shipping records overseas?
 

Many of them. My whole collection, in fact.

It turns out I'm leaving the US of A for a good many years starting some time this summer, and I have 250ish vinyl records I'd like to take with me.
Has anyone here ever done such a thing? How many arms and legs will this cost me? Any advice on the safest way to do this?
Much obliged.
-- Hat


edit: OOOPS. I meant to post this on the non-sonics board. SORRY

First of all, I just gotta ask, what brings this whole thing about?

Moving? I got a job.

Where are you moving to? There are several companies that provide an affordable service on the internet, when it comes to shipping stuff. Ask one of those people who post Viagra adverts on here, and i'm sure they'd be able to help you.

You can get specially-sized cartons for this purpose. Airmail is expensive, surface freight takes a lot longer. Either way, there are compromises to be made. I have sent loads of LPs overseas before, and my advice to you includes:

DOUBLE BOX them.
Lots of tape. You cannot overdo it in this department.
I would also advise putting a cardboard flat on each end of the stack of LPs in each box.

Congrats!

Moving to an undisclosed location in Japan to work for a certain city government educational program sort of thing.

I would just FedEx it like anything else, but I'm fairly worried about shit getting broken. Just curious if anyone has any better ideas.

Awesome. Thanks!

When I worked at the record store we got in many boxes of LPs via UPS and rarely was anything damaged if properly packaged. I also sent a bunch of double LPs to Australia once via UPS and they arrived just fine. It was expensive as hell though. Still, if you pack them well, you can expect good results. 78s are another story, but LPs are fairly ship-friendly if you pack with care.

bubble wrapping never hurts.

I'm thinking of doing the JET program, if that's what you are refering to.

what about shipping videos overseas?

^^chout i'm waiting for your pm. :o

Videos, as in, VHS?

yeah.

Well they're a little sturdier than vinyl records. A bubble-wrap envelope should suffice. How many are we talking here?

just one. sy - campo pequeno 1993.

If it's an important video than I guess you should be careful with it. Bubble wrap it and then put it in a small postage box. Pack any extra space with old newspaper.

Yep. I'm not doing the usual assistant language teacher thing, though. My title is 'Coordinator for International Relations', whatever that means. Basically I get to work in a local government office rather than junior high / high school.

The application process is a real bitch, but I say go for it if you really want to. My friends who have done it have all had positive experiences.

by some road cases for them, the type big touring Dj's use.

http://www.vinylwarning.com.au/index.php?cPath=57_81

I'd suggest picking your top 10 or 25 and copying them to CDr or tape or flashdrive or something and using this as an opportunity to build a new collection - when I moved to California I left most of my music behind in storage - it wasn't long before I had plenty of new stuff. Of course I was lucky I moved to San Francisco when its music scene was at a height not seen since the late 70's - Melvins, Thinking Fellers, Sleep, Ovarian Trolley, damn there were a lot of really cool local bands. Japan has a lot of stuff going on, I'd predict you're going to be there at a great time for music.