden chest over, and the best price so far is around $400 for this ONE chest. Other movers have quoted me up to $1500 for this ONE medium-sized lightweight chest! Add to that the fact that the dollar keeps dropping in value.

It may be a good idea to get a few more estimates. Several people have recommended this company, and I'm going to use them to bring the wooden chest over:

EuroUSA Shipping Inc
FMC # 020099N
1629 Folly Rd
Charleston, SC 29412

Direct 843-851-7292
Corp 843 225 7217
Fax 843-225-7230

I wish you all the best! BTW: I grew up in Darien, CT :-)

Regina

December 06, received a quote for an estimated 5,000 lbs of 'stuff' for 10,000 dollars to ship from the Midwest to Stuttgart taking 2 months by cargo ship. So that's not far off.

That's no electrical stuff; that's clothes, 2 rooms of furniture (bedroom, living room) and kitchenware (dishes, silverware, glasses etc). On your own dime, it's outrageous, but for a company move, it's peanuts.

As most other moving threads show, there is an agreement that you can do without a lot coming here, but you have to determine what's absolutely a 'must have' while you're here. I had to sit down and determine, what 'must I have' to survive and what was 'would like to have to survive'. Minimal family photos were shipped and 98% of the stuff sits in storage. We spent about 3 thousand euros (over a few months) for used furniture, a used kitchen, dishes, cookware, etc., and shipped clothing over in boxes.

We also brought 7 suitcases with stuff for about 280 dollars on the flight with us. This stuff was essentials that couldn't wait the weeks for shipping, like favorite shampoos, over the counter medicines and stuff like that. You need to contact the airline ahead of time and tell them you have excess baggage. It's actually cheaper that route than shipping when you compare the weight vs costs.

Use the US Post Office to ship and not UPS for shipping non essentials. And, remember there is a nationwide database here in Germany. Customs almost shipped my stuff back because I wasn't registered as a resident here the first week. Customs held up our stuff for 3 weeks and we had to fax my residency papers (and lease papers) for them to deliver my boxes. Thankfully, my husband spoke German.

Paid about $8,000 to move a 20ft container from Indiana to the Ruhrgebiet four years ago. That price also included three guys spending a day packing everything into boxes, packing the container; and all customs formalities. Shipping a full size container (40ft, I believe) would have been only a couple grand more, but we just didn't have enough stuff ;-)

Moving two boxes (up to 20 cft and 300lbs if I am not mistaken) by boat from Canada to Munich cost me around 1000 U$, including some insurance, but I had to pack things myself and bring the boxes to the dock. No furniture in there, but electrical/kitchen/clothing stuff. It seemed to be a reasonable price as I asked many estimates from different companies. I live in a small apartment, furnishing it half new/half used was around 1000 euros, but the kitchen is included in the rent...

Sorry to break this to you, but I think the estimate is about right. We moved here from England last year and it was one large removal van only (think it was about 17 cubic meters or something like that) Cost was about 5000 british pounds - converted to dollars, close to 10 000!!

Thanks, everyone, for the quick replies and reassurance. That estimate does include them packing things up and taking care of all the customs stuff.

Is there a smaller container than 20' available, or can one share a 20' container with another person or group? Moctoj, you're absolutely right, there is a lot in that estimate that we can do without, or can replace, particularly furniture. Everything we own for furniture is second-hand or from Ikea, and it looks like there's plenty of second-hand furniture in Munich to shop from. But if we have to pay for the whole 20' container *anyway*, it might make sense to bring it? Those are the parts I'm still not sure about.

Last time I moved to Germany, I had two big suitcases and a backpack. I'm ok with bringing less stuff and storing a lot!

You can share a container with others, it's called grouped (or consolidated) shipment. We did that when we moved from the US since we brought mainly books, clothes and the like, and had only a few pieces of furniture.

Although it didn't happen (thank goodness!), when we moved from the US to Munich last year, the movers also warned us that we could be charged up to $1,500 extra if the customs people in Germany decided to unpack our entire container and then repack it.

We didn't bring any electrical goods other than computers, and otherwise pretty much all the furniture from a 1,500 sq ft. space. It took the movers four days to pack/wrap everything and load the container. The shipping cost $11,000 or so. Also, although the moving company told us it would take up to two months to get here, our container was actually here in less than two weeks so we then had to pay storage for a few weeks in Munich until we were ready to accept our things in our new place. Just one more thing to think about.